MineArchiveLanemark Colliery
| Location | Lanemark, New Cumnock, East Ayrshire — 55.3837, -4.2164 (approximate, low confidence) |
|---|---|
| Commodity | Coal |
| Type | Coal |
| Worked | 1865–1908 |
| Maximum depth | Unknown. |
| Operators | Lanemark Coal Company (1865–1909) |
Overview
The Lanemark Coal Company's colliery at New Cumnock in Ayrshire. The company was formed in 1865 to work coal around Lanemark Farm and built miners' rows and a brickworks; its pits employed over 600 in the 1890s before the company failed and went into liquidation in 1909.
History
The Lanemark Coal Company was formed in 1865 to work coal around Lanemark Farm at New Cumnock in Ayrshire. As the work grew the company built terraced miners' rows in the South Boig area of the town, and from 1877 a football club took its name. It made bricks at its own Lanemark brickworks, managed in 1893 by a Mr Roberts, and in 1885 it became a limited company.
The colliery worked gas, household, manufacturing and steam coals, with fireclay. Its No. 1 pit appears in the inspectors' returns of the 1870s: on 20 January 1876 a seventeen-year-old drawer, Alexander Thomson, fell down the pit, and in 1878 one collier was run over by a hutch on an incline and another killed while blasting. In 1894 the colliery employed 632, 479 of them underground. By 1900 only the No. 2 pit is listed, with 346 men, and by 1905 it had 142. The Eight Feet seam was abandoned in 1908, and in 1909 the Lanemark Coal Company went into voluntary liquidation.
Geology
Ayrshire Coal Measures: the Eight Feet, Four Feet and Lower Gas (Five Feet) seams, with fireclay.
Workings
Lanemark No. 1 and No. 2 pits; a brickworks beside the railway.
Closure
The Eight Feet seam was abandoned in 1908 and the company went into voluntary liquidation in 1909.
What remains
The site is disturbed grassland near Craigbank.
Redevelopment
Unknown.
Related mines
- Afton Colliery — The Lanemark Coal Company also held the Afton minerals and worked a shaft there until 1909.
Nearby mines
- Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery — 0.8 miles (1.3 km) E
- Afton Colliery — 1.2 miles (1.9 km) SW
- Coalburn Colliery, New Cumnock — 2.0 miles (3.2 km) NW
- Knockterra Colliery — 5.2 miles (8.4 km) NW
- Benbain Colliery — 5.6 miles (9.0 km) W
Straight-line distance, within 9 miles (15 km). Show on the map.
Recorded claims
Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.
- The Lanemark Coal Company was formed in 1865 to work coal in the vicinity of Lanemark Farm, New Cumnock, and built miners' rows in the South Boig area. 1
- The Lanemark Coal Company Limited was incorporated in 1885 and went into voluntary liquidation in 1909. 2
- Lanemark Colliery employed 632 people in 1894, 479 of them underground. 3
- The Eight Feet seam at Lanemark was abandoned in 1908. 4
- The Lanemark Coal Company had its own brickworks at Lanemark, managed in 1893 by Mr Roberts. 5
- The colliery site near Craigbank is now disturbed grassland. 6
Photographs & further reading
The company's incorporation and liquidation.
View sourceThe company's brickworks and its later neighbour, the Afton works.
View sourceOwners, employment and those killed at the colliery.
View sourceSources
- (secondary) Lanemark F.C. — Wikipedia
- (secondary) Lanemark Coal Co — Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
- (primary) Lanemark Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
- (primary) BGS mine plan: Lanemark, Eight Feet, abandoned 1908 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
- (secondary) Lanemark Brickworks, New Cumnock, East Ayrshire — Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry
- (observational) Lanemark Collieries (Geograph 5264235) — Geograph
Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026