Minto Pit

Overview

A Lochgelly Iron and Coal Company colliery at Brigghills between Lochgelly and Bowhill in Fife, sunk from 1901 as two pits and opened in 1903; it employed more than 1,400 people in 1911 and closed in September 1967 when water from closed neighbouring collieries threatened it.

History

The Minto Pit, known locally as Brigghills, was the Lochgelly Iron and Coal Company's new colliery on the Earl of Minto's Lochgelly estate. A report of January 1900 said the Lochgelly company intended to sink an additional pit east of the town near Brigghills Farm, with the old Eliza Pit as an emergency shaft, and sinking was under way by March 1901, beside the railway siding to Bowhill and Glencraig collieries. The pithead frame caught fire in September 1901 and was quickly put out. Three sinkers were killed in the shafts: Walter Hodgson in April 1902, 17-year-old James Wilson, who fell 85 fathoms from a platform in December 1902, and James Penman, who fell 70 fathoms in November 1904. The Lochgelly splint was reached in No. 2 Pit at about 100 fathoms in August 1902, and the colliery was producing by 1904, when a newspaper called the two pits the 'United Pits'.

Employment rose from 155 underground and 51 on the surface in 1904 to 959 and 171 in 1908 and 1,234 and 192 in 1911. John Keirs was manager until 1911, then William Barclay. An underground fire in the last week of August 1912 threw some 1,700 miners temporarily out of work until work resumed on 2 September, and gas ignited by a naked light burned two men in August 1919. On 28 May 1920 a firedamp explosion in the Five Feet seam of No. 2 Pit burned five men, one of whom died (see Disasters, below). Numbers stood at 606 underground in 1928, 698 in 1938 and 434 in 1945.

The National Coal Board took over in 1947, when 490 men worked underground and the pit raised about 244,600 tons a year of gas, household and industrial coals. Seams worked over the years included the Lochgelly Splint, Five Feet, Little Splint, Rough, Blairhall, Mynheer, Dunfermline Splint, Jersey and Seven Foot, with the Swallowdrum and Kelty Main late on. A machineman who worked in the Diamond section, called the Ghost Section, recalled a roof of 30 metres of solid sandstone that would not settle but cracked and fell without warning, causing many fatal accidents. The section caught fire in March 1964 and the pit, scheduled for closure a year earlier, was kept open.

Canmore records the colliery as owned by the Lochgelly Iron & Coal Company, producing house and steam coal from 1903 and closing in 1967, with an average workforce of 640 and a peak of 730 in 1957. Its two shafts were 184 m (No. 1) and 302 m (No. 2) deep. In 1948 it raised 910 tons a day, 230,000 tons a year, with 684 employed, a Campbell Binnie washer, pit baths from 1935 and a canteen, and it used electricity, steam and compressed air. Canmore describes it as prone to spontaneous combustion and sudden roof falls, and as suffering increasing water problems as neighbouring pits closed. A model of its surface arrangements is on display at the Royal Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street, Edinburgh.

The Dunfermline Press reported in August 1967 that the closure was not because the seams were exhausted or the pit uneconomic, but because water was flooding in from collieries closed in recent years, Foulford at Cowdenbeath standing much higher than the Minto, and black damp might be pushed into the workings. Some 340 miners remained, producing about 560 tons a day, and most were to move to Seafield. Four women on the pithead were described as among the last pit women in Britain. The pit closed in September 1967. Minto Cottages, about a mile from Lochgelly, stood beside the pit and have long been demolished.

Geology

Coal of the Lochgelly coalfield. A section of 810 feet of strata held about 50 feet of coal; four leaves of Dunfermline Splint held 3 ft 4 in of coal but only the top 1 ft 10 in was mined profitably, and an intrusive whinstone sill 32 fathoms thick lay above the Five Foot coal and made considerable areas useless. The Lochgelly Splint in No. 2 Pit was nearly 5 ft 11 in with a 1 ft 5 in Craw coal above it, and the Little Splint averaged 3 ft 2 in. Burnt areas were recorded in the workings beneath the River Ore between Bowhill Junction and Carden Mill.

Geological setting: Dykes and Sills (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Two pits, No. 1 and No. 2, the latter called the 'Round' and 'Square' pits in a 1941 report, with the old Eliza Pit as an emergency shaft. The Lochgelly splint was reached in No. 2 Pit at about 100 fathoms in 1902. The colliery and its bings stood at the foot of the Eliza Brae, close to the River Ore and the railway, less than a mile west of Bowhill Colliery. Canmore gives the shafts as No. 1, 184 m deep, and No. 2, 302 m deep, with the pit abandoned in 1968.

Closure

The pit closed in September 1967 (the abandonment plans are dated 1967). The National Coal Board's reason, reported in August 1967, was water flooding in from collieries closed in recent years, with a risk of black damp, rather than exhaustion or losses; about 340 miners were found work elsewhere, mostly at Seafield. Canmore gives the year closed as 1967 and the year abandoned as 1968.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Bowhill Colliery — Bowhill Colliery lay less than a mile to the east; in 1967 the water from the Minto workings was being passed to Bowhill and the danger of flooding and black damp between the two was a reason for closing the Minto.

Disasters & major incidents

• Minto Colliery firedamp explosion, 1920
  28 May 1920 · Explosion · 1 fatality
  A firedamp explosion in the Five Feet seam of No. 2 Pit, Minto Colliery, Lochgelly, at about 4 a.m. on 28 May 1920 burned five men, three of them seriously; the brusher William Galloway died in hospital within days. Gas that had accumulated was ignited by a naked lamp.

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 Scottish Mining Website's Lochgelly timeline places the sinking of the Minto at Brigghills among the developments of the mid 1890s. (disputed) ³
• The Diamond section of the pit had a roof of 30 metres of hard sandstone that cracked and fell without warning, causing many fatal accidents, according to a machineman who worked there. (uncertain) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• A January 1900 report said the Lochgelly company intended to sink a new pit near Brigghills Farm, sinking was under way by March 1901 for the Lochgelly Iron and Coal Company, and the old Eliza Pit was to be an emergency shaft. ^1,2
• The Scottish Mining Website's Lochgelly timeline places the sinking of the Minto at Brigghills among the developments of the mid 1890s. (disputed) ³
• Fife Pits gives 1903 as the year the Minto Pit opened, with closure in September 1967. ¹
• Three sinkers were killed in the shafts: Walter Hodgson in April 1902, struck by a falling water barrel, 17-year-old James Wilson, who fell 85 fathoms on 21 December 1902, and James Penman, who fell 70 fathoms in November 1904. ¹
• In 1904 newspaper reports called the two Minto pits the 'United Pits', and in 1941 an article on an underground fire described them as the 'Round' and 'Square' pits. ^1,2
• Employment was 155 underground and 51 on the surface in 1904, 959 and 171 in 1908, 1,234 and 192 in 1911, 606 and 144 in 1928, 434 and 163 in 1945, 499 and 200 in 1950, 594 and 118 in 1961 and 340 miners in 1967. ¹
• In 1947 the pit raised about 244,600 tons a year of gas, household, manufacturing coals and anthracite. ¹
• An underground fire in the last week of August 1912 threw some 1,700 miners temporarily out of work; it was got under and work resumed on Monday 2 September. ¹
• The Diamond section of the pit had a roof of 30 metres of hard sandstone that cracked and fell without warning, causing many fatal accidents, according to a machineman who worked there. (uncertain) ¹
• The Diamond section of No. 2 Pit caught fire in March 1964; the pit, scheduled for closure a year earlier, was granted an extension of life. ¹
• The Minto Pit closed in September 1967 because water was flooding in from adjacent collieries closed in recent years, not because the seams were exhausted or the pit uneconomic. ¹
• The Earl of Minto's Lochgelly estate embraced the whole Lochgelly coalfield and yielded about £20,000 a year in mineral royalties around 1914. ²
• The British Geological Survey catalogues Mine Remediation Authority abandonment plans for Minto, including the Swallowdrum and Lower Jersey seams abandoned in 1967. ⁴
• The Scottish Mining Website reproduces newspaper reports of accidents at Minto Colliery in the 1910s and 1920s, including injuries in January 1916 and the death of David Baxter in June 1917. ⁵
• Canmore records two shafts, No. 1 184 m deep and No. 2 302 m deep. ⁶
• Canmore records an average workforce of 640 and a peak of 730 in 1957. ⁶
• In 1948 the colliery raised 910 tons a day, 230,000 tons a year, with 684 employees, a Campbell Binnie washer, pit baths built in 1935 and a canteen. ⁶
• The pit was prone to spontaneous combustion and sudden roof falls and suffered increasing water problems as neighbouring pits closed. ⁶
• Canmore gives 1967 as the year the colliery closed and 1968 as the year it was abandoned. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Fife Pits: Minto Pit (Brigghills), Lochgelly — Fife Pits
2. (secondary) Lochgelly Brick and Tile Works, Lochgelly, Fife (Scottish Brick History) — Scottish Brick History
3. (secondary) Lochgelly Timelines (Scottish Mining Website) — Scottish Mining Website
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plans: MINTO (Swallowdrum, Lower Jersey) — British Geological Survey
5. (secondary) Accidents post 1914 (Scottish Mining Website) — Scottish Mining Website
6. (secondary) Minto Colliery (Canmore) — Canmore (Historic Environment Scotland)

Record created: 30 September 2026 · Last researched: 30 September 2026