Knightswood Colliery

Overview

A coal and ironstone colliery on the Knightswood estate, now a Glasgow suburb, opened about 1839 and worked by a succession of ironmasters until its pits were abandoned by 1896; the garden suburb of the 1920s was built over its ground.

History

When the Children's Employment Commission visited Knightswood Colliery in 1842 it had been open nearly three years. Its pit-head man, James Macleod, described a seam whose top was parrot coal and its lower part gas coal, about 29 inches in all, over four or five inches of blackband ironstone. The colliers' combination allowed each man to put out only a fixed number of hutches, so that no man could earn more than another, about 3s. 6d. to 3s. 8d. a day; a hutch of four hundredweight paid 7½d. on one side of the hill and 8½d. on the other, and about 3d. for ironstone. A boy of eleven was reckoned a quarter-bain and one of fourteen a half-bain, and whoever employed him could put out that much more coal.

Later the workings were chiefly for ironstone. Wilson and Co. worked the colliery from 1854 to 1870, the Summerlee Iron Company from 1875 to 1885 and James Dunlop and Co. from 1890 to 1895. Shafts reached the Garibaldi clayband ironstone at 186 metres (No. 12) and the Johnstone clayband at 179 metres (No. 10), and blackband was worked by longwall from No. 9 over an area nearly a kilometre across. The pits were abandoned by 1896; the site of Nos. 6 and 12 became the Knightswood Brickworks. Glasgow Corporation bought the land from the Summerlee Iron Company in 1921 and built the Knightswood garden suburb over it.

Geology

Parrot and gas coal over blackband ironstone (1842); later the Upper Garscadden blackband, Garibaldi clayband and Johnstone clayband ironstones and the Lower Blackband.

Workings

Numbered pits including Nos. 2, 6, 9, 10 and 12; longwall blackband workings from No. 9 extended about 930 m; a branch railway served the colliery and brickworks.

Closure

All the pits had been abandoned by 1896.

What remains

Little remains beyond part of a railway bridge over Fulton Street; houses, a school and a playing field cover the site.

Part of a former railway bridge over Fulton Street; the shafts lie buried under gardens and open ground.

Redevelopment

The Knightswood garden suburb, built by Glasgow Corporation in the 1920s and 1930s, with Knightswood Primary School and a playing field on parts of the site.

Recorded claims

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

• In April 1842 Knightswood Colliery had been open nearly three years; its seam was parrot coal over gas coal, about 29 inches, on four or five inches of blackband ironstone. ¹
• In 1842 the colliers' combination let each man put out only a fixed number of hutches, so each earned about 3s. 6d. to 3s. 8d. a day. ¹
• Knightswood Colliery was worked by Wilson and Co. (1854-1870), the Summerlee Iron Co. (1875-1885) and James Dunlop and Co. (1890-1895). ^2,3,4
• No. 12 shaft reached the Garibaldi clayband ironstone at 186 m. ³
• The Knightswood pits were abandoned by 1896. ^2,3
• Glasgow Corporation bought the land for its Knightswood scheme from the Summerlee Iron Company in 1921. ⁵
• Little remains of the colliery, brickworks and railway beyond part of a bridge over Fulton Street; Knightswood Primary School occupies much of the site. ⁶
• An abandonment plan of Knightswood's Lower Clayband Ironstone is dated 1886. ⁷

Sources

1. (primary) Lanarkshire (1842 Children's Employment Commission evidence, west of Scotland) — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Knightswood No.10 Pit — Scottish Cave and Mine Database (Grampian Speleological Group)
3. (secondary) Knightswood No.6 / No.12 Pits — Scottish Cave and Mine Database (Grampian Speleological Group)
4. (secondary) Knightswood No.9 Pit — Scottish Cave and Mine Database (Grampian Speleological Group)
5. (secondary) Knightswood - Times Past — Glasgow Life
6. (observational) Knightswood Colliery (photograph and caption) — RailScot
7. (primary) BGS mine plan: Knightswood (Lower Clayband Ironstone, abandoned 1886) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 19 October 2026 · Last researched: 19 October 2026