Drumpellier Colliery

Overview

The Summerlee ironmasters' old colliery on the Drumpellier estate at Coatbridge, its Nos. 3 and 4 pits working the Kiltongue coal at 118 fathoms. It saw firedamp explosions in 1875 and 1897, and in January 1898 a coal-dust explosion killed four (see Disasters, below).

History

Drumpellier, also spelt Drumpeller, was an estate on the west side of Coatbridge whose name was carried by many pits. Its coal was served from 1847 by the Drumpeller Railway to the Monkland Canal. The colliery of this record was the Summerlee ironmasters': No. 3 pit, Drumpellier, belonged to Wilson and Co. of Summerlee Ironworks in 1872, when a roof fall killed the underground manager and a lad, and by 1898 Nos. 3 and 4 pits belonged to the Summerlee and Mossend Iron and Steel Co.

In July 1875 a firedamp explosion in No. 4 pit killed three men (see Disasters, below). By 1898 the colliery was 'an old one': the winding shaft was 118 fathoms deep to the Kiltongue coal, the only seam still worked, about 4 1/2 feet thick and nearly exhausted by stoop and room; 80 people worked below in 1897, all with open lights. Since 1875 there had been two fatal and at least five non-fatal explosions.

On 28 January 1898 a gunpowder shot fired into the dusty engine dook set off a coal-dust explosion that killed four men, one of them in the search (see Disasters, below). The pits were still working in 1902, with the No. 11 pit also in the company's hands.

Geology

The Kiltongue coal, about 4 1/2 feet thick, on a fireclay floor under a freestone roof, the strata dipping about one in four; the splint coal lay above it. Abandonment plans for Drumpellier name the Main, Pyotshaw, Splint, Virtuewell and Kiltongue seams.

Workings

Rectangular shafts: No. 3, the downcast and winding shaft, 12 feet 4 inches by 4 feet 8 inches, and No. 4, the upcast, 14 by 5 feet, ventilated by a steam jet. A main haulage dook ran 780 yards from the shafts at one in five, cut back to 330 yards as the stoops were taken out.

Closure

Unknown. The Kiltongue coal was almost exhausted to the dip by 1898, and the last recorded deaths at the Drumpeller Nos. 3 and 4 pits are of 1902.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Drumpellier Colliery explosion, 1875
  16 July 1875 · Explosion · 3 fatalities
  On Friday 16 July 1875 three young men, the brothers Charles and John Richardson and Arthur Moffat, were killed by a firedamp explosion in No. 4 pit, Drumpellier, Coatbridge, while replacing a wooden brattice with a brick air-course wall between the Splint and Kiltongue coals. The manager had told them the day before not to go to the work.
• Drumpellier Colliery explosion, 1898
  28 January 1898 · Explosion · 4 fatalities
  At about 5.10 p.m. on 28 January 1898, as two brushers and the night fireman prepared a shot in the engine dook of the Summerlee and Mossend company's Drumpellier Colliery, Coatbridge, a charge of gunpowder, not the permitted roburite, fired the thick coal dust. All three were killed, and the day fireman John Gordon died of afterdamp in the search. The inquiry found the cause to be 'a shot of gunpowder igniting coal dust'.

Recorded claims

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

• No. 3 pit, Drumpellier, belonged to Wilson and Co. of Summerlee Ironworks in 1872. ¹
• In 1898 Nos. 3 and 4 pits of Drumpeller Colliery belonged to the Summerlee and Mossend Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. ^2,3
• The winding shaft was 118 fathoms deep to the Kiltongue coal, about 4 1/2 feet thick. ²
• 80 people were employed below ground in 1897. ²
• The Drumpeller Nos. 3 and 4 pits and No. 11 pit were working under the Summerlee and Mossend company in 1902. ^4,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website: Accidents 1855-1870 to 1880, Lanarkshire (Coatbridge) — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website: Drumpeller 1898 — Scottish Mining Website
3. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Drumpeller, Nos.3 & 4 Pits, 1902 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Drumpeller, No.11 Pit, 1902 — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Drumpellier, Kiltongue seam, abandoned 1874 — British Geological Survey
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Drumpellier, Pyotshaw and Main seams, abandoned 1890 — British Geological Survey
7. (secondary) RailScot: Drumpeller Railway — RailScot

Record created: 13 October 2026 · Last researched: 13 October 2026