Hopetoun No. 35 Pit

Overview

Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company's shaft at Threemiletown near Winchburgh, sunk from 1896 to the Broxburn Shale and worked for over sixty years until 1958.

History

Hopetoun No. 35 Pit, also called Threemiletown Pit, stood near Winchburgh and supplied Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company's Hopetoun Oil Works by a standard-gauge railway. In August 1896 the company invited contractors to sink it on from 26½ fathoms to about 80 fathoms. It worked the Broxburn Shale and was later linked underground to Hopetoun No. 6 Mine. Redhouse Cottages were built close to the pithead.

Water was a recurring trouble: in November 1911 the miners were again laid idle while the water was pumped down. In 1915 the pit employed 109. Scottish Oils' reports of 1924 and 1925 describe the ground beyond the Waterstone fault opening up well, with shale of excellent quality. Employment rose to 155 in 1933 and 205 in 1940, and was still 158 in 1954.

The pit's workings in the Broxburn Main, Upper Grey, Grey and Upper shales were abandoned in 1958. The site has gone back to farmland, leaving little more than a brick boundary wall.

Geology

The Broxburn Shale group: the Broxburn Main, Upper Grey, Grey and Upper shales, cut by the Waterstone fault.

Workings

A vertical shaft deepened from 26½ to about 80 fathoms from 1896, later linked underground to Hopetoun No. 6 Mine; a standard-gauge railway to Hopetoun Oil Works.

Closure

Workings abandoned in 1958.

What remains

Returned to agriculture.

A brick retaining or boundary wall; Redhouse Cottages nearby.

Related mines

• Hopetoun No. 41 Mine — Both were Young's Hopetoun shale workings near Winchburgh; a railway was laid from No. 35 to No. 41 in 1906.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1896 contractors were sought to sink No. 35 Pit from 26½ fathoms to about 80 fathoms. ¹
• No. 35 was later linked underground to Hopetoun No. 6 Mine and served Hopetoun Oil Works by railway. ¹
• No. 35 employed 109 in 1915, 205 in 1940 and 158 in 1954. ²
• Its workings were abandoned in 1958. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Hopetoun No.35 pit (Scottish Shale, Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry) — Almond Valley Heritage Trust
2. (primary) Hopetoun (Oil Shale) (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 25 October 2026 · Last researched: 25 October 2026