Hindsward Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Skares, near Cumnock, worked three times: by the Eglinton Iron Company and Bairds from 1880 to 1925, by the National Coal Board as Hindsward Nos. 3 and 4 from 1954 to 1959, and as a private mine from 1969 to 1988.

History

Hindsward Colliery, near Skares by Cumnock, opened in 1880. Its owners were the Eglinton Iron Company and then William Baird and Co., and it raised household coal from the Main seam, with the Thirty-inch by 1920. It employed 117 people in 1894 and 143 in 1896, about the same through the 1900s, falling to 91 in 1920 and 46 in 1923. In 1902 a waggon trimmer of seventeen was run over at the screes by a railway company's van that gave no warning whistle. The Main workings were abandoned in 1901 and again in 1925, when the first colliery, Hindsward Nos. 1 and 2, closed.

The National Coal Board returned in 1954, sinking Hindsward Nos. 3 and 4. Production began in 1956 in the Claud seam, with an average of 78 men and a peak of 83 in 1957, and the mine closed in January 1959. Ten years later Hindsward was reopened as a private mine by Hamilton and Cairn, which worked it until 1988. Disused workings and brick and concrete buildings were recorded on the site in 1995, within a proposed opencast area.

Geology

Ayrshire coalfield: the Main, Thirty-inch and Claud seams; household coal.

Workings

Hindsward Nos. 1 and 2 (1880-1925), Nos. 3 and 4 sunk by the NCB in 1954, and a private mine of 1969-1988; an opencast working followed.

Closure

The first colliery closed in 1925; the Coal Board's Nos. 3 and 4 closed in January 1959; the private mine worked until 1988.

What remains

Disused workings and brick and concrete buildings were recorded in 1995 within a proposed opencast site.

Brick and concrete buildings (1995).

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Bartonholm Colliery — Collieries of the Eglinton Iron Company.
• Kames Colliery — Collieries of the Eglinton Iron Company.
• Knockterra Colliery — Collieries of the Eglinton Iron Company.
• Muirkirk Collieries — Collieries of the Eglinton Iron Company.

Recorded claims

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

• Hindsward Colliery, Cumnock, opened in 1880 and closed in 1925; its owners were the Eglinton Iron Company and William Baird and Co. ^1,2
• It employed 117 people in 1894, 143 in 1896 and 46 in 1923, raising household coal from the Main seam. ²
• The National Coal Board sank Hindsward Nos. 3 and 4 at Skares from 1954; production began in 1956 and it closed in 1959. ¹
• Hindsward, Cumnock, is dated 1954 to January 1959. ³
• Hindsward was reopened as a private mine in 1969 by Hamilton and Cairn, which worked it until 1988. ¹
• Hindsward's Main workings were abandoned in 1925 and the Claud workings of Nos. 3 and 4 in 1958. ^4,5

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Hindsward Colliery (3 And 4) (NRHE 130665) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot, formerly Canmore)
2. (primary) Hindsward Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) NCB Collieries - Scotland (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Hindsward 3/4, Claud, abandoned 1958 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Hindsward, Main, abandoned 1925 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026