Blairmuckhill Colliery

Overview

A. and G. Anderson's colliery north-west of Harthill, on the Lanarkshire side of the Shotts and West Lothian border, sunk about 1905 to 1910 and worked by the National Coal Board until 1959. Two pits, Nos. 10 and 11, worked the Drumgray, Mill, Ball and Main coals by longwall for a workforce of about 320; an explosion of gas in March 1915 killed the under-manager and a contractor who had walked into an uninspected section with naked lights in their caps.

History

The Durham Mining Museum returns Blairmuckhill under A. and G. Anderson from 1905, with 140 employed in the Upper Drumgray, and dates its opening to 1910; the register compiled after nationalisation also gives 1910 for the start of sinking and production. By 1910 it employed 283 and by 1920 394, raising household, manufacturing and steam coal, with ironstone in 1920. The 1910 housing inquiry found 177 employed, living mostly in rented houses at Harthill, Benhar, Eastfield and Blackridge, with three company houses at Eastfield built about 1872 by Robert Addie and Sons. Coal-cutting machines were at work by 1913, when a fireman was killed by a stone from the roof waiting for a cutter to finish. The pit was worked for the most part with naked lights though gas was not unknown, and on 27 March 1915 the under-manager, James Hawson, took two contractors into a section the fireman had not yet inspected, all three with naked lamps in their caps; the gas exploded, Hawson died the next day and Richard Sommerville a week later, and the Court of Session refused Hawson's widow compensation because he had brought the peril on himself. Later deaths recorded in the newspapers include John Wright under a fall on the main haulage road in 1925 and David Gemmell after firing a shot in the Upper Drumgray in 1936. Employment held between 255 and 350 through the 1930s and 1940s. The National Coal Board took it over in 1947 with 349 employed and 80,000 tons a year; in 1948 it was raising 300 tons a day by longwall from No. 11 pit, 112 metres deep, with No. 10 at 37 metres for ventilation, two bar tables for grading and an obsolete Norton-Harty washer, no baths but a full-meal canteen. The peak workforce was 347 in 1952 and the colliery closed and was abandoned in 1959.

Geology

Lanarkshire coalfield, Shotts district: Upper and Lower Drumgray, Mill, Ball and Main coals, with ironstone returned in 1920.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Two shafts: No. 11, 112 metres deep, and No. 10, 37 metres, for ventilation; the colliery was also known as Barblues Colliery Pit No. 10. Longwall working with coal-cutting machines from before 1913; 300 tons a day and 86,000 tons a year in 1948. Employment from the Lists of Mines: 140 in 1905, 283 in 1910, 394 in 1920, 284 in 1923, 255 in 1933, 350 in 1940, 349 in 1947, 322 in 1954; peak 347 in 1952.

Closure

Closed and abandoned in 1959 by the National Coal Board; the reason is not recorded.

What remains

The site lies in the fields north-west of Harthill beside the M8; nothing of the pit is reported to survive.

Disasters & major incidents

• Blairmuckhill Colliery explosion, 1915
  27 March 1915 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  On 27 March 1915 the under-manager of Blairmuckhill, James Hawson, took two mining contractors below to show them a stretch of face they might tender for. At the pit bottom the fireman told him the section had not yet been inspected as the statute required; Hawson said he would inspect it himself and led the two men down the dook, a safety lamp in his hand and a naked lamp burning in his cap, the contractors with naked lights too. A short way in the gas fired, putting out every lamp and burning all three. Hawson died the next day and Richard Sommerville a week later; Charles Stewart was badly burned. The Court of Session refused Hawson's widow compensation on the ground that he had brought the peril on himself.

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 BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Blairmuckhill' (catalogue 11348, Ball, dated 1934); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• The museum and the NCB register date the colliery from 1910 to 1959, though the museum's 1905 list already returns 140 employed there. ^1,2
• A. and G. Anderson, then the National Coal Board from 1947. ^1,2
• No. 11 was 112 metres deep and No. 10, 37 metres, for ventilation. ²
• 283 employed in 1910, 394 in 1920, 349 in 1947 and a peak of 347 in 1952. ^1,2
• On 27 March 1915 an explosion of gas in an uninspected section killed the under-manager and a mining contractor, both of whom had entered with naked lights. ³
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Blairmuckhill' (catalogue 11348, Ball, dated 1934); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Blairmuckhill Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Blairmuckill Colliery — trove.scot (Canmore record with the 1948 NCB register entry) — Historic Environment Scotland
3. (primary) Shotts parish accidents post 1900 — Scottish Mining Website — Scottish Mining Website
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: BLAIRMUCKHILL — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (primary) Shotts parish housing conditions of miners, 1910 — Scottish Mining Website — Scottish Mining Website
6. (secondary) Harthill, Scotland — Wikipedia

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026