Carriden Colliery

Overview

A colliery on the east side of Bo'ness, its two 450-foot shafts sunk by the Carriden Coal Company in 1914 on a site earlier mapped as Western Field Colliery. It worked the Main, Six Feet, Seven Feet and Corbiehall seams, employed over 300 in 1948 and closed in January 1953.

History

Coal has been worked in the parish of Carriden, east of Bo'ness, since at least the thirteenth century, and the Durham Mining Museum's Lists of Mines returns record a Carriden colliery from 1905, with 112 people working the Main seam that year and 56 the Smithy in 1910. On 27 August 1908 a fireman, James Marshall, was killed there by an explosion of firedamp or coal dust.

The colliery of the twentieth century began in 1914, when the Carriden Coal Company sank two shafts, each 450 feet (137 metres) deep, on a site the earlier Ordnance Survey maps had marked as Western Field Colliery. The Smithy was worked in 1915, the Main and Six Feet from 1920, the Seven Feet from 1935 and the Corbiehall after nationalisation. The workforce rose from 29 in 1915 to 148 in 1933 and over 230 by 1937. Bairds and Scottish Steel held the colliery in the 1930s or 1940s, and the National Coal Board took it over in 1947.

In 1948 Carriden raised 270 tons a day, 70,000 tons a year, with 316 employees and a peak of 331. It had a Dickson and Mann bash tank washer, a canteen and a first-aid room, but no baths, and took its electricity from the public supply. The colliery closed in January 1953, and the plans of its Six Foot, Splint, Corbie Hall, Seven Foot and Easter Main workings were lodged as abandoned in 1954.

Geology

Bo'ness coalfield: the Smithy, Main, Six Feet, Seven Feet, Corbiehall and Splint seams, with the Easter Main.

Workings

Two shafts, each 450 feet (137 m), sunk in 1914; a Dickson and Mann bash tank washer by 1948.

Closure

Closed by the National Coal Board in January 1953; the abandonment plans of the Six Foot, Splint, Corbie Hall, Seven Foot and Easter Main seams are dated 1954.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

What's uncertain

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

• Bairds and Scottish Steel owned the colliery in the 1930s. (disputed) ³
• Bairds and Scottish Steel owned the colliery in 1945-46. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• A Carriden colliery employed 112 people working the Main seam in 1905. ¹
• The two shafts, each 450 feet (137 m) deep, were sunk in 1914 by the Carriden Coal Company. ^2,3
• Earlier editions of the Ordnance Survey marked the colliery as Western Field Colliery. ³
• Bairds and Scottish Steel owned the colliery in the 1930s. (disputed) ³
• Bairds and Scottish Steel owned the colliery in 1945-46. (disputed) ²
• In 1948 Carriden produced 270 tons a day, 70,000 tons a year, with 316 employees and a peak workforce of 331. ³
• Carriden Colliery closed in January 1953 and was abandoned in 1954. ^2,3,4
• Coal in Carriden parish was worked from the thirteenth century, when a tithe of the colliery of Carriden was granted to the monks of Holyrood. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Carriden Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Carriden Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Carriden 1 and 2, Colliery (NRHE 133326) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot, formerly Canmore)
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Carriden, Six Foot, abandoned 1954 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
5. (secondary) Bo'ness & District — Scottish Mining Website

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