Hirstrigg Colliery

Overview

The Hirst Coal Company's colliery at Hirst, between Salsburgh and Shotts, with two pits and over 300 employees in 1910; it passed to the Garscube company, worked the Drumgray, Virtuewell and Gas seams into the 1940s, and its plant was sold in 1944.

History

Hirstrigg Colliery lay at Hirst, near Salsburgh in the parish of Shotts, and began working some time after 1880. It belonged to the Hirst Coal Company Ltd of Glasgow. In 1910 Hirstrigg Mine employed 272 men underground and 42 at the surface, 314 in all; nine lived in the company's own brick row at Hirstrigg and the rest in rented houses at Benhar and Harthill, Salsburgh and Dykehead. The company also worked the small South Blair Mine, and Hirstrigg Colliery supplied gravitation water to the miners' houses at Dewshill.

The colliery had at least two pits. In 1916 a screenman lost two toes in the scree engine at No. 2 pit, a drawer was crushed between runaway hutches on the cousey brae in the Upper Drumgray seam in No. 1 pit, and a fourteen-year-old was killed in the coal washing machine. The screening plant caught and injured workmen again in 1927 and 1930. The Mid Drumgray and Virtuewell workings were abandoned in 1924-25 and the Ladygrange in 1935.

By 1932 the Garscube company owned the colliery. Falls of roof injured men in 1938 and 1939. The Upper Drumgray and Colinburn workings were abandoned in 1940 and the Lower Drumgray and Gas in 1943, and in 1944 the plant at Hirstrigg Colliery, Salsburgh, was sold at auction.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Shotts district: the Virtuewell, Upper, Mid and Lower Drumgray, Gas, Ladygrange and Colinburn seams.

Workings

At least two pits, No. 1 and No. 2, with screens, a scree engine and a coal washer at the surface; cousey braes underground.

Closure

Its last workings, in the Lower Drumgray and Gas seams, were abandoned in 1943 and the plant sold in 1944.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Hirstrigg began working some time after 1880 and closed around the 1940s. (uncertain) ²

Recorded claims

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

• In 1910 the Hirst Coal Co. Ltd's Hirstrigg Mine at Hirst, Shotts, employed 272 underground and 42 at the surface. ¹
• Hirstrigg was owned by the Hirst Coal Co. Ltd and later by the Garscube company. ^2,3,4,5
• Hirstrigg began working some time after 1880 and closed around the 1940s. (uncertain) ²
• In 1916 a fourteen-year-old was killed in the coal washing machine at Hirstrigg. ³
• The Lower Drumgray and Gas workings at Hirstrigg were abandoned in 1943. ⁶
• The plant of Hirstrigg Colliery, Salsburgh, was sold by Shirlaw Allan, auctioneers of Hamilton, in 1944. ⁷

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Shotts parish housing conditions of miners, 1910 — Scottish Mining Website — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Salsburgh — Wikipedia
3. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Hirstrigg, 1916 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Hirstrigg, 1932 — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Hirstrigg, 1939 — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Hirstrigg, Gas, abandoned 1943 — British Geological Survey
7. (primary) University of Glasgow Archives: DC102 Records of Shirlaw Allan, industrial auctioneers, Hamilton (item list) — University of Glasgow Archives
8. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Hirstrigg, Mid Drumgray, abandoned 1924 — British Geological Survey
9. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Hirstrigg, 1925 — Northern Mine Research Society
10. (primary) Shotts parish accidents post 1900 — Scottish Mining Website — Scottish Mining Website

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026