Callendar Colliery

Overview

The Callendar Coal Company's pits on the Callendar estate at Glen Village, south of Falkirk, which fed the company's brickworks with fireclay and blaes. The last, the Policy Pit, closed in November 1959.

History

Callendar Colliery was the group of pits worked on the Callendar estate south of Falkirk, round Glen Village, by the Callendar Coal Company. Plans of workings on the estate go back to 1830. John Wilson held the lease of the coalfield and a brickworks until 1868, when on his retirement a partnership led by James Dougal took it over, leasing the mineral rights of the estate; the business was registered as the Callendar Coal Company Ltd in 1899, as coalmasters, fireclay manufacturers and brickmakers. The colliery fed a large brickworks: blaes from the pit made building bricks, and the company mined fireclay as well as coal for its Glen and, from about 1912, Herbertshire brickworks.

The colliery employed 230 people in 1894 and 313 in 1896, raising household, manufacturing and steam coal from the Main, Mill and Drumgray seams. By 1915 the work was spread over numbered pits, No. 7, Nos. 14 and 15 and Nos. 16, 17 and 18, which between them employed about 350; ironstone and ganister came up with the coal by 1920. A miner died in 1906 while cutting out a place to start a disc coal-cutting machine under a bad roof, and in 1915 two men were killed by a fall in the pit at the Callendar Brickworks. The Policy Pit, dated from 1924, employed about 100 through the 1930s and 1940s; in 1926 a miner was killed there when a gelignite shot went off as he lit its fuse. The fireclay side became Callendar Brick and Fireclay Ltd in 1945. The Policy Pit passed to the National Coal Board in 1947, when it raised 40,000 tons, and closed in November 1959.

Geology

Central coalfield south of Falkirk: the Main, Mill, Mid Drumgray, Upper and Lower Drumgray, Ball, Splint, Armadale Main and Coxrod coals, with fireclay, blaes, ironstone and ganister.

Workings

Numbered pits across the estate (No. 7, Nos. 14 and 15, Nos. 16, 17 and 18) and the Policy Pit from 1924; disc coal-cutting machines by 1906; fireclay and blaes mined for the Glen and Herbertshire brickworks.

Closure

The Policy Pit, the last of the Callendar pits, closed in November 1959; plans of the older estate workings were abandoned between 1830 and 1926.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Herbertshire Colliery — Callendar Coal Company collieries; Herbertshire's brickworks was worked with the Callendar pits' fireclay trade.
• South Bantaskine Colliery — Falkirk collieries of the Callendar Coal Company.

Recorded claims

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

• The Callendar Coal Company took over John Wilson's lease of the Callendar estate coalfield and brickworks in 1868 and was registered as a limited company in 1899. ¹
• The company mined fireclay and blaes as well as coal for its Glen and Herbertshire brickworks. ¹
• Callendar employed 230 people in 1894 and 313 in 1896; the Policy Pit employed 100 in 1947, when it raised 40,000 tons. ²
• The Policy Pit at Falkirk is dated 1924 to November 1959. ³
• In February 1926 William Bryce was killed in Callendar Policy Mine when a gelignite shot exploded unexpectedly. ⁴
• Plans of the Splint workings on the Callendar estate were abandoned in 1830, and of the Mill and Main in 1924. ^5,6

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Callendar Brickworks, Glen, Falkirk, Stirlingshire — Scottish Brick History
2. (primary) Callendar Policy Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) NCB Collieries - Scotland (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Accidents post-1915 — Scottish Mining Website
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Callendar, Splint, abandoned 1830 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
6. (primary) BGS mine plan: Callendar, Mill and Main, abandoned 1924 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

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