Boghead Colliery

Overview

The pits on the Boghead estate south-west of Bathgate where the Boghead gas coal, or torbanite, was first worked: James Russel and Son sank more than fifteen from 1849 and worked them out by about 1870; Young's company, Walker and Cameron and finally Gavin Paul and Sons reworked the estate, Paul's Boghead pit raising Main and Jewel coal until about 1920.

History

The Boghead estate, a mile south-west of Bathgate, was the Durham family's for over two centuries, and it gave its name to Boghead coal: a gas- and oil-rich cannel coal, also called torbanite or Torbanehill mineral, known there by 1837, whose testing about 1850 led to the paraffin works nearby. In 1848 Robert Geddes and Thomas Marshall leased the coal and sank a pit but were beaten by water. In autumn 1849 James Russel and Son, the Falkirk coal and iron masters, took a 25-year lease of the estate's minerals and over the next decade sank more than fifteen pits to the Boghead coal, numbered 1 to 15, working poor ball coal and ironstone with it.

The work was dangerous. Rock killed a bottomer in No. 7 pit in 1859; a miner in No. 12 lost his foot under a fall in 1864; and in 1866 two shankers at No. 15 were killed on a scaffold at the top of the shank when the spur wheel on the winding shaft came out of gear. Most of the Boghead coal was worked out by 1870. In 1869 and 1870 Russels sold the beam and horizontal engines, boilers, pithead frames and rails at Boghead Colliery, kept selling ball coal from Nos. 10 and 14 into 1872, and gave up the lease in 1874; a 49-inch pumping engine was offered for sale there in 1875.

Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company leased the minerals from 1880 to 1895 and drove Boghead No. 25 mine to No. 10 pit, and about 1882 Walker and Cameron of the Balbardie collieries sank a Boghead pit at the east edge of the estate to the Balbardie seam, working it until about 1891; the plant of Boghead Colliery near Bathgate Station was auctioned in 1892. From 1897 Gavin Paul and Sons held a 30-year lease, deepened the Boghead pit to about 150 fathoms for the Main and Jewel seams, and worked it until about 1920. Women worked at its surface: a coal cleaner was crushed by a hoist cage in 1904, and a pithead worker was killed by a revolving shaft in 1915.

Geology

The Boghead gas coal (torbanite), a cannel coal exceptionally rich in gas and oil, with ball coal and blackband ironstone; the Colinburn coal with good fireclay a little above it; and, deeper, the Balbardie gas seam and the Main and Jewel coals.

Workings

More than fifteen numbered pits of James Russel and Son (Nos. 1-15, 1849-74), with beam and horizontal winding and pumping engines; Young's Boghead No. 25 mine to No. 10 pit (1880s); Walker and Cameron's Boghead pit to the Balbardie seam (c.1882-91); Gavin Paul's Boghead pit deepened to about 150 fathoms (c.1900-20).

Closure

Russel's Boghead coal was worked out by about 1870 and its plant sold in 1869-70; Walker and Cameron's pit ceased by 1891; Gavin Paul's Boghead pit worked until about 1920.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Balbardie Colliery — Walker and Cameron, proprietors of the Balbardie collieries, sank a Boghead pit to the Balbardie seam about 1882, and the Balbardie company later held the Boghead mineral rights.
• Mosside Colliery — Gavin Paul and Sons worked Mosside and Boghead as one colliery; Mosside No. 1's workings linked to Boghead pit, and the plant of both was sold together in 1922.

Recorded claims

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

• In autumn 1849 James Russel and Son took a 25-year lease of the Boghead estate's minerals and over the next decade sank more than fifteen pits to the Boghead coal. ^1,2
• Most of the Boghead gas coal was exhausted by about 1870; Russels sold the colliery plant at Boghead in 1869 and 1870. ^1,3
• In 1866 two shankers were killed at No. 15 Boghead pit, near Bathgate, belonging to James Russell and Son. ⁴
• About 1900 Gavin Paul and Co. reopened the Boghead pit, deepening it to about 150 fathoms for the Main and Jewel seams, and worked it until about 1920. ¹
• Gavin Paul and Sons owned Boghead in 1900-1915. ^5,6,7
• By 1906 the present Boghead pit, owned by G. Paul and Sons, had been stopped about 1880 and reopened by Paul and Sons when they secured the lease. ⁸
• About 1882 Walker and Cameron sank a Boghead pit at the east edge of the estate to the Balbardie seam; production ceased by 1891. ¹
• The plant of Boghead Colliery near Bathgate Station was sold by Shirlaw Allan, auctioneers of Hamilton, in 1892. ⁹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Scottish Shale: Boghead (lands) — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
2. (secondary) Scottish Shale: James Russel and Son — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
3. (secondary) Scottish Shale: Boghead Gas Coal mining in West Lothian — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
4. (secondary) Accidents 1855-1870 — Scottish Mining Website
5. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Boghead, 1900 — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Boghead, 1904 — Northern Mine Research Society
7. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Boghead, 1915 — Northern Mine Research Society
8. (secondary) Scottish Shale archive 267: The Old Pits of Bathgate (West Lothian Courier, 18 May 1906) — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
9. (primary) University of Glasgow Archives: DC102 Records of Shirlaw Allan, industrial auctioneers, Hamilton (item list) — University of Glasgow Archives
10. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Boghead Nos. 3 & 6, Boghead Gas — British Geological Survey
11. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Boghead, Balbardie Gas, abandoned 1896 — British Geological Survey
12. (secondary) Boghead (F. H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, 1882-4), via A Vision of Britain through Time — A Vision of Britain through Time

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