Fallahill Colliery

Also known as	Falla Hill Colliery
Location	Fauldhouse, West Lothian — 55.8372, -3.7289 (approximate)
Commodity	Coal
Type	Coal
Worked	1890–1905
Operators	Peter Thornton (1890–?), United Collieries Limited (?–1905)

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 have not been found in the sources read for this record.

Closure

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

What remains

No account of the colliery ground as it stands today has been found in the sources read for this record, and nothing is claimed here about what survives.

Related mines

Fauldhouse Colliery — Pits in the same Fauldhouse village, working the same West Lothian ground.

Nearby mines

Fauldhouse Colliery — 2.0 km S
Knowes Colliery — 2.6 km SE
Polkemmet Colliery — 2.8 km NE
Shotts Iron Works — 4.7 km SW, North Lanarkshire
Whitrigg Colliery — 5.6 km NE

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.

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
Four men were suffocated by an underground fire on 20 October 1902 under the ownership of United Collieries Ltd: Adam Cook, a drawer of sixteen; Robert Kilpatrick, a fireman of fifty-seven; James Pettigrew, a brusher of forty-two; and John Russell, a brusher of thirty-two. The museum's colliery page lists only two of the four; its incident page names all four and gives the toll as four. ^1,2
The Durham Mining Museum names the fireman killed in the 1902 fire as Robert Kilpatrick, aged 57. The Scottish Mining Website's index of 1902 deaths, compiled from the Inspector of Mines returns, gives the same man's age and occupation but names him James Patrick. The other three — John Russell, 32, brusher; Adam Cook, 16, drawer; and James Pettigrew, 42, brusher — agree between the two. (disputed) ³
The Inspector of Mines returns classify the four deaths of 20 October 1902 under miscellaneous underground accidents, by underground fires, at Fallahill in Linlithgow under United Collieries Ltd. ³

Photographs & further reading

Fallahill Colliery at the Durham Mining Museum (reference)

Opening and closing dates, the four pits with grid references, the owners, output and employment from 1894 to 1905, the seams worked, and a partial list of those killed.

View source

The Falla Hill fire, 20 October 1902 (reference)

The museum’s record of the incident, naming all four men suffocated by the underground fire with their ages and occupations.

View source

Deaths in Scottish mines, 1902 (reference)

The Scottish Mining Website's index of every death in a Scottish mine in 1902, from the Inspector of Mines returns, with the colliery, county, owner, name, age, occupation and cause in each case — which is how the four at Fallahill can be checked against the Durham Mining Museum's list.

View source

Sources

(secondary) Fallahill Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
(secondary) Falla Hill, 20 October 1902 — Durham Mining Museum
(secondary) 1902 Deaths in Scottish mines — Scottish Mining Website

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