Dechmont Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Flemington, Cambuslang, worked from 1890 and for most of its life by Archibald Russell Ltd, with a second site at Loanend. It employed over 1,000 people in 1910 and 1,300 in 1920, and its last seams were abandoned in 1932.

History

Dechmont Colliery stood at Flemington, on the eastern side of Cambuslang, six miles south-east of Glasgow. It was worked from 1890, first under the Dechmont Colliery Company and then by Archibald Russell Ltd. It raised household, manufacturing and steam coal, with 396 people in 1894 and 541 in 1905. A second site to the south-east, Loanend or Dechmont No. 3, was returned separately from 1915.

In 1910 the colliery reached 1,075 people. The county medical officer's housing report of that year gives 760 at Dechmont, 110 of them in the owners' houses at Flemington, and 320 at Loanend, where the owners had twenty houses. In 1920 Nos. 1 and 2 employed 791 and No. 3 522, working eight seams between them. Coal-cutting machines were at work by 1912 and electric light underground by 1909.

Thirty-one deaths are recorded between 1891 and 1924. On 3 May 1901 the winding rope left its pulley as a cage of eight repairers reached the pithead, and John M'Allister fell 180 fathoms down the shaft; a clamp left on the rope by men working in the shaft was to blame. On 21 April 1911 the under-manager at Loanend, Robert Edgar, went up into a body of firedamp to open a screen and was overcome, and the manager and others collapsed in trying to reach him. That October four men were caught by an explosion in the Upper Ell coal after a fireman left them waiting near a section he had found full of gas, and one of them died. On 15 January 1924, at No. 3, by then a safety-lamp mine, an electrically driven bar coal-cutter that had been run hard and hot fired gas, fatally burning one machineman and badly burning another.

The Ell coal was abandoned in 1926 and the Humph in 1927. Men were still at work in September 1930, and the plans of the Virtuewell, Upper, Main, Splint and Virgin, and Pyotshaw seams are dated as abandoned in 1932. One local history gives the pit's life as 1890 to 1930.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Lanarkshire coalfield. The Ell, Humph, Main, Pyotshaw and Virgin seams were in work in 1910; by 1920 the Blackband, Splint and Upper had been added. The Upper Ell and the Virtuewell were also worked. Roof falls came repeatedly from lypes, smooth joints in the roof that could not be seen until the stone fell.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Shafts at Dechmont (Nos. 1 and 2) and at Loanend to the south-east (No. 3); the Dechmont shaft was 180 fathoms deep in 1901. Hutches ran on dooks, self-acting inclines and 'cuddie braes', where a balance bogie drew them up. Coal-cutting machines were cutting on gradients as steep as 1 in 3 by 1912, electric light was in use underground by 1909, and safety lamps were carried.

Closure

The Ell seam was abandoned in 1926 and the Humph in 1927. The plans of the Virtuewell, Upper, Main, Splint and Virgin, and Pyotshaw seams are dated as abandoned in 1932; a local history has the pit closing in 1930.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Polmaise Colliery — Both Archibald Russell Ltd collieries.
• Tannochside Colliery — Both Archibald Russell Ltd collieries in Lanarkshire.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Dechmont Pit worked from 1890 to 1930. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• Dechmont Pit worked from 1890 to 1930. (disputed) ¹
• The colliery was owned by the Dechmont Colliery Co. and then Archibald Russell Ltd. ^2,3
• The colliery employed 396 people in 1894, 541 in 1905 and 1,075 in 1910; in 1920 Nos. 1 and 2 had 791 and No. 3 had 522. ³
• In 1910 Dechmont Mine employed 760 people, 110 of them living in the owners' houses at Flemington, and Loanend Mine No. 3 employed 320. ^1,4
• The Ell, Humph, Main, Pyotshaw and Virgin seams were worked in 1910, with the Blackband, Splint and Upper by 1920. ³
• On 3 May 1901 a repairer fell 180 fathoms down the shaft when the rope came off the pithead pulley as the cage reached the surface. ^2,3
• On 21 April 1911 the under-manager at Loanend, Robert Edgar, was overcome by firedamp, and attempts to reach him failed. ^2,3
• In September 1930 a miner was injured by a roof fall on the night shift at Dechmont Colliery, owned by Archibald Russell, Ltd. ⁵
• The Ell seam is dated as abandoned in 1926 and the Main, Upper, Pyotshaw, Virtuewell and Splint and Virgin seams in 1932. ^6,7
• On 15 January 1924 an electrically driven bar coal-cutting machine ignited gas at Dechmont No. 3, a safety-lamp mine, killing one machineman and severely burning another; the inspector put it down to overheating for want of lubrication. ⁸

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Cambuslang Industrial History (Colin Findlay, 2013) — Colin Findlay / edwardboyle.com
2. (secondary) Accidents 1901-1914 (newspaper reports) — Scottish Mining Website
3. (primary) Dechmont Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Cambuslang: The Housing Condition of Miners, report by the Medical Officer of Health, Dr John T. Wilson, 1910 — Scottish Mining Website
5. (secondary) Accidents post-1926 (newspaper reports) — Scottish Mining Website
6. (primary) Mine plan: DECHMONT, Ell seam, abandoned 1926 (feature 21909329) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue
7. (primary) Mine plan: DECHMONT, Main seam, abandoned 1932 (feature 21941436) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue
8. (primary) Dechmont No. 3, 15 January 1924 (Inspector of Mines' report) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026