Belhaven Colliery

Overview

United Collieries' colliery in the burgh of Wishaw, employing nearly 500 men in 1900 and working the Ell, Main, Pyotshaw and Splint seams until its plans were abandoned in 1923.

History

Belhaven Colliery, also written Bellhaven, lay in the burgh of Wishaw and was worked by United Collieries Limited. In 1900 it employed 499 men, 452 of them underground, though the workforce had fallen to 152 by 1905. It raised household, manufacturing and steam coal from the Ell, Main, Pyotshaw and Splint seams, and later the Humph. In 1910 the Belhaven Mine employed 145 men underground and 40 at the surface; 93 lived in company houses at Ravenscraig and in Motherwell burgh, including the one-apartment Ravenscraig Rows, and 92 in rented houses at Craigneuk.

Among those killed were James Swan, a waggon shifter jammed against a scaffold post below the screens in 1901; William Barrie, an ostler who fell 22 fathoms down the shaft while turning off the stables' water supply in 1902; Lizzie Ralston, a coal cleaner of 19 whose clothing caught on an unfenced revolving shaft in 1906; and William Scott, a brusher killed in 1902 when firedamp, said to have been lit by his neighbour's lamp, set off his powder and gelignite. Employment fell to 90 in 1920 and 97 in 1923, and plans of the Ell, Pyotshaw and Splint workings were deposited as abandoned in 1923.

Geology

The colliery worked the Ell, Main, Pyotshaw, Splint and Humph seams; an earlier plan of the Virtuewell is dated 1904.

Workings

Shaft workings in several seams, with screens and stables; 452 of the 499 men employed in 1900 worked underground.

Closure

Abandonment plans of the Ell, Pyotshaw and Splint workings are dated 1923.

What remains

Unknown.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Belhaven Colliery employed 499 men in 1900, 452 of them underground. ¹
• In 1910 Belhaven Mine, in the burgh of Wishaw, employed 145 men underground and 40 above ground, 92 of them in rented houses at Craigneuk. ²
• William Barrie, an ostler, fell 22 fathoms down the shaft at Belhaven in September 1902 while turning off the stables' water supply. ^1,3
• James Swan, a waggon shifter, was jammed against a scaffold post below the screens at Belhaven in 1901. ⁴
• Abandonment plans of the Belhaven Ell, Pyotshaw and Splint workings are dated 1923. ⁵
• A plan of abandoned Virtuewell workings at Belhaven is dated 1904. ⁶

Sources

1. (primary) Bellhaven Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) 1910 Housing (Lanarkshire, Cambusnethan and Dalziel parishes) — Scottish Mining Website
3. (secondary) NMRS deaths and accidents record: William Barrie, Belhaven, 1902 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Fatal accidents in Scottish mines, 1901 — Scottish Mining Website
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21904442: Belhaven, Pyotshaw, abandoned 1923 — British Geological Survey
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21914197: Belhaven, Virtuewell, abandoned 1904 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 20 October 2026 · Last researched: 20 October 2026