Howmuir Colliery

Overview

The Auchinlea Coal Company's mine at Cleland, opened in 1905 after an old shaft was reopened and closed in 1925, employing 640 men at its peak in 1923.

History

Howmuir lay at Cleland and was worked by the Auchinlea Coal Company. Work began by reopening and enlarging an old shaft, and from the start the sinkers were troubled by chokedamp. On the morning of 8 July 1902 the sinker James Jardine slid down the rope after breakfast and shouted from the bottom that he was among damp; the manager, John McDonald, who had just arrived, went down on a hand line to rescue him and was overcome too, and both were dead before help came. The shaft had been reopened only seven fathoms.

The colliery opened in 1905 and worked the Kiltongue and Upper and Lower Drumgray coals for household, manufacturing and steam coal. It employed 224 men in 1905 and 341 in 1910. That year the housing inquiry found that the only company house was the manager's: the 340 men lived in rented houses at Cleland, Newarthill and elsewhere, some of them in the old Omoa Square, built by the Omoa Iron and Coal Company some seventy years before. Electric coal-cutters were in use by 1909, when the driver of one was killed by a stone falling at a newly brushed road head. Employment reached 640 in 1923, and the colliery closed in 1925.

Geology

The Kiltongue and Upper and Lower Drumgray coals.

Workings

An old shaft reopened and enlarged from 1902; machine-cut longwall faces by 1909.

Closure

Closed in 1925.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Bellside Colliery — Both worked by the Auchinlea Coal Company.
• Cleland Colliery — Neighbouring collieries at Cleland; their miners shared the Omoa Square houses.
• Murdostoun Colliery — Miners of Howmuir and Murdostoun lived side by side in Omoa Square.

Disasters & major incidents

• Howmuir Colliery chokedamp accident, 1902
  8 July 1902 · Gas / Asphyxiation · 2 fatalities
  On the morning of 8 July 1902 a sinker reopening an old shaft at Howmuir, Cleland, slid down the rope into chokedamp; the Auchinlea Coal Company's manager went down after him on a hand line, and both were dead before help arrived.

Recorded claims

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

• Howmuir Colliery, Cleland, opened in 1905 and closed in 1925, owned by the Auchinlea Coal Co. ¹
• On 8 July 1902 a sinker and the manager, who went down to rescue him, were killed by chokedamp in an old shaft being reopened at Howmuir. ¹
• In 1910 Howmuir Mine at Cleland employed 300 men underground and 40 above; the only company-owned house was the manager's. ²
• Howmuir employed 224 men in 1905 and 640 in 1923. ¹

Sources

1. (primary) Howmuir Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Shotts parish housing conditions of miners, 1910 — Scottish Mining Website — Scottish Mining Website

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