Longriggend Colliery

Overview

James Nimmo and Co.'s colliery around the moorland village of Longriggend, north-east of Airdrie, with pits numbered at least to eleven by 1895. A firedamp explosion in No. 1 pit in 1899 tore up the roadway and killed the roadsman. Workings were abandoned in stages from 1882, the last of No. 1 pit in 1953.

History

Longriggend Colliery worked the coal around Longriggend, a moorland village about eight kilometres north-east of Airdrie in New Monkland parish, whose pits used the Slamannan Railway and whose population passed 1,500 by 1901. Workings in the Under Drumgray and Ladygrange coals were abandoned in 1882, and those of Nos. 6 and 7 pits in the Ladygrange in 1888. By 1895 the pits were numbered at least to eleven: that October a bottomer crossing the plates at the foot of No. 11 pit, Eastfield, was crushed by the descending cage.

James Nimmo and Co. owned the colliery. On 25 December 1899 the roadsman of No. 1 pit, examining a section where firedamp had often been met, was killed by an explosion that tore up the permanent way for some distance; the afterdamp was so dense that his body took nearly five hours to recover. Later deaths recorded under Nimmo include a roadsman crushed at the shaft bottom in 1902 when the cage was raised while one foot rested on it, a miner killed by a roof fall while taking off cut coal in 1906, a waggon shifter caught at the hopper in 1909, and a miner killed in 1912 when a hard sandstone roof came away from an unseen lype.

The Splint, Upper Drumgray, Coxrod and Lower Drumgray workings were abandoned in 1905, and the Ladygrange, Coxrod, Johnstone and Splint in 1919. The Ladygrange workings of Longriggend No. 1 were abandoned in May 1953.

Geology

The Ladygrange, Under and Upper Drumgray, Splint, Coxrod (Lower Drumgray) and Johnstone (Virtuewell) coals; firedamp in parts of No. 1 pit.

Workings

Numbered pits up to No. 11 (Eastfield) by 1895, with a waggon hopper at the surface.

Closure

Workings were abandoned in 1882, 1888, 1905 and 1919; the Ladygrange workings of No. 1 pit were abandoned on 6 May 1953. A Longriggend L.O.M. plan of the Virtuewell is dated 1976.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• In October 1895 a bottomer was crushed by the cage at the foot of No. 11 pit, Longriggend Colliery, Eastfield. ¹
• On 25 December 1899 a firedamp explosion in No. 1 pit killed the roadsman and tore up the permanent way. ¹
• James Nimmo and Co. owned Longriggend Colliery in 1899-1917. ^1,2,3
• In 1912 a hard sandstone roof came away from an unseen lype and killed a miner filling coal. ³
• Ladygrange workings of Longriggend Nos. 6 and 7 pits were abandoned in 1888. ⁴
• The Ladygrange workings of Longriggend No. 1 were abandoned in 1953. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Accidents 1891-1900 (newspaper reports) — Scottish Mining Website
2. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Longriggend, 1902 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Longrigg, Longriggend, 1912 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Longriggend Nos. 6 and 7, Ladygrange, abandoned 1888 — British Geological Survey
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Longriggend No 1, Ladygrange, abandoned 1953 — British Geological Survey
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Longriggend, Ladygrange, abandoned 1919 — British Geological Survey
7. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Longriggend, Splint and Upper Drumgray, abandoned 1905 — British Geological Survey
8. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Longrigg, Longriggend, 1909 — Northern Mine Research Society
9. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Longriggend, 1906 — Northern Mine Research Society
10. (secondary) Wikipedia: Longriggend — Wikipedia

Record created: 15 October 2026 · Last researched: 15 October 2026