Bent Colliery

Overview

A Lanarkshire colliery on the south side of Hamilton, leased in 1872 by the mining engineer James Stedman Dixon and the founding pit of his Bent Colliery Company, which went on to sink Hamilton Palace Colliery at Bothwellhaugh in 1884 and to work the coal under Hamilton Palace itself. Bent worked the Splint, Pyotshaw, Blackband and later the Humph, Kiltongue, Virtuewell and Main seams, employed between about 440 and 650 people from the 1890s to the 1920s, and was described in 1919 as one of the largest collieries in the county when the district's pits stopped together. Its closure date has not been established; the last official returns for it are for 1925.

History

James Stedman Dixon, a Glasgow-born mining engineer educated at Hamilton Academy and Glasgow University, leased the Bent Colliery in 1872, and the company he formed to work it took his pit's name. By 1883 the Bent Colliery Company had leased 800 acres of coal under the North Haugh of Hamilton Palace policies from the Duke of Hamilton's trustees and was sinking Hamilton Palace Colliery near Bothwellhaugh, which opened in 1884; the same general manager, Archibald Blyth, ran both pits, and in 1894 Bent employed 485 people against Hamilton Palace's 452. Bent's workforce stood at 524 in 1900, 582 in 1910 and a peak of 652 in 1923, raising gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal. The returns record the Blackband, Pyotshaw and Splint seams in 1910, the Humph, Kiltongue and Virtuewell added by 1915 and the Main by 1925, the year the Virtuewell was abandoned. The inspectors' reports transcribed by the Durham Mining Museum name 31 men killed at the pit between 1878 and 1929, all in separate accidents: falls of roof at the stoops and on longwall faces, men crushed by waggons at the pithead, a machineman caught by an electrically driven coal cutter in 1914 and a brusher killed in 1911 when he walked back to a shot he believed had already fired. Dixon died in 1911, having endowed the chair of mining at Glasgow University. On 29 September 1919, amid the coal dispute, Bent Colliery, 'one of the largest in the county', booked off its men until further notice, and Hamilton Palace, Greenfield, Earnock, Neilsland and the Larkhall pits followed within a day, idling up to 10,000 men. The colliery still appears in the 1925 List of Mines with 519 employed, but no reliable closure date has yet been located.

Geology

Bent worked the Coal Measures of the Hamilton district of the Lanarkshire coalfield, a sequence of sedimentary beds in which the named seams recorded at the pit descend from the Blackband and Humph through the Kiltongue, Virtuewell, Pyotshaw and Splint to the Main coal. A 1899 fatality is recorded where 'a small trouble crossed the strata', the Scots term for a minor fault, loosening the roof stone at a longwall face.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

The pit was served by the Cadzow Colliery Branch of the Caledonian Railway. The accident reports show both stoop-and-room working, with men killed drawing props and taking out stoops in 1885 and 1903, and longwall faces from the 1890s, and by 1914 electrically driven coal-cutting machines were in use; a 'gummer' was killed behind a coal cutter on a longwall face in 1924. An endless-rope haulage road is mentioned in 1881. No shaft depths have been found in the sources read.

Closure

No closure date has been found. The colliery is in the 1925 List of Mines with 519 employed and the Virtuewell seam abandoned that October; the Bent Colliery Company's Hamilton Palace pit worked on until 1959.

What remains

No account of what remains at the site has been located in this pass.

Related mines

• Cadzow Colliery — Both were worked by the Bent Colliery Co., Ltd, and both closed together in the September 1919 stoppage; Bent stood on the Cadzow Colliery Branch railway.
• Hamilton Palace Colliery — Bent was the Bent Colliery Company's original pit; the company sank Hamilton Palace Colliery from 1883 and the same general manager ran both.

Nearby mines

• Cadzow Colliery — 0.5 km E
• Hamilton Palace Colliery — 2.8 km N
• Bothwell Castle Colliery — 3.4 km N
• Quarter Colliery — 3.4 km S
• Blantyre Colliery — 3.9 km NW

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• James Stedman Dixon leased the Bent Colliery in 1872; the company he formed became the Bent Colliery Company. ^1,2
• The Bent Colliery Company, already working Bent, leased the 800-acre coalfield under the North Haugh of Hamilton Palace in 1883 and sank Hamilton Palace Colliery, opened in 1884. ^1,2
• Bent employed 485 people in 1894, 524 in 1900, 582 in 1910, 652 in 1923 and 519 in 1925; Archibald Blyth managed both Bent and Hamilton Palace in 1894. ^3,4
• The returns record the Blackband, Pyotshaw and Splint seams in 1910, with the Humph, Kiltongue and Virtuewell added by 1915 and the Main by 1925; the Virtuewell was abandoned on 15 October 1925. ³
• On 29 September 1919 Bent Colliery, described as one of the largest in the county, booked off its men until further notice, and the Hamilton and Larkhall pits followed, idling up to 10,000 men. ⁵
• The Durham Mining Museum lists 31 men killed at Bent between 1878 and 1929 in separate accidents and no incident of five or more deaths. ³
• Andrew Weir, 35, was killed in March 1903 by a fall of dirt while taking out a stoop; it took six hours to extricate him. ^3,6
• John Stevenson, a brusher, was fatally injured on 5 October 1911 in No. 1 Pit when he returned to his working place believing his shot had already been fired. ^3,6
• The colliery was served by the Cadzow Colliery Branch of the Caledonian Railway. ⁷
• Dixon died in July 1911; he had given £16,500 to found first a lectureship and then a chair of mining at Glasgow University. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Hamilton Palace Colliery — Scottish Mining Website (reproducing contemporary newspaper reports)
2. (secondary) Hamilton Palace Colliery: Early Days — Scottish Mining Website
3. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum: Bent Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum: Bent Colliery Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum
5. (secondary) Misc. Hamilton History — Scottish Mining Website
6. (secondary) Hamilton Parish Accidents 1900-1914 — Scottish Mining Website
7. (secondary) Railscot: Bent Colliery — Railscot

Record created: 8 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026