Melloch Colliery

Overview

A small surface mine in Melloch Wood, east of Tillicoultry, on ground worked since about 1850. The Alloa Coal Company reopened it at the start of the Second World War; about twenty men worked it, using the baths and washery at Tillicoultry, until it closed in 1948.

History

Coal and ironstone had long been worked in the Melloch glen east of Tillicoultry: the Alloa Coal Company's historian noted a thin but superior ironstone 'worked for a long time at Mellochglen', and the colliery is dated from about 1850. In the first year of the Second World War the company opened a new mine at Melloch, in Melloch Wood, east of Tillicoultry and of the Tillicoultry mine; the national record dates the reopening of its single surface mine to 1941.

It was a small working, raising house coal. Its workforce peaked at 29 in 1947; the year book for 1947 gives 24 people and about 8,000 tons. In 1948 it produced 40 tons a day, 15,000 tons a year, with 21 employees; its coal was screened and washed at Tillicoultry mine, where the Melloch men also used the baths and canteen, and its electricity came from Devon Colliery. The National Coal Board closed and abandoned it in 1948.

Geology

Clackmannan coalfield: house coal, with ironstone worked earlier in the Melloch glen.

Workings

One surface mine, reopened 1939-41; coal screened and washed at Tillicoultry mine.

Closure

Closed and abandoned by the National Coal Board in 1948, a year after nationalisation.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Tillicoultry Colliery — Alloa Coal Company mines east of Tillicoultry; Melloch's coal was washed at Tillicoultry, whose baths and canteen its men used.

Recorded claims

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

• Melloch Colliery, Tillicoultry, is dated from about 1850 to 1948, when it closed and was abandoned; its surface mine was reopened in 1941. ¹
• The Alloa Coal Company opened Melloch mine in 1939; it passed to the NCB in 1947 and closed in 1948. ^2,3
• In 1947 Melloch employed 24 people and raised 8,021 tons of household coal. ⁴
• In 1948 it produced 40 tons a day with 21 employees; its coal was washed and screened at Tillicoultry mine, where its men used the baths and canteen. ¹
• Melloch mine lay in Melloch Wood, east of Tillicoultry and the Tillicoultry mine. ²
• A thin ironstone of superior quality was worked for a long time at Mellochglen. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Melloch Colliery (NRHE 133254) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot, formerly Canmore)
2. (secondary) Clackmannanshire's Mines — Clackmannanshire.scot
3. (secondary) One Hundred Years in Coal: The History of the Alloa Coal Company (John L. Carvel, 1944) — Clackmannanshire.scot
4. (primary) Melloch Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026