Clyde Colliery, Hamilton

Overview

Wilsons and Clyde's colliery at Burnbank on the west side of Hamilton, among the first pits opened in the Hamilton coalfield and worked from 1890 to 1930 on the Ell, Humph, Main, Pyotshaw and Splint coals with the Blackband ironstone. Over 760 people in 1894, it had shrunk to 350 by 1920; thirty-six of its people are named among the dead, and an underground fire in 1905 sent fumes through the workings.

History

The Durham Mining Museum dates Clyde Colliery from 1890 under the Clyde Coal Co. Ltd and then Wilsons and Clyde Coal Co. Ltd, the Glasgow firm whose head was John Wilson MP and which by 1896 also worked Hamilton, Glencraig, Sinking Law and Shawfield collieries. Its pits stood at Burnbank, with No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 (Backmuir) named in the accident reports and a stone mine beside No. 3. James Wyper managed it in the 1890s with 632 underground and 129 on the surface in 1894, and Andrew Hepburn in the 1900s. The Lists return gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal throughout, from the Ell, Humph, Main, Pyotshaw and Splint seams with the Blackband added by 1915; employment fell from 761 in 1894 to 591 in 1900, 575 in 1910, 356 in 1915 and 352 in 1920, and the museum records closure in 1930. Thirty-six deaths are named between 1885 and 1929, most of them the roof and haulage deaths of a Lanarkshire pit: an overman and a fireman who fell down the shaft in 1891 and 1892, a pithead labourer of sixteen crushed in 1905 when the engineman lowered the cage without a signal, a roadsman pinned under a fall on a disused horse road for fifteen hours in 1897 while a fireman passed without hearing him, a boy of thirteen killed by a fall of stone in 1889, and two boiler firemen killed together in November 1924 when an eight-foot brick wall holding back a stack of fuel collapsed on them. James McKillop, a miner of 27, died in May 1905 when he fell or flung himself down a blind pit under the fumes of an underground fire in No. 2 pit; the Hamilton press of the time reported men entombed in the Pyotshaw and Main coal seams. An electrically fired shot ignited firedamp in 1908, and gas explosions killed single men in 1918 and 1929.

Geology

Lanarkshire Coal Measures: the Ell, Humph, Main, Pyotshaw and Splint coals with the Blackband ironstone.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Three pits, Nos 1 to 3, the last at Backmuir with a stone mine beside it; rope and chain haulage on the roads, a battery of Lancashire boilers at the surface, electric shot-firing by 1908 and coal-cutting machines by 1922.

Closure

Recorded as closed in 1930 by the Durham Mining Museum, with 352 employed at the last return in 1920; no account of the closure has been found.

What remains

Not established from the sources read; Burnbank is now built over. No photograph of the colliery was found.

Not established from the sources read.

Nearby mines

• Farme Colliery — 2.3 km W
• Bardykes Colliery — 3.7 km S
• Aitkenhead Colliery — 5.0 km W, Glasgow
• Blantyre Colliery — 5.7 km SE
• Govan Colliery — 5.9 km W, Glasgow

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• Worked 1890–1930 under the Clyde Coal Co. Ltd and Wilsons and Clyde Coal Co. Ltd; 761 employed in 1894 (James Wyper manager), 591 in 1900, 575 in 1910, 356 in 1915 and 352 in 1920. ^1,2
• Gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal from the Ell, Humph, Main, Pyotshaw and Splint seams, with the Blackband from 1915. ¹
• Thirty-six named deaths 1885–1929, including two boiler firemen killed by a collapsing fuel-stack wall on 29 November 1924 and James McKillop, who died under the fumes of an underground fire in May 1905. ^3,1
• The colliery's pits were Nos 1, 2 and 3, the third at Backmuir with a stone mine adjoining, per the Hamilton accident reports of 1901–1902. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Clyde Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Wilsons and Clyde Coal Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Hamilton Parish Accidents 1900-1914 — Scottish Mining Website
4. (secondary) Accidents 1876-1899 — Scottish Mining Website — Scottish Mining Website

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026