Meta Colliery

Overview

The Alloa Coal Company's Meta Colliery, also called Devon No. 3, at Fishcross near Sauchie: inaugurated in 1923, it fed the company's own brickworks and briquetting plant and closed under the National Coal Board in 1959.

History

Meta Colliery, also known as Devon No. 3, stood at Fishcross near Sauchie, north of Alloa, and was a pit of the Alloa Coal Company. It is said to have been named after Meta Mary Graham Mitchell, mother of the company's managing director, Sir Harold Paton Mitchell. The colliery was first inaugurated on 4 July 1923, and its production in the nationalised era is recorded as commencing in 1946.

In 1936 the company set up a brickworks at the Meta Pit, making its bricks from the pit's own clay; within months it was turning out 25,000 bricks a day and orders came from as far as Lerwick. A fuel briquetting plant was added in 1943. The colliery had one shaft, recorded as 115 metres deep, and a surface mine, and worked fireclay as well as coal. It took all its electricity from Devon Colliery, 450 metres away, where its men also used the baths and canteen.

Under the National Coal Board from 1947 it raised household coal and unwashed dross for the briquettes: 43,800 tons in 1947 with 80 men, and in 1948 about 200 tons a day, or 50,000 tons a year, with 94 employees. By 1954 it worked the Diamond, Jewel and Upper Five Feet seams with 191 men, and its workforce peaked at 233 in 1956. The colliery closed and was abandoned in 1959. The brickworks outlived it, passing to the Scottish Brick Corporation in 1969, and are believed to have closed in 1981.

Geology

In 1954 the colliery worked the Diamond, Jewel and Upper Five Feet seams of the Clackmannanshire coalfield, and it mined fireclay from the same measures for its brickworks.

Workings

One shaft about 115 m deep and one surface mine; a separate Meta drift mine lay about 2 km to the west.

Closure

Closed and abandoned in 1959; the brickworks beside it carried on until about 1981.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Devon Colliery — Meta was also known as Devon 3 and drew its electricity, baths and canteen from Devon Colliery 450 m away.
• Sheriffyards Colliery — Clackmannanshire collieries of the Alloa Coal Company.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Meta was named after Meta Mary Graham Mitchell, mother of the Alloa Coal Company's managing director Sir Harold Paton Mitchell. (uncertain) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• Meta Colliery, also known as Devon 3, at Sauchie, was owned by the Alloa Coal Company. ^1,2
• Meta Colliery was originally inaugurated on 4 July 1923 and closed and was abandoned in 1959. ²
• In 1948 Meta produced about 200 tons a day, 50,000 tons a year, with 94 employees. ²
• Under the National Coal Board in 1947 Meta raised 43,800 tons of household coal with 80 men. ³
• In 1954 Meta worked the Diamond, Jewel and Upper Five Feet seams with 191 men. ³
• The Alloa Coal Company set up a brickworks at the Meta Pit in 1936, making bricks from the pit's own clay. ^2,4
• Meta was named after Meta Mary Graham Mitchell, mother of the Alloa Coal Company's managing director Sir Harold Paton Mitchell. (uncertain) ⁴
• Meta had one shaft 115 m deep and one surface mine. ²

Sources

1. (secondary) Alloa Coal Company — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Meta Colliery (NRHE 133239, NS89NE 82) — Canmore / trove.scot (Historic Environment Scotland)
3. (primary) Meta Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Meta Brickworks, Fishcross, Clackmannanshire — Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry

Record created: 20 October 2026 · Last researched: 20 October 2026