Clydeside Colliery

Overview

A colliery by the Clyde at Uddingston, employing over 450 men through the 1900s to 1920s, where two men were killed by separate firedamp explosions in 1924; its workings were abandoned in 1931-33.

History

Clydeside Colliery lay near Uddingston, on the north side of the Clyde east of Glasgow. It was worked by the Provanhall Coal Company; in 1893 it belonged to the Glasgow Iron and Steel Company, with Dundas Simpson as manager, and it later passed to United Collieries Limited. It raised gas, household and manufacturing coal: 274 men worked there in 1894, 466 in 1905 and 451 in 1920, from the Ell, Main and Pyotshaw seams, and by 1920 the Glasgow Upper, Splint and Virgin as well.

Among those killed were George Currie, a pithead labourer who in 1907 slipped and fell back onto the cage as it left the pithead, and William Kane, a dirt picker crushed in the spokes of the screen engine's flywheel in 1913 when it started suddenly as he helped turn it with the steam on. In 1924 two men died in separate explosions of firedamp: Thomas Payne, a coal-cutting machineman of 30, in January, and James Murray, a miner of 26, in August.

Employment was 444 in 1923 but only five in 1933. Plans of the Clydeside and Calderbank Glasgow Upper workings are dated 1931, of the Ell, shared with Bredisholm and Ellismuir, 1932, and of Clydeside's Splint and Virgin 1933.

Geology

The colliery worked the Ell, Main, Pyotshaw, Glasgow Upper, Splint and Virgin seams of the Lanarkshire coalfield.

Workings

Longwall working with coal cutters by the 1920s; 376 of the 451 men employed in 1920 worked underground.

Closure

Down to five men in 1933; plans of its last workings are dated 1931 to 1933.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Bredisholm Colliery — Neighbouring collieries whose Ell workings share a 1932 abandonment plan (Bredisholm, Ellismuir and Clydeside).
• Calderbank Colliery — Neighbouring collieries whose Glasgow Upper workings share a 1931 abandonment plan.
• Ellismuir Colliery — United Collieries pits at Baillieston and Uddingston whose Ell workings share a 1932 abandonment plan.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1893 Clydeside belonged to the Glasgow Iron and Steel Company, with Dundas Simpson as manager. ^1,2
• Clydeside employed 466 men in 1905 and 451 in 1920. ²
• Thomas Payne, a coal-cutting machineman, was killed by an explosion of firedamp at Clydeside in January 1924, and James Murray, a miner, by another in August 1924. ^3,2
• Plans of Clydeside's Splint and Virgin workings are dated 1933, and of the Clydeside and Calderbank Glasgow Upper 1931. ^4,5

Sources

1. (primary) List of Mines in Scotland, 1893 — Scottish Mining Website
2. (primary) Clydeside Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Fatal accidents in mines in Scotland, 1924 — Scottish Mining Website
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21944452: Clydeside, Splint and Virgin, abandoned 1933 — British Geological Survey
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21942617: Clydeside and Calderbank, Glasgow Upper, abandoned 1931 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 20 October 2026 · Last researched: 20 October 2026