Cobbinshaw No. 1 and 2 Pits

Overview

The Tarbrax Oil Company's shale pits on the moor at Cobbinshaw, sunk from 1904 to 1906, where the first electric winding gear in Scotland was installed, and which worked the Fells Shale until 1926.

History

The Caledonian Mineral Oil Company began sinking a pit at Cobbinshaw, on the moor near Tarbrax, about 1895 but abandoned the work, and the unfinished structures appeared on the Ordnance Survey of 1896 as a disused oil works. The Tarbrax Oil Company resumed the work: in 1904 it sought contractors to sink a shaft 17 feet 6 inches by 6 feet, and a fault in No. 1 pit delayed development in 1906. No. 1 was sunk to the Fells Shale at 64 fathoms (420 feet) and No. 2 to 58 fathoms.

No. 1 pit had the first electric winding gear in Scotland, an Ilgner system in which a balancing set supplied current to a 200-horsepower motor coupled directly to the drum. The pits employed 116 in 1915 and 192 in 1920. Their Fells Shale workings were eventually linked to Viewfield No. 5 pit by a roadway driven through the fallen-in workings of the old Tarbrax No. 2 pit; in 1923 the electric gear was moved to Viewfield and No. 1 went back to steam, and by March 1924 its whole output was being wound at Viewfield. The workings were abandoned in 1926, when the Tarbrax oil works closed. Substantial foundations of the pithead buildings survive on the moor.

Geology

The Fells Shale, with the Fraser, of the Cobbinshaw shale-field.

Workings

Two vertical shafts, No. 1 to 64 fathoms and No. 2 to 58 fathoms; Ilgner electric winding at No. 1 from the 1900s; workings linked to Viewfield No. 5 through the old Tarbrax No. 2 workings.

Closure

Output transferred to Viewfield No. 5 in 1923-24; workings abandoned in 1926 with the closure of Tarbrax Oil Works.

What remains

Rough grazing and moorland.

Substantial foundations of the pithead buildings, including the winding engine house.

Related mines

• Cobbinshaw No. 5 Mine — Both were Tarbrax Oil Company workings on the railway to Tarbrax Oil Works; the company sank Nos. 1 and 2 before re-opening No. 5.
• Tarbrax Oil Shale Mine — The Cobbinshaw pits supplied Tarbrax Oil Works and were linked through the old Tarbrax No. 2 workings to Viewfield.

Recorded claims

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

• No. 1 pit at Cobbinshaw had the first electric winding gear in Scotland, on the Ilgner system with a 200-horsepower motor. ¹
• No. 1 pit was sunk to the Fells Shale at 64 fathoms and No. 2 to 58 fathoms. ¹
• No. 1 employed 116 in 1915 and 192 in 1920. ²
• The workings were abandoned in 1926, when Tarbrax Oil Works closed. ¹
• The joint abandonment plan of Tarbrax or Viewfield No. 5 and Cobbinshaw Nos. 1 and 2 in the Fells shale is dated 1926. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Cobbinshaw No.1 & 2 mines (Scottish Shale, Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry) — Almond Valley Heritage Trust
2. (primary) Cobbinshaw (Oil Shale) (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS mine plan: TARBRAX OR VIEWFIELD NO.5 COBBINSHAW NOS.1 2, Fells, abandoned 1926 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 25 October 2026 · Last researched: 25 October 2026