Edgehead Colliery

Overview

A Midlothian coal mine in Windmill Wood, at work by 1842 when children as young as seven were taken below to seams only two feet high, and worked until 1959; the hamlet of Edgehead grew up to house its men.

History

In 1842 Edgehead Colliery, in Cranston parish, was held by Williamson and Company as leaseholders and employed 127 people. Its evidence to the Children's Employment Commission was hard reading. Archibald Muckle, twelve, had begun work at seven and went down at four in the morning and came up at six or seven at night, lying on his side or stooping all day in a seam only 24 to 26 inches high, with bad air and water the men would not drink. The underground overseer of eight years, John Blyth, regretted that children of seven and eight were taken below, after which all hope of instruction ended; the works had no school, only a night school at Chester Hall half a mile off, and the children drew tubs of no more than 2¼ hundredweight because the roads were so low and the braes steep.

The colliery was first owned by the Earl of Stair, and one account dates his drift mine in Windmill Wood to the middle of the nineteenth century. Houses were built for its workers in the hamlet once called Chesterhill, now Edgehead. Around 1930 the Fordel Mains (Midlothian) Colliery Company took it over, it passed to the National Coal Board in 1949, and it closed in 1959, when 40 people worked there.

Geology

Coal seams including the Parrot, the Upper and Lower Kailblades and the Alecks; in 1842 the seam worked was 24 to 26 inches high.

Workings

A drift mine in Windmill Wood; in 1842 children drew tubs of up to 2¼ cwt along low roads with steep braes.

Closure

Closed by the National Coal Board in 1959, with 40 employed.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Fordel Mains Colliery — The Fordel Mains (Midlothian) Colliery Company took over Edgehead around 1930.

What's uncertain

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

• Edgehead was a drift mine established by the Earl of Stair in the middle of the nineteenth century. (disputed) ³
• Edgehead Colliery was at work in 1842, when a twelve-year-old hewer there had already worked five years. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• In 1842 Edgehead Colliery, in Cranston parish, was held by Williamson and Company as leaseholders. ¹
• In 1842 the mine employed 127 workers; by 1959 this had fallen to 40. ²
• In 1842 the overseer John Blyth said children of seven and eight were repeatedly taken below, and the works had no school. ¹
• Edgehead was a drift mine established by the Earl of Stair in the middle of the nineteenth century. (disputed) ³
• Edgehead Colliery was at work in 1842, when a twelve-year-old hewer there had already worked five years. (disputed) ¹
• Around 1930 ownership passed to the Fordel Mains (Midlothian) Colliery Company; the mine joined the National Coal Board in 1949 and closed in 1959. ^2,3
• The last abandonment plans of Edgehead, for the Lower Kailblades and other seams, are dated 1959. ⁴

Sources

1. (primary) Midlothian 3 (1842 Children's Employment Commission evidence) — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Edgehead — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) Edgehead (Gazetteer for Scotland) — Gazetteer for Scotland
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Edgehead (Lower Kailblades, abandoned 1959) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 19 October 2026 · Last researched: 19 October 2026