Edmonstone Colliery

Overview

A colliery on the Wauchope family's Edmonstone estate north-west of Danderhall, Midlothian, drained by a Newcomen engine from 1725 and let in turn to the Hopes and the Stenhouses. In March 1839 a shaft collapse entombed thirteen men and women, who escaped alive after 36 hours; in 1842 its girls still carried coal on their backs.

History

The coal of Edmonstone, in the parish of Newton north-west of Danderhall, belonged to the Wauchope family. In May 1725, because the colliery could not be worked for water, Andrew Wauchope of Edmonstone took a licence from the London proprietors of the invention for 'raising water by fire' to erect a Newcomen engine with a 28-inch cylinder, on the pattern of the one at Elphinstone, for a royalty of £80 a year for eight years. Its brass cylinder and barrels and its elm pumps came from London, and the materials alone cost £1,007 11s 4d. Edmonstone was also one of the coalworks drained by the 'sea level', a tunnel running some three miles underground from the shore at Joppa.

The coal was let to the Hopes: Sir John Hope took a 38-year lease in 1740, and the flat seams leased by Hope flooded in April 1766. In 1768-69 Archibald Hope, lessee of the coals of Edmonstone, Monkton and Woolmet, took a new lease of the edge seams chiefly to gain the colliers bound to Edmonstone, and some of them went to law in 1769 to argue that they could not be moved to another coal. A check bill of January 1760 names the colliers at the Loch-shot, Back Dean, Quarrie and Sick-side pits.

In 1818 a waggonway opened from the colliery's Old Engine Pit at Millerhill to a coal depot at Little France on the Edinburgh-Dalkeith road. By 1839 the colliery was leased to Alexander and Mowbray Stenhouse of Whitehill, with David Adam as overseer, and that March a shaft collapse entombed thirteen men and women, who all escaped after 36 hours (see Disasters, below). Adam told the Children's Employment Commission, whose evidence was published in 1842, that five pits were working with no more than 300 men, women and children underground; girls carried coal on their backs because the soft roofs kept the roads low. The commissioner judged the pits of Newton parish the worst in Scotland.

A fire-clay brickworks began at the colliery in 1851, and John Wauchope showed its vases and chimney cans at the Highland Society's shows; by 1860 the works traded as the Edmonstone Coal Company. In 1863 the engines and plant of Sir John Don Wauchope's Edmonstone coalfield were advertised for sale, and in 1869 J. and C. Grieve held Edmonstone with Niddrie and Woolmet. In 2021 Danderhall gardeners uncovered a stretch of the old Edmonstone waggonway wall.

Geology

The Midlothian coalfield's steep edge seams and, to the east, the deeper and thicker flat seams. Abandonment plans name the Splint, Craw, Rough, Beefie, Jewel, Four Feet and Craighall Splint seams. In 1842 the seams worked were 32 inches to five feet thick, dipping one in six to one in eight.

Workings

Several pits across the estate: the Loch-shot, Back Dean, Quarrie and Sick-side pits in 1760, and five pits in 1842, one about 100 yards deep and joined to a neighbouring air pit by an air-gate three feet wide and four high. A Newcomen pumping engine was erected in 1725-27, and the workings also drained by the Joppa sea level. Later pits included the Old Engine Pit at Millerhill and the Wellington Pit.

Closure

The engines and plant of the Edmonstone coalfield were advertised for sale in 1863, but J. and C. Grieve held the coal in 1869, and abandonment plans for Edmonstone seams are dated from 1826 to 1900.

What remains

A stretch of wall from the Edmonstone waggonway survives at Danderhall; local gardeners uncovered it in 2021 and called for a memorial there to the children who worked in the pits.

A remnant of the Edmonstone waggonway wall at Danderhall.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Edmonstone Colliery shaft collapse, 1839
  8 March 1839 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 0 fatalities
  At about half past ten on the night of Friday 8 March 1839 the lined shaft of an Edmonstone Colliery pit, leased by Alexander and Mowbray Stenhouse, gave way some forty or fifty yards down, entombing nine men and four women and girls. After two failed attempts to reach them, they groped through a flooded air passage to a neighbouring pit and were all brought up alive on the Sunday morning, 36 hours after they went down.

Recorded claims

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

• In May 1725 Andrew Wauchope of Edmonstone was licensed to erect a steam engine with a 28-inch cylinder, because the colliery could not be worked for water. ^1,2
• The materials of the Edmonstone engine, without its engine house, cost £1,007 11s 4d. ¹
• Edmonstone was one of the coalworks drained by a level running three miles underground from the shore at Joppa. ²
• Archibald Hope was lessee of the coals of Edmonstone, Monkton and Woolmet in 1769. ^3,2
• A waggonway from the Edmonstone Colliery Old Engine Pit at Millerhill to Little France opened in 1818. ⁴
• In 1842 the overseer had five pits working, with no more than 300 men, women and children underground. ^5,6
• The commissioner concluded that the pits of Newton parish were the worst in Scotland. ⁷
• In March 1839 a shaft collapse entombed thirteen men and women, all of whom were rescued. ^8,6,7
• A fire-brickworks at Edmonstone Colliery began in 1851. ⁹
• The engines and colliery plant of Sir John Don Wauchope's Edmonstone coalfield were advertised for sale in 1863. ⁹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website: Bald 1812 (A General View of the Coal Trade of Scotland) — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Hood Family and Coal Mining: Coalworks of Duddingston, Niddry, Edmonston, Woolmet — Hood Family and Coal Mining
3. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website: Legal Decisions — Scottish Mining Website
4. (secondary) RailScot: Little France Coal Depot — RailScot
5. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website: Midlothian 1 (Children's Employment Commission evidence) — Scottish Mining Website
6. (secondary) Hood Family and Coal Mining: Edmonstone Colliery, Children's Employment Commission 1842 — Hood Family and Coal Mining
7. (secondary) Calls for pit children memorial in Danderhall (Marie Sharp, 12 July 2021) — Edinburgh Evening News
8. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website: Edmonstone 1839 — Scottish Mining Website
9. (secondary) Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry: Edmonstone Fire Clay Works, Millerhill — Scottish Brick History
10. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Edmonstone - Newton areas, Splint seam, abandoned 1826 — British Geological Survey
11. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Edmonstone, Rough seam, abandoned 1839 — British Geological Survey
12. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Edmonstone, Shawfair, Newton, Jewel seam, abandoned 1900 — British Geological Survey
13. (secondary) Hood Family and Coal Mining: Edmonston Colliery coal check bill, January 1760 — Hood Family and Coal Mining
14. (secondary) Wikipedia: Danderhall — Wikipedia

Record created: 11 October 2026 · Last researched: 11 October 2026