Brucefield Colliery

Overview

A Clackmannanshire colliery just north of Kennet, commenced in 1905 by the Alloa Coal Company, later owned by A. Dunsmuir, Sons and Co. and the Fordel Mains Colliery Company, which raised 75,000 tons in 1948 under the National Coal Board and closed in April 1961, with a brickworks on the site.

History

Brucefield Colliery lay just north of Kennet, near Clackmannan, on the north side of the railway. The mine was commenced in 1905 and the Alloa Coal Company is given as the opener, with the pit recorded as closed in 1912; from 1918 it is listed under A. Dunsmuir, Sons and Co., in 1923 and 1938 under the same name, and in 1944 and 1945 under the Fordel Mains (Midlothian) Colliery Company. Allan, Dunsmuir and Co. Ltd gave the colliery as an address in 1928 and 1936, and in 1932 Brucefield Colliery floated with a capital of £32,000. After an extensive fire at the colliery in February 1935 the newspapers named Messrs A. Dunsmuir, Sons and Co. as its owners, and in 1936 a Kirkcaldy firm of solicitors went to court against Brucefield Collieries over the purchase of the colliery and brickworks.

A brickworks was established on the site in 1924 and was taken over with the colliery by the National Coal Board in 1947; Brucefield and the Meta works were both heavily committed in 1951. In 1948 the colliery raised 75,000 tons of coal. The National Coal Board's Brucefield mine ran from 1905 to April 1961, and the brickworks went on into the 1960s.

Scotsman and Dunfermline Journal reports record injuries and deaths at the pit: a roof fall that injured a miner in 1923, another that hurt two men, a fatal burn to a washerman in February 1930, a fall of stone in 1938 and a miner killed by runaway hutches.

Geology

Unknown.

Workings

A colliery with a coal-washing machine and a brickworks using its waste, near the railway north of Kennet; underground workings with haulage ropes and hutches.

Closure

Recorded as closed in 1912 in one list, then listed from 1918; the National Coal Board's mine ran from 1905 to April 1961.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• The Brucefield mine was commenced in 1905 by the Alloa Coal Company, north of Kennet on the north side of the railway. ^1,2
• Brucefield was listed under A. Dunsmuir, Sons and Co. in 1918, 1923 and 1938, under the Fordel Mains (Midlothian) Colliery Company in 1944 and 1945, and under the National Coal Board from 1947. ¹
• The National Coal Board's Brucefield mine ran from 1905 to April 1961. ^1,3
• In 1948 the colliery raised 75,000 tons of coal. ³
• Brucefield Colliery floated in 1932 with a capital of £32,000. ²
• In February 1935 Messrs A. Dunsmuir, Sons and Co. were named as the owners of Brucefield Colliery after an extensive fire there. ²
• A brickworks was established on the site in 1924, was taken over by the National Coal Board in 1947 and went on into the 1960s. ^2,3
• A washerman died of burns in February 1930 after a can of naphtha he was using to thaw the slide of a coal-washing machine caught fire, and a miner died after three empty hutches broke away from the haulage rope and struck him. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Clackmannanshire's Mines — Clackmannanshire.scot
2. (secondary) Brucefield Brickworks, Kennet, Clackmannanshire (Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry) — Scottish Brick History
3. (secondary) Kennet (Clackmannanshire.scot) — Clackmannanshire.scot
4. (secondary) post-1855 Accidents: Clackmannanshire (Scottish Mining Website) — Scottish Mining Website

Record created: 30 September 2026 · Last researched: 30 September 2026