Broomside Colliery

Overview

A colliery east of Motherwell, sunk in 1869 and worked for most of its life by the Wishaw Coal Company as Dalzell and Broomside, then by the Glasgow Iron and Steel Company. Its two shallow shafts worked the Main, Ell and Humph coals until October 1948.

History

Broomside Colliery lay at Motherwell, in the parish of Dalziel. Production began in 1869, from two shafts each about 30 metres deep. Through the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth it belonged to the Wishaw Coal Company, and by 1911 it was known as Dalzell and Broomside Colliery; it worked the Main and Ell coals, and several of its miners lived in the Camp Rows. The local papers recorded a steady toll of single deaths, most of them from falls of roof: a waggon-driver crushed between buffers in 1888, miners killed in the Main coal in 1895 and 1903 and by a premature shot in the Ell in 1896, and Joseph Wilson in 1899, whose body took two and a half hours to recover while a second fall nearly caught the rescuers.

In 1911 the Main seam was being worked by stoop and room, with the pillars in one district taken out and the waste stowed hydraulically. In a small detached section where that could not be done, gas gathered in two headings driven up to a fault, and on 30 October an oncost worker, John Galloway, sent by his son, the fireman, to lift rails there, apparently fired it with the naked light in his cap and was killed.

By the 1930s the colliery belonged to the Glasgow Iron and Steel Company and was working the Humph coal as well. In 1947 it raised 60,000 tons; the workforce that year is given as 234 and as 265. In 1948 it produced 120 tons a day with 155 employees, with screening tables, a Boon-type washer, baths of 1928, a canteen and an ambulance room, and five Lancashire boilers raising steam for the winding engines, fan and tables. It closed in October 1948 and was abandoned in 1950.

Geology

Lanarkshire coalfield: the Main, Ell, Humph, Pyotshaw, Splint, Virtuewell and Kiltongue coals.

Workings

Two shafts, each about 30 m; stoop and room working with hydraulic stowing in the Main coal by 1911; screening tables and a Boon-type washer; baths of 1928; steam winding from five Lancashire boilers.

Closure

Closed in October 1948; abandoned in 1950, when the Dalziell and Broomside Ell plans were lodged.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Argyll Colliery, Machrihanish — Both worked by the Glasgow Iron and Steel Company.

What's uncertain

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

• In 1947 the colliery raised 60,000 tons with 265 people. (disputed) ⁷
• The workforce peaked at 234 in 1947. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Dalzell and Broomside Colliery began production in 1869 from two shafts each about 30 m deep. ^1,2
• Broomside belonged to the Wishaw Coal Company in the 1880s and 1890s. ^3,4
• In 1911 the Main seam at Dalzell and Broomside was worked in stoops with hydraulic stowing, and an oncost worker was killed by firedamp in a detached section on 30 October. ⁵
• In 1938 Broomside belonged to the Glasgow Iron Company. ⁶
• In 1947 the colliery raised 60,000 tons with 265 people. (disputed) ⁷
• The workforce peaked at 234 in 1947. (disputed) ²
• In 1948 it produced 120 tons a day with 155 employees and had baths built in 1928. ²
• Broomside closed in October 1948 and was abandoned in 1950. ^1,2,8

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) NCB Collieries - Scotland (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Dalzell and Broomside Colliery (NRHE 133226) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot, formerly Canmore)
3. (secondary) Accidents 1881 - 1890 - Scottish Mining Website — Scottish Mining Website
4. (secondary) Accidents 1891-1900 (newspaper reports) — Scottish Mining Website
5. (primary) Fatal Accidents in Scottish Mines & Collieries 1911 — Scottish Mining Website
6. (secondary) Accidents post-1926 (newspaper reports) — Scottish Mining Website
7. (primary) Broomside Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
8. (primary) BGS mine plan: Dalziell and Broomside, Ell, abandoned 1950 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026