East Law Colliery

Overview

East Law Colliery, Carluke, was worked alongside the neighbouring Mauldslie Fire Clay Works by John Loudon and Archibald Miller from 1875 until their bankruptcy in 1881.

History

The official 1880 return of UK collieries lists East Law, Carluke, under 'Loundon and Miller'. A Carluke Parish Historical Society account, compiled from period newspaper notices, gives the fuller story under the more standard spelling Loudon: John Loudon, previously a grocer and draper in Newmains, went into a joinery, building and brick-making partnership with Archibald Miller in 1873, each putting in £800. That year the pair took a coalfield and brickfield at Mauldslie and started brick production; the colliery itself opened in 1875 after two years' boring. The joinery and contracting side of the partnership was dissolved around 1877, after which Loudon managed the colliery and brickfield directly, having already tried and failed at running a flesher's shop and then a confectionery and preserve business in Glasgow. A Glasgow Herald notice of 23 November 1880 offered East Law Colliery and the Mauldslie Brickworks for sale together, both 'in full operation' with plant in good working condition -- the same colliery the official return records as active that year. The business did not sell: sequestration proceedings against Loudon and Miller, coalmasters of East Law Colliery and Mauldslie Fireclay Works, opened in July 1881, and their creditors received a dividend the following spring.

Geology

Unknown.

Workings

A colliery worked jointly with an adjoining fireclay/brickworks, both owned by the same partnership.

Closure

Offered for sale in November 1880; the owning partnership was sequestrated (bankrupted) in July 1881.

What remains

Unknown.

Unknown.

Nearby mines

• Waterland Colliery — 0.2 km SE
• Kingshill No. 3 Colliery — 7.1 km N
• Wilsontown Ironworks — 9.3 km E
• Home Farm Colliery, Hamilton — 9.6 km W
• Shotts Iron Works — 9.6 km N, North Lanarkshire

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• East Law Colliery, Carluke, is listed in the official 1880 return of UK collieries under 'Loundon and Miller'. ¹
• The colliery opened in 1875, after two years' boring, worked alongside the Mauldslie Fire Clay Works by the partnership of John Loudon and Archibald Miller, formed in 1873. ²
• East Law Colliery and the Mauldslie Brickworks were offered for sale together, 'in full operation', in a Glasgow Herald notice of 23 November 1880; Loudon and Miller's sequestration as coalmasters of the colliery and works followed in July 1881, with a creditors' dividend paid in 1882. ²

Sources

1. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre
2. (secondary) Mauldslie Brickworks, Carluke, South Lanarkshire — Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry (Carluke Parish Historical Society)

Record created: 6 September 2026 · Last researched: 16 September 2026