Craighead Colliery

Overview

William Baird and Company's colliery at Blantyre, with Baird's (Craighead) Rows beside it, employing up to 690 men; its manager was prosecuted over ventilation after a miner died of burns in 1882.

History

Craighead Colliery stood at Blantyre and belonged to William Baird and Company; its miners lived in Baird's Rows, later called Craighead Rows, named after the colliery and the nearby Craighead House. The colliery worked the Ell, Main, Pyotshaw, Splint and Virgin seams for household and manufacturing coal, and later the Blackband and Humph too. It employed 533 men in 1894, 678 in 1900 and between 416 and 453 from 1910 to 1923; a housing report of 1910 counted 690 Craighead miners, 206 of them living in Baird's Rows, where about a third of the houses were occupied by Polish miners.

On 11 October 1882 Alexander Dobbins was burnt in the Ell coal seam and died two days later in Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and the colliery manager, Henry Rowan, was charged at Hamilton Sheriff Court with failing to provide enough ventilation there. On 5 January 1883 James Donnelly, a foreman, and James M'Dougall, a brusher, were killed in No. 2 Pit when a shot fired to blast part of the roof in the soft coal seam went off before they could get clear. In 1911 the oversman John Muir was killed when he rode a hutch to examine an internal shaft that dropped coal sixteen fathoms from the Main to the Splint coal: the rope, outwardly sound but corroded inside where water collected, broke and he fell with the cage to the bottom. Abandonment plans of the colliery's Ell, Humph, Splint, Virgin, Blackband and Pyotshaw workings are dated 1935.

Geology

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

Workings

Shaft workings including No. 2 Pit, with an internal staple shaft that lowered coal 16 fathoms from the Main to the Splint coal; 600 of the 678 men employed in 1900 worked underground.

Closure

Abandonment plans of its Ell, Humph, Splint, Virgin, Blackband and Pyotshaw workings are dated 1935.

What remains

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• A 1910 housing report found that 206 of Craighead Colliery's 690 miners lived at Baird's (Craighead) Rows, Blantyre. ¹
• Henry Rowan, manager of Baird's Craighead Colliery, was charged with failing to ventilate the ell coal seam where Alexander Dobbins was burnt on 11 October 1882. ²
• On 5 January 1883 James Donnelly and James M'Dougall were killed in No. 2 Pit, Craighead Colliery, by a shot fired in the roof. ^3,2
• Craighead employed 678 men in 1900, 600 of them below ground. ³
• In 1893 Craighead was listed under William Baird and Co., with John Irvine as manager. ^4,3
• Abandonment plans of the Craighead Ell, Humph, Splint, Virgin, Blackband and Pyotshaw workings are dated 1935. ⁵

Sources

1. (secondary) Baird's Rows (Craighead Rows) Blantyre — Blantyre Project
2. (secondary) Accidents 1881-1914 (Blantyre area) — Scottish Mining Website
3. (primary) Craighead Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) List of Mines in Scotland, 1893 — Scottish Mining Website
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21917688: Craighead, Ell, Humph, Splint, Virgin, Blackband, Pyotshaw, abandoned 1935 — British Geological Survey

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