Cowdenbeath No. 7 Colliery

Overview

The longest-lived of the Cowdenbeath pits, in the centre of the town: an old ironstone shaft deepened for coal in the 1870s, worked by the Cowdenbeath and Fife Coal companies and the National Coal Board until it closed in January 1960.

History

Cowdenbeath No. 7 pit stood just south of Stenhouse Street, in the middle of Cowdenbeath, close to the site of Central Park. Cowdenbeath had been a few farms in Beath parish until the Oakley Iron Company proved the ground rich in iron and coal and the railway arrived in 1848; pits were then sunk all over the district, mainly for ironstone, and for coal alone once ironstone became uneconomic in the late 1870s. No. 7 began as one of those ironstone pits and was sunk deeper in about 1869 and again in 1877, when the Cowdenbeath Coal Company had fifteen men below sinking its downcast and upcast shafts to 720 feet. By 1878 both reached 812 feet and worked the Five Feet, and by 1881 160 men were underground in the Dunfermline Splint, Mynheer, Five Feet, Fourteen Feet and Glassee seams.

The Forth Iron Company, which had taken over the Oakley company, joined the Cowdenbeath Coal Company in 1872, and when the Fife Coal Company took the Cowdenbeath pits over in 1896 No. 7 was among them. It was connected to Nos. 3 and 8 for ventilation and drainage and later to the deep new Kirkford pit, No. 10. In May 1899 its pumping gear broke down; No. 7 lay at the bottom of the district's coalfield, the water rose until it closed the air course to Kirkford, and both pits stood idle with 300 men out of work for a week. Coal from the pits west of the town crossed the High Street on a level crossing, holding up traffic while the pug and its wagons went over.

Under the National Coal Board No. 7 worked on with Kirkford as its pumping and ventilation shaft, producing about 163,300 tons of gas, household and industrial coal in 1947 with 368 men below and 78 at the surface; in 1957 it worked the Glassee, Diamond, Lochgelly Splint, Swallowdrum and Five Foot seams with 365 men underground. That year John Young, a miner of 29, was killed by a fall of stone in the Swallowdrum section, trapped for forty minutes in workings so low that rescue was difficult. The pit closed on 29 January 1960, and the last abandonment plans of Nos. 7 and 10 are dated 1961. Its old workings caused serious subsidence under the nearby Beath High School.

Geology

The pit worked the Five Feet, Dunfermline Splint, Mynheer, Fourteen Feet, Glassee, Diamond, Lochgelly Splint, Swallowdrum and Main seams of the Fife coalfield.

Workings

A downcast shaft 11 ft by 10 ft and an upcast 10 ft by 5 ft, both 812 ft deep by 1878, ventilated by a fan; connected to Nos. 3, 8 and 10 (Kirkford).

Closure

Closed on 29 January 1960.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Kirkford Colliery — Kirkford (Cowdenbeath No. 10) served No. 7 as its pumping and ventilation shaft.
• Mossbeath Colliery — Cowdenbeath Coal Company pits taken over by the Fife Coal Company in 1896.

Recorded claims

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

• Cowdenbeath No. 7 began as an early ironstone pit, was sunk deeper about 1869 and 1877, and closed on 29 January 1960. ¹
• In 1878 No. 7's downcast and upcast shafts were 812 ft deep. ¹
• When the Fife Coal Company took over the Cowdenbeath Coal Company's pits in 1896 they included Cowdenbeath No. 7. ^2,3
• In May 1899 a pumping breakdown at No. 7 flooded the workings and closed the air course to Kirkford, idling 300 men for a week. ¹
• In 1947 No. 7 produced about 163,300 tons with 368 men underground and 78 at the surface. ¹
• Cowdenbeath No. 7 employed 454 men in 1954, 386 of them below ground. ⁴
• Workings of No. 7, whose pithead was close to Beath High School, caused significant subsidence there in later years. ³
• Abandonment plans of the Cowdenbeath Nos. 7 and 10 (Kirkford) workings in the Dunfermline Splint, Glassee, Main, Swallowdrum and Diamond seams are dated 1961. ⁵

Sources

1. (secondary) Pit-C-9. Cowdenbeath No. 7 Pit — Fife Pits and Memorial Book (fifepits.co.uk)
2. (secondary) Pit-C-1. Cowdenbeath Pits and Mines — Fife Pits and Memorial Book (fifepits.co.uk)
3. (secondary) Cowdenbeath — Wikipedia
4. (primary) Cowdenbeath Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21857007: Cowdenbeath Nos. 7 & 10 (Kirkford), Dunfermline Splint, abandoned 1961 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 21 October 2026 · Last researched: 21 October 2026