MineArchiveFrankfield Colliery
| Location | Shettleston, east Glasgow — 55.8860, -4.1463 (approximate) |
|---|---|
| Commodities | Coal, Fireclay |
| Type | Coal |
| Worked | 1915–1925 |
| Maximum depth | Unknown. |
| Operators | Frankfield Navigation Coal Company (1915–1925) |
Overview
A short-lived Shettleston colliery of the Frankfield Navigation Coal Company, opened in 1915 and closed in July 1925, where an explosion during the 1921 coal strike killed the oversman examining the idle pit.
History
Frankfield Colliery, at Shettleston on the east side of Glasgow, was opened in 1915 by the Frankfield Navigation Coal Company. It worked the Kiltongue seam for manufacturing coal, with fireclay, and employed 252 men that year, 217 of them underground; by 1920 the Lower Drumgray seam was also in work and the colliery employed 286, the same number it had in 1923.
On the night of Sunday 3 April 1921, during the national coal strike, the oversman John Russell and Charles Brown Sneddon, the manager, went down to examine the pumps and ventilating fans, which had stood since the miners came out. With no enginemen at work, the under-manager, Mr Gray, lowered the cage himself. About an hour and a half later he heard an explosion; going down with an engineman he found Russell dead and Sneddon seriously injured in the main dook of the Kiltongue seam. It was reported as the first serious accident of the strike in Lanarkshire.
The colliery closed in July 1925, and its abandonment plans are dated that year.
Geology
The Kiltongue and Lower Drumgray coals, with fireclay.
Workings
A shaft with a cage and a main dook in the Kiltongue seam, ventilated by fans and drained by pumps.
Closure
Closed in July 1925.
What remains
Unknown.
Related mines
- Shettleston Colliery — Neighbouring collieries at Shettleston.
Nearby mines
- Cardowan Colliery — 0.5 miles (0.9 km) NE, North Lanarkshire
- Robroyston Colliery — 1.9 miles (3.1 km) W
- Auchengeich Colliery — 2.6 miles (4.2 km) NE, North Lanarkshire
- Woodilee Colliery — 3.0 miles (4.8 km) N, East Dunbartonshire
- Daldowie Colliery — 3.2 miles (5.1 km) S
Straight-line distance, within 9 miles (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.
- Frankfield Colliery, Shettleston, opened in 1915 and closed in July 1925. 1
- Frankfield employed 252 men in 1915 and 286 in 1920 and 1923, working the Kiltongue and later the Lower Drumgray seams. 1
- On 4 April 1921, during the coal strike, an explosion in the main dook of the Kiltongue seam killed the oversman John Russell and seriously injured the manager, Charles Brown Sneddon, as they examined the pumps and fans. 2
- Abandonment plans of Frankfield are dated 1925. 3
Sources
- (primary) Frankfield Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
- (secondary) NMRS mining deaths: John Brown Russell, Frankfield, 1921 — Northern Mine Research Society (mining deaths database)
- (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21902929: Frankfield, abandoned 1925 — British Geological Survey
Record created: 20 October 2026 · Last researched: 21 October 2026