Bothwell Park Colliery

Overview

William Baird and Company's colliery between Bothwell and Bellshill, sinking in the 1870s and employing over 800 men by 1920, closed in 1932.

History

Bothwell Park Colliery lay between Bothwell and Bellshill, in the part of Bothwell parish where deep seams were opened up from the 1870s. It belonged to William Baird and Company. The pits were being sunk in 1874, when James Flin, a sinker, was killed in No. 1 Pit while he and two others were changing a landing box used for the pumping; by 1879 a No. 2 Pit was working the Splint coal. In 1893 the colliery was listed under Baird's of West George Street, Glasgow, with William Irvine as manager.

Bothwell Park raised household and manufacturing coal from the Ell, Main, Splint and Virgin seams, and by 1920 the Pyotshaw and Upper as well. It employed 630 men in 1894 and between 630 and 660 until 1915, then 838 in 1920 and 808 in 1923. The colliery had its own rows of houses. Runaway races of hutches were a recurring danger on its haulage roads: James M'Connell, a pony driver of 17, was killed when hutches broke away and piled on top of him in 1898, and a roadsman was crushed by another race in 1892. In June 1898 James Fay, a brusher, was killed by a fall of stone while widening a road about 300 fathoms from the pit bottom. The colliery was closed in 1932, the year of the abandonment plans of its Ell, Main, Pyotshaw and Splint and Virgin workings.

Geology

The colliery worked the Ell, Main, Splint, Virgin, Pyotshaw and Upper seams of the Lanarkshire coalfield.

Workings

Nos. 1 and 2 pits with long haulage roads worked by races of hutches; 674 of the 838 men employed in 1920 worked underground.

Closure

Closed in 1932.

What remains

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• In April 1874 James Flin, a sinker, was killed in No. 1 Pit, Bothwell Park, while changing a pumping landing box. ^1,2
• In 1893 Bothwell Park was listed under William Baird and Co., with William Irvine as manager. ^3,2
• Bothwell Park employed 838 men in 1920, 674 of them underground. ²
• James M'Connell, a pony driver of 17, was killed in August 1898 when hutches broke away in Baird's Bothwell Park Colliery and piled on him. ¹
• Bothwell Park Colliery closed in 1932. ⁴
• Abandonment plans of the Bothwell Park Ell, Main, Pyotshaw and Splint and Virgin workings are dated 1932. ⁵

Sources

1. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website: Lanarkshire accidents 1870-1899 (Bothwell, Bellshill, Uddingston) — Scottish Mining Website
2. (primary) Bothwell Park Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) List of Mines in Scotland, 1893 — Scottish Mining Website
4. (secondary) Bothwell Parish (Scottish Mining Website) — Scottish Mining Website
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21941481: Bothwell Park, Ell, abandoned 1932 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 21 October 2026 · Last researched: 21 October 2026