Milnwood Colliery

Overview

One of the ring of pits around Mossend and Bellshill in the Lanarkshire coalfield, standing on what is now the Bellshill to Holytown railway line at the site of the Sandy playing fields. It was owned by John Christie from 1865 to 1880 — the Lanarkshire coalmaster and arboriculturalist who bought and renamed Cowden Castle — then by the Coltness Iron Company and finally by Wilson’s & Clyde Coal Company. Its miners lived in Coltness Row on Calder Road, opposite Mossend Public School, and in another row on Holytown Road near Mossend Cross.

History

Milnwood stood at the eastern end of the local group of pits, alongside Thankerton in the Mossend area, with Hattonrigg, Orbiston, East Parkhead, Bothwell Park, Douglas Park and Bothwell Palace in and near Bellshill to the west. It sat on the line of what is now the Bellshill to Holytown railway. John Christie held it from 1865 to 1880 and is the reason the pit is worth more than a line in a list. Born at Old Monkland on 4 July 1824, the son of Alexander Christie, himself a colliery-owner and ironfounder, he was educated at Grange School in Northumberland and at the University of Glasgow, and on his father’s death in 1859 inherited lands in Ayrshire, Midlothian and Clackmannanshire built on coal mining and iron founding. In 1865 — the year he took Milnwood — he bought a 524-acre estate between Dollar and Muckhart and renamed it from Castleton to Cowden Castle, a rural counterweight to the coalfield, given over to farming, forestry and the raising of deer and pheasant. He died in Edinburgh on 19 August 1902 and is buried at Muckhart. His daughter Ella Robertson Christie, whom he encouraged to travel from childhood, became a noted traveller and author. The Coltness Iron Company held the colliery from 1895 to 1915 and Wilson’s & Clyde Coal Company from 1918 to 1925. Coltness Row on Calder Road, opposite Mossend Public School, and a second row on Holytown Road near Mossend Cross housed the men who worked it.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Lanarkshire coalfield, the field that fed the ironworks at Mossend, Coltness and Calderbank. Nothing is recorded of the seams worked at Milnwood specifically.

Workings

A pit on the line of the present Bellshill to Holytown railway, at the site of the Sandy playing fields. The pits of this group were tied into the local rail network by branch lines and pit lanes, and each of the larger ones had its own row of miners’ houses; Milnwood’s men were housed in Coltness Row on Calder Road and in a row on Holytown Road.

Closure

The closure date is not known. Wilson’s & Clyde Coal Company is recorded as owning the colliery from 1918 to 1925, which is the last evidence of it working.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery remains. Its site is the Sandy playing fields beside the Bellshill to Holytown railway; the miners’ rows have gone, as almost all of the Bellshill and Mossend rows had by the 1960s.

None identified.

Related mines

• Blairhall Colliery — Both were Coltness Iron Company pits, and men moved between them: Charles Russell left the management of Blairhall in 1897 to manage the company’s pits at Milnwood, Bellshill.
• Duntilland Colliery — Coltness Iron Company collieries.
• Hassockrigg Colliery — Both worked by the Coltness Iron Company.
• Holytown Colliery — Neighbouring collieries at Holytown.
• Overtown Colliery — Collieries of the Coltness Iron Company.

Disasters & major incidents

• Milnwood Colliery explosion, 1865
  29 March 1865 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  Firedamp that had gathered behind a new connection at Milnwood Colliery, Lanarkshire, flowed down a blind pit on 29 March 1865 and fired at the lights of two colliers, who died of their injuries.

What's uncertain

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

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Milnwood' (catalogue 1718, Main, dated 1884); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• Milnwood was on the present-day Bellshill to Holytown railway line, at the site of the Sandy playing fields, at the eastern end of the group of pits around Mossend and Bellshill. ¹
• Its miners lived in Coltness Row on Calder Road opposite Mossend Public School, and in another row on Holytown Road near Mossend Cross. ¹
• John Christie owned the colliery from 1865 to 1880, the Coltness Iron Co. Ltd from 1895 to 1915, and Wilson’s & Clyde Coal Co. Ltd from 1918 to 1925. The official list of collieries at work in 1880 returns it at Bothwell under John Christie. ^2,1
• John Christie (1824–1902) was born at Old Monkland, the son of Alexander Christie, a colliery-owner and ironfounder, and inherited lands in Ayrshire, Midlothian and Clackmannanshire largely built on coal mining and iron founding on his father’s death in 1859; in 1865 he bought a 524-acre estate between Dollar and Muckhart and renamed it Cowden Castle. ³
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Milnwood' (catalogue 1718, Main, dated 1884); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) The pits of Bellshill and Mossend (Old Bellshill thread) — UrbanGlasgow
2. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre
3. (secondary) John Christie (landowner) — Wikipedia
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: MILNWOOD — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 6 September 2026 · Last researched: 6 September 2026