Elphingstone Colliery

Overview

Elphinstone, two miles south of Tranent, was worked by the Duries for a century and more, and the family name is still on five interconnected streets in the village. The colliery gave evidence to the Children's Employment Commission of 1842, and the nine workers from it who were questioned included a coal putter of eight and a coal filler of nine.

History

The colliery appears in the 1842 Report to the Children's Employment Commission as Elphingston Colliery in the parish of Tranent, held on lease by Messrs Durie and Nessbit. Its manager, William Shearer, gave evidence, and so did nine of the people who worked there: William Wilson, a coal putter of eight; John Haddon, a coal filler of nine; Betsy Sharp, eleven, who drew coal; John Scott, a coal hewer of twelve; Martha M'Neil, Margaret Crookston and Janet Dawson, sixteen and seventeen, who drew coal; and Isabel Wilson and Elizabeth M'Neil, both thirty-eight, both coal putters. Six of the nine were women or girls.

The Mines Inspectors' returns give the owners as Durie and Nisbet, then R. and J. Durie, then Edinburgh Collieries Ltd. The pit grew steadily through the period they cover: 202 people in 1894, 242 in 1896, 305 in 1900, 359 in 1905 and 399 in 1910, working the Five Feet, Four Feet, Great Seam and Splint for household, manufacturing and steam coal, with a Three Feet appearing from 1910. Employment fell to 285 in 1915, when the returns note the Howden Pit discontinued, and recovered to 416 by 1920.

Its deaths are shaft deaths. Andrew Crawford, a fireman of 62, tried to get into a cage at the surface on 7 September 1910 with no banksman present; the engineman, not knowing he meant to, started the cage, and it caught him and knocked him into the shaft to fall 300 feet. John Henderson, a bottomer of 38, went down on 10 August 1898 and, through a misunderstanding, the engineman stopped the cage opposite a pump; Henderson had no light, stepped off, and fell fourteen fathoms.

When the Third Statistical Account was written in 1953 Elphinstone was still primarily a mining village, housing men who worked local pits owned by coal owners such as Mr Durie. The local pits closed alongside Limeylands and the Fleets as the industry centralised on deep mines, and the men were bussed to the superpits at Monktonhall and Bilston Glen in Midlothian. Both closed after the strike of 1984 and 1985. By 2000 an industry that had employed approaching three quarters of the adult male population of the village could claim only one or two men, at the opencasts.

Geology

Elphingstone worked the East Lothian coalfield south of Tranent. The seams returned are the Five Feet, the Four Feet, the Great Seam and the Splint, with a Three Feet from 1910.

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

Workings

More than one pit: the returns for 1915 and 1920 note the Howden Pit discontinued. The shaft where a fireman fell in 1910 was at least 300 feet deep, and the pit bottom at least fourteen fathoms below the level of a pump inset. Shaft depths as such are not recorded.

Closure

The closure date is not known. The colliery's last appearance in the returns read is 1920, and the Fourth Statistical Account describes the local pits closing as the industry centralised on the Midlothian superpits, without dating this one.

What remains

No account of the colliery ground as it stands today is recorded. The village survives, largely a dormitory for Edinburgh, with the Duries Park streets still carrying the coal owners' name.

Related mines

• Bellyford Mine — Edinburgh Collieries Company pits in East Lothian. A railway branch ran from Bellyford to Elphinstone and Fleets.

What's uncertain

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

• Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plans titled 'Elphingstone' are dated 1882 (Five Foot), 1907 (Great) and 1929 (Splint, catalogue 11609); the 1929 plan may bear on the unestablished closure date. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Elphingston Colliery in the parish of Tranent, held on lease by Messrs Durie and Nessbit, gave evidence to the 1842 Children's Employment Commission. Nine of its workers were questioned alongside the manager: the youngest were William Wilson, a coal putter of eight, and John Haddon, a coal filler of nine. Six of the nine were women or girls. ¹
• When the Third Statistical Account was compiled in 1953 Elphinstone was still primarily a mining village, housing families of men working local mines owned by coal owners such as Mr Durie, and five interconnected streets bear the name Duries Park. ²
• Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plans titled 'Elphingstone' are dated 1882 (Five Foot), 1907 (Great) and 1929 (Splint, catalogue 11609); the 1929 plan may bear on the unestablished closure date. (uncertain) ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Extracts from the 1842 Children's Employment Commission, Eastern Scotland — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Tranent: Elphinstone — The Fourth Statistical Account of East Lothian
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: ELPHINGSTONE — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) Elphingstone Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

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