Lochgelly Colliery

Overview

Coal was being drawn at Lochgelly by the 1770s, fifteen people raising ten tons a day for Sir Gilbert Elliot. By the 1900s the Lochgelly Iron and Coal Company had a thousand on the books, the Mary and Nelly pits at work, and blaes coming up with the coal.

History

The Lochgelly coalfield was worked long before it was a colliery in any modern sense. Around 1777 some fifteen people were employed there under Sir Gilbert Elliot, raising about ten tons a day; a gin or windlass was introduced in one of the early pits about 1808, and around thirteen miners were thought to be working a single pit at the turn of the century. Lord Minto leased the coalfield to Chisholm and Brown in 1812, and a steam engine came to the colliery in 1814. By 1836, under John Henderson, about fifty people were employed and the daily output was around thirty-five tons, from the Lochgelly Splint and the Great or Jersey coal. The 1841 return names Henry Chisholm as manager and a workforce of 119 — ninety-four men and twenty-five women. The Lochgelly Iron Company held it from 1851, and the Lochgelly Iron and Coal Company from 1872, under whom the colliery reached its modern size: 712 employed in 1894, 976 by 1900 and 1,002 by 1920, working the Dunfermline Splint, Five Feet, Mynheer, Parrot, Glassee, Fourteen Feet and Lochgelly Splint seams and raising gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal. The company's Mary and Nelly pits are the ones the official lists name.

Geology

The Fife Coal Measures, worked here through a long list of seams — the Dunfermline and Lochgelly Splints, the Five Feet and Fourteen Feet, the Mynheer, Parrot and Glassee, and the Great or Jersey coal of the earliest workings. The 1915 return records blaes, the Scots word for the shale that comes up with the coal, among the colliery's output.

Workings

The official lists name the Mary Pit and the Nelly Pit. The workings around Lochgelly are far older and far more numerous than either: local research lists dozens of pits and mines in and around the town, from Lochgelly Nos. 1 to 19 through Jenny Gray, Nellie, Cartmore, Foulford and Minto. A gin was introduced in one of the early pits about 1808 and a steam engine in 1814.

Closure

No closure date has been established for the colliery as the official lists define it. The returns run to 1940, when 325 were employed.

What remains

No account of the site as it now stands has been found. Lochgelly itself remains a former mining town in central Fife, its pits long gone.

No surface remains have been recorded.

Nearby mines

• Glencraig Colliery — 1.9 km N
• Aitken Colliery — 2.0 km NW
• Jenny Gray Colliery — 2.1 km E
• Donibristle Colliery — 4.6 km S
• Lassodie Colliery — 4.7 km W

Straight-line distance, within 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.

• Around 1777, under Sir Gilbert Elliot, about fifteen people were employed at Lochgelly raising roughly ten tons a day. A gin or windlass was introduced in one of the early pits about 1808, and around thirteen miners are believed to have been working a single pit at the turn of the century. ¹
• Lord Minto agreed to lease the Lochgelly coalfield to Chisholm and Brown in 1812, and a steam engine was introduced to the colliery's work in 1814. By 1836, under John Henderson, about fifty people were employed for a daily output of around thirty-five tons from the Lochgelly Splint and the Great or Jersey coal. ¹
• The 1841 return for Lochgelly names Henry Chisholm as manager and gives a workforce of 119 — ninety-four men and twenty-five women — the year before the Mines and Collieries Act began to put women and girls out of British pits. ¹
• The Durham Mining Museum's transcription of the official Lists of Mines returns Lochgelly Colliery under the Lochgelly Iron and Coal Company with the Mary and Nelly pits, employment of 712 in 1894 rising to 1,002 in 1920, and gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal from the Dunfermline Splint, Five Feet, Mynheer, Parrot, Glassee, Fourteen Feet and Lochgelly Splint seams. The 1915 return also records blaes. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Lochgelly Pits and Mines — Fife Pits and Mines
2. (secondary) Lochgelly Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026