Binniehill Colliery

Overview

A Slamannan colliery opened in the 1840s after the Slamannan Railway, where Dr John Brown was among the first in the district to wind on wire ropes. It worked the Lady Grange coal and ironstone, passed to John Watson in 1868, and closed with its field exhausted in 1896.

History

Binniehill Colliery began in the 1840s, soon after the Slamannan Railway opened. In 1841 John Brown of Ballochney paid George Waddell £1,275 for the coal, ironstone and other minerals under Above-the-Hill of Balquhatstone, Burnbrae and neighbouring lands. The coal lay deeper than at the neighbouring Balquhatstone colliery, and Dr Brown adopted wire ropes for the shaft; a history of the Slamannan co-operative society recalled that the colliers at first feared to trust themselves to "so thin a cord". The pits stood on both sides of the railway east of the Southfield branch junction.

The main seam was the Lady Grange coal. In 1850 the Wee Coal and its ironstone were offered for letting at about 22 fathoms, and in 1853 the colliery advertised for 30 fathoms of second-hand pumps. Binniehill Black Band coal sold well in Edinburgh as a clean-burning house coal. Dr Brown's son Alexander Campbell Brown worked the colliery from 1858; on 18 November 1863 a cask of gunpowder kept in the joiners' shop exploded while a brusher was filling men's flasks, levelling the brick building, killing an eight-year-old boy, Alexander Burt, who was playing outside the door, and injuring seven others.

John Watson, the Motherwell coalmaster, owned Binniehill from 1868. Colliers told the Truck Commission in 1871 that they were expected to take their advances to his store, paying about a fifth more than in the village shops, and had their books stopped if they did not; the men had elected a disabled former collier as their schoolmaster. In 1890 the colliery passed into John Watson Ltd, whose prospectus called Binniehill and Lodge "unimportant collieries" with leases enough to exhaust them. By 1896 the field was exhausted, and that May Shirlaw, Allan and Co. sold the plant of Binniehill and Lodge collieries by auction.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Slamannan district: the Lady Grange coal was the main seam, with the Wee Coal and an ironstone at about 22 fathoms, and the Splint and Coxrod coals; the Binniehill Black Band coal was sold as a clean house coal.

Workings

Shafts on both sides of the Slamannan Railway east of the Southfield branch junction, with No. 1 and No. 2 pits by the 1860s, wound on wire ropes from the 1840s. Canmore records coke ovens, miners' rows and a tramway at the colliery.

Closure

The field was exhausted by 1896; the Splint and Lady Grange workings were abandoned that year and the plant of Binniehill and Lodge collieries was sold at auction in May 1896. The Lady Grange seam was later worked by an opencast site, abandoned in 1988.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Truck Commission's summary of John Watson's works recorded that at Slamannan poundage was charged and there was no store. (disputed) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• In 1841 John Brown of Ballochney paid George Waddell £1,275 for the coal, ironstone and other minerals under Above-the-Hill of Balquhatstone, Burnbrae and other lands at Slamannan. ¹
• Dr Brown adopted wire ropes for the Binniehill shaft, and the colliers at first feared to trust themselves to them. ¹
• On 18 November 1863 a gunpowder explosion in the joiners' shop at Binniehill Colliery killed Alexander Burt, aged eight, and injured seven others. ^2,1
• In 1871 Binniehill colliers told the Truck Commission they had to take their advances to John Watson's store and had their books stopped if they did not. ³
• The Truck Commission's summary of John Watson's works recorded that at Slamannan poundage was charged and there was no store. (disputed) ⁴
• The Binniehill field was exhausted by 1896, when the Lady Grange and Splint workings were abandoned and the plant of Binniehill and Lodge collieries was sold. ^5,1,6

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Falkirk Local History Society: Binniehill Colliery (SMR 1733) — Falkirk Local History Society
2. (secondary) Accidents 1855-1870 (Stirlingshire) — Scottish Mining Website (Falkirk Herald reports)
3. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website: Binniehill: extract from the Truck Report, 1871 — Scottish Mining Website
4. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website: John Watson's of Motherwell: extract from the Truck Report, 1871 — Scottish Mining Website
5. (primary) University of Glasgow Archives: DC102 Records of Shirlaw Allan, industrial auctioneers, Hamilton (item list) — University of Glasgow Archives
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Binniehill, Ladygrange, abandoned 1896 — British Geological Survey
7. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Binniehill Opencast, Ladygrange, abandoned 1988 — British Geological Survey
8. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Binniehill, Splint and Coxrod, abandoned 1865 — British Geological Survey
9. (secondary) Canmore: Binniehill Colliery (NS87SE 12.01) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot / Canmore)
10. (secondary) Canmore: Binniehill Colliery (NS87SE 12.02) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot / Canmore)

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026