Hattonrigg Colliery

Overview

A Bellshill colliery of the Mossend and Summerlee iron companies, deepened with a new shaft around 1900 and employing over 600 people by 1910. On 19 January 1910 an overwound cage broke from its rope and fell 192 fathoms down the shaft, killing the eight men in it; the pit was reported temporarily closed in 1929.

History

Hattonrigg Colliery lay at Bellshill, ten miles east-south-east of Glasgow. Its owners are recorded as the Mossend Iron Company and the Summerlee Iron Company, and around 1900 it was in the hands of the combined Summerlee and Mossend Iron and Steel Company. The earliest recorded deaths there are of two firemen in 1870, who went to examine the workings on a Monday morning with naked lights, expecting no firedamp.

At the turn of the century the colliery was being enlarged. A new shaft had been sunk, by which all the coal was then raised, while sinking went on in the old shaft to reach lower seams; a sinker and a bricklayer were killed in the shaft in 1900 and an underground engineman in January 1902 when the sinking kettle broke away in the old shaft. Employment rose from 149 in 1900 to 485 in 1905 and 606 in 1910, and was 634 in 1920. The pit raised manufacturing, household and steam coal and some fireclay, working the Blackband, Drumgray, Kiltongue, Main, Pyotshaw, Splint and Virgin seams; plans of some workings are catalogued with Thankerton Colliery's. It had a No. 4 Pit, where a Polish miner was killed by a fall of roof in 1915.

On 19 January 1910 eight men were killed when an overwound cage fell down the shaft (see Disasters, below). Single deaths followed through the 1910s and 1920s from runaway hutches, roof falls and gas. In 1929 a fireman was fatally burned when he struck a match to relight his safety lamp, and the inspectors then reported Hattonrigg as temporarily closed.

Geology

The Blackband, Lower Drumgray, Kiltongue, Main, Pyotshaw, Splint, Ell and Virgin seams of the Lanarkshire coalfield, with fireclay.

Workings

Pits including No. 4; a new winding shaft sunk around 1900 while the old shaft was deepened to lower seams.

Closure

Reported temporarily closed in 1929.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Thankerton Colliery — Neighbouring Bellshill and Holytown collieries whose abandonment plans are partly catalogued together.

Disasters & major incidents

• Hattonrigg Colliery overwinding, 1910
  19 January 1910 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 8 fatalities
  Eight men died at Hattonrigg Colliery, Bellshill, on 19 January 1910 when the cage bringing them up at the end of the shift was overwound, broke from its rope and fell 192 fathoms down the shaft.

Recorded claims

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

• Hattonrigg's owners are recorded as the Mossend Iron Co. and the Summerlee Iron Co. Ltd; around 1900 it belonged to the Summerlee and Mossend Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. ^1,2,3
• In 1902 a new shaft had been sunk, by which all the coal was raised, while sinking continued in the old shaft to reach lower seams. ²
• Employment rose from 149 in 1900 to 606 in 1910 and 634 in 1920. ¹
• In 1910 the pit worked the Blackband, Drumgray, Kiltongue, Main, Pyotshaw, Splint and Virgin seams. ¹
• Esider Lapinsky, a Polish miner, was killed by a stone of about a ton falling from the roof in No. 4 Pit in 1915. ⁴
• In 1929 a fireman was fatally burned igniting gas when relighting his lamp with a match, and the colliery was reported temporarily closed. ⁵
• Plans survive of Hattonrigg's Splint, Drumgray, Pyotshaw, Kiltongue and Main workings, some catalogued with Thankerton's. ^6,7

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Hattonrigg Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) John Duke, sinker, Hattonrigg, 28 January 1902 (accident record) — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) James Connor, pit sinker, Hattonrigg, November 1900 (accident record) — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Esider Lapinsky, miner, Hattonrigg No. 4 Pit, 22 July 1915 (accident record) — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (secondary) William Paul, fireman, Hattonrigg, 22 April 1929 (accident record) — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (primary) HATTONRIGG, Splint: abandonment plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
7. (primary) THANKERTON, GLEN MINE, HATTONRIGG, Upper, Mid and Lower Ell, Splint, Virgin: abandonment plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
8. (secondary) Joseph Olankis, miner, Hattonrigg, 19 January 1910 (accident record) — Northern Mine Research Society
9. (secondary) Scottish mining deaths, 1910 (index) — Scottish Mining Website

Record created: 8 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026