Coatspark Colliery

Overview

A steep surface mine at Coats Park, Cambuslang, opened by the coalmasters Dunn and Stephen and worked by the Flemington Coal Company by 1933, then by the National Coal Board until 1958. About a hundred men worked it.

History

Coal had been worked around the Coats district of Cambuslang long before; plans of Coatspark Splint workings were closed in 1929. The coalmasters Dunn and Stephen, who had leased the coalfield about the farms of Fisheston, Whittleburn and Holmhill, opened a new mine at the west end of the West Coats recreation park, south of the railway near Fisheston farm: an 'ingoing eye' or daylight mine of the old kind, with a shaft for communication. It became the Flemington Coal Company's Coates Park Mine, Burnside, which it was working by 1933 and which employed about a hundred men; the national record dates the sinking of Coatspark to 1937.

The mine was a steep incline 305 metres long, reaching a vertical depth of 82 metres, with a return shaft 12 metres deep. On 28 June 1937 firedamp exploded in the Kiltongue section just as the day shift began, burning four of the five men there. At nationalisation it had 112 employees, its peak, and in 1948 it raised 110 tons a day, 26,000 tons a year, of house and steam coal by longwall working, with a single plate table and no washer, baths or canteen. Its Lower Drumgray, Kiltongue and Blackband workings were abandoned when it closed in 1958.

Geology

Lanarkshire coalfield: the Kiltongue, Lower Drumgray, Blackband and Splint seams.

Workings

A steep inclined surface mine 305 m long to a vertical depth of 82 m, with a return shaft 12 m deep; longwall working; a single plate table.

Closure

Closed and abandoned in 1958, in May by the NCB list; its Lower Drumgray, Kiltongue and Blackband plans are dated 1958.

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.

• Coatspark Colliery, Flemington Coal Company, was sunk in 1937 and closed in 1958. (disputed) ¹
• Coatspark, Cambuslang, is dated 1925 to May 1958. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Coatspark Colliery, Flemington Coal Company, was sunk in 1937 and closed in 1958. (disputed) ¹
• Coatspark, Cambuslang, is dated 1925 to May 1958. (disputed) ²
• Dunn and Stephen opened a daylight mine with a communication shaft at the west end of the West Coats recreation park, Cambuslang; it was later controlled by the Flemington Coal Company and employed about 100 men. ³
• The mine was a steep incline 305 m long to a vertical depth of 82 m, with a return shaft 12 m deep. ¹
• On 28 June 1937 a firedamp explosion in the Kiltongue section injured four of the five miners there. ⁴
• In 1948 it raised 110 tons a day, 26,000 a year, by longwall working with 112 employees. ¹
• The Flemington Coal Company worked Coates Park Mine, Burnside, and Gateside Mine, Cambuslang, until 1947. ⁵
• Coatspark's Kiltongue workings were abandoned in 1958, and earlier Splint workings in 1929. ^6,7

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Coatspark Colliery (NRHE 132074) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot, formerly Canmore)
2. (secondary) NCB Collieries - Scotland (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Coal! A history of the coal-mining industry in Scotland with special reference to the Cambuslang district (John Anderson, 1943) — John Anderson / edwardboyle.com
4. (secondary) Accidents post-1926 (newspaper reports) — Scottish Mining Website
5. (secondary) Gateside Colliery and Brickworks, Cambuslang — Scottish Brick History
6. (primary) BGS mine plan: Coatspark, Kiltongue, abandoned 1958 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
7. (primary) BGS mine plan: Coatspark, Splint, abandoned 1929 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

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