Fallahill Colliery

Overview

Fallahill at Fauldhouse was worked from 1890 to 1905, first by Peter Thornton and then by United Collieries, through four pits on the Blackband, Furnace, Main and Shotts seams. On 20 October 1902 an underground fire suffocated four of its men: a drawer of sixteen, a fireman of fifty-seven and two brushers.

History

The Durham Mining Museum gives the colliery as opened in 1890 and closed in 1905, and names four pits: Nos. 1 and 2 at the main site and Nos. 3 and 4 a few hundred metres west. The owners were Peter Thornton and then United Collieries Ltd. It sent out household, manufacturing and steam coal, and the 1905 return names the seams as the Blackband, Furnace, Main and Shotts — a Lanarkshire and West Lothian set, the Blackband being the ironstone-bearing coal that fed the Scottish iron trade.

It grew quickly and shrank again inside fifteen years: 76 people in 1894, 98 in 1896, 234 in 1900 and 129 in 1905, the year it closed.

Its worst day was 20 October 1902, when an underground fire suffocated four men (see Disasters, below). The record is otherwise a short list of ordinary deaths. John Grant, a brusher of forty, was working alone brushing a road on 30 July 1901 and was found under a stone, quite dead, when the fireman made his round; from the position of the body it was thought he had been taking out props when the roof came down. James Kerr, a labourer of eighteen, was killed by a fall of tirr in November 1895.

Geology

Fallahill worked the West Lothian coalfield at Fauldhouse. The 1905 return names four seams: the Blackband, the Furnace, the Main and the Shotts. The Blackband is the ironstone-bearing coal on which the Scottish iron trade was built, and the Furnace coal is named for the use it was put to.

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

Workings

Four pits: Nos. 1 and 2 at the main site, and Nos. 3 and 4 a few hundred metres west, which the Durham Mining Museum gives separate grid references for. Shaft depths are not recorded.

Closure

The Durham Mining Museum gives the closure as 1905, three years after the fire that killed four of the men.

Related mines

• Crofthead Colliery — Neighbouring Fauldhouse pits; Fallahill was Peter Thornton's other colliery.
• Fauldhouse Colliery — Pits in the same Fauldhouse village, working the same West Lothian ground.

Disasters & major incidents

• Falla Hill Colliery fire, 1902
  20 October 1902 · Fire · 4 fatalities

  On the forenoon of Monday 20 October 1902 fire broke out underground at the United Collieries Company's Falla Hill pit at Fauldhouse. Some men were warned in time and ran for the pit bottom to be drawn up, but four working far into the workings had their escape cut off and were suffocated by the fumes: a fireman of fifty-seven, two brushers and a sixteen-year-old drawer. A memorial to the Fallahill Disaster stands at Fauldhouse Miners Welfare.

  The fire broke out in the forenoon. Men who received timely warning rushed to the pit bank and were drawn up safely, but the four who died were far into the workings and their escape was cut off.

Recorded claims

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

• The Durham Mining Museum names four pits at this colliery: Nos. 1 and 2 at the main site and Nos. 3 and 4 at separate grid references a few hundred metres west. ¹
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Fallahill' (catalogue 4677, Blackband, dated 1904). ²
• Opened in 1890 and closed in 1905 under Peter Thornton and then United Collieries Ltd; 76 employed in 1894, 98 in 1896, 234 in 1900 and 129 in 1905, working the Blackband, Furnace, Main and Shotts seams for household, manufacturing and steam coal. ¹
• On 20 October 1902 an underground fire suffocated four men: Adam Cook, 16, drawer; Robert Kilpatrick, 57, fireman; and the brushers James Pettigrew, 42, and John Russell, 32. ^1,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Fallahill Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: FALLAHILL — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
3. (primary) Falla Hill, 20 October 1902 — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) 1902 Deaths in Scottish mines — Scottish Mining Website

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