Headless Cross Colliery

Overview

A small colliery on the moors at Headless Cross, south-east of Shotts, where J. and R. Dymock's No. 1 pit was working the Main coal by long wall in 1873 and the Omoa Coal Company's pit passed to the National Coal Board in 1947 with 61 men raising 35,000 tons of household coal, its No. 2 workings in the Colinburn seam abandoned in 1953.

History

Headless Cross is a crossroads hamlet on the moors south-east of Shotts, nine and a half miles north of Lanark. A Headlesscross No. 1 pit appears in the 1873 list of Scottish mines under J. and R. Dymock, working coal by long wall in the Eastern inspection district, and the abandonment plans record a Headless Cross No. 1 in the Main seam. Whether the later colliery of the same name was a continuation of the Dymock pit or a new sinking on the same ground is not recorded.

By 1940 the colliery belonged to the Omoa Coal Company and employed 18 men, eleven of them below ground. It passed to the National Coal Board at nationalisation in 1947, when 61 men, 50 below ground and eleven on the surface, raised 35,000 tons of household coal. The plans show Headlesscross workings in the Armadale Main seam abandoned in 1945 and in the Armadale Ball in 1949, and the No. 2 workings in the Colinburn seam, also with the Main, abandoned on 27 February 1953. The ground was later opencasted, the Headlesscross site working the Mill, Colinburn, Ball and Main seams until 1989.

Geology

The Main, Colinburn, Armadale Main, Armadale Ball and Mill seams of the Shotts district, on the moors where blackband ironstone was also found; the abandonment plans name them seam by seam.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

A No. 1 pit worked by long wall in 1873 and a No. 2 whose Colinburn workings were abandoned in 1953; the colliery employed 18 men in 1940 and 61 in 1947.

Closure

The No. 2 plan is dated 27 February 1953, six years after the National Coal Board took the pit; the ground was opencasted later, the Headlesscross site closing in 1989.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

The ground was worked opencast for the Mill, Colinburn, Ball and Main seams until 1989.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1873 Headlesscross No. 1 pit at Shotts was worked by J. and R. Dymock for coal by long wall. ¹
• The colliery was owned by the Omoa Coal Company and passed to the National Coal Board in 1947. ²
• It employed 18 men in 1940 and 61 in 1947, when it raised 35,000 tons of household coal. ²
• The Headless Cross No. 1 abandonment plan covers the Main seam. ³
• The Headlesscross No. 2 workings in the Colinburn seam were abandoned on 27 February 1953. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) List of Mines in Scotland 1873, part 4 — Scottish Mining Website
2. (primary) Headless Cross Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS mine plan: Headless Cross No. 1, Main seam — British Geological Survey
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Headlesscross No. 2, Colinburn seam, abandoned 27 February 1953 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 20 October 2026 · Last researched: 21 October 2026