Oakley Colliery

Overview

The Forth Iron Company's colliery in west Fife, in a village built for its ironworks in 1846 and ringed with coal and ironstone pits. Three colliers and a girl at the pithead died in an explosion of firedamp in one of the company's pits in 1856.

History

Oakley and its neighbour Comrie sit among a great many ironstone and coal pits, some eighteenth century but most sunk in the later nineteenth, around the time the village of Oakley was built in 1846 for the workers of the Forth Ironworks. The Oakley Ironstone Field was the principal source of iron in Fife, on the strength of the Inzievar or Blairhall blackband ironstone that lies above the Blairhall Main Coal — both of them good enough that the pits sunk on them were often worked as hybrid coal and ironstone pits.

On 21 January 1856 an explosion of firedamp in one of the Forth Iron Works pits about two hundred yards west of Oakley killed three colliers and a girl at the pithead (see Disasters, below). An ironstone seam had been opened about thirty-three fathoms down and scaffolding put in to let the men form the ironstone bottom, with the coal seam seven and a half fathoms below that (see Disasters, below).

The colliery proper was sunk in 1893 under Thomas Aitken of the Fife Coal Company and was in production by 1895 or 1896, with an adjoining washery. The official returns give it under the Forth Iron Company and then Oakley Collieries Ltd, working the Five Feet, Splint and Three Feet seams for household, manufacturing and steam coal, with 172 employed in 1896 rising to 322 by 1920.

Geology

The Limestone Coal Formation of west Fife. The Oakley Ironstone Field was the principal iron source in the county because of the Inzievar or Blairhall blackband ironstone lying above the Blairhall Main Coal, both of high quality; the colliery itself worked the Five Feet, Splint and Three Feet coals.

Workings

A number of vertical shafts around the village, several of them described as hybrid coal and ironstone pits, with the colliery sunk in 1893 and an adjoining washery. The 1856 explosion happened in a pit where an ironstone seam had been opened thirty-three fathoms down, the coal seam lying seven and a half fathoms beneath it.

Closure

The closure date is not known. The returns run to 1923 with 322 employed; no opening or closing date is recorded.

What remains

A remnant of the colliery survives and was photographed in 2022. The Scottish Cave and Mine Database records the ground with the Forth Ironworks Nos. 1, 7 and 8 pits within five hundred metres.

A remnant of the colliery, photographed in 2022, in ground that also holds the sites of the Forth Ironworks pits.

Related mines

• Blairhall Colliery — Both worked the Blairhall Main Coal and the blackband ironstone above it, the deposits that made the Oakley ironstone field Fife's principal source of iron.
• Comrie Colliery — Comrie is the contiguous village to Oakley, and the Scottish Cave and Mine Database treats the two as one field: the Blairhall seam and the subordinate parrot coals of the Limestone Coal Formation were worked at three collieries here — Inzievar, Kinneddar and Blair, and Comrie.

Disasters & major incidents

• Oakley pit explosion, 1856
  21 January 1856 · Explosion · 4 fatalities
  On the forenoon of Monday 21 January 1856 firedamp exploded beneath a scaffold in a newly sunk pit at the Forth Iron Works, Oakley, near Dunfermline. The three colliers working on it to open an ironstone seam were killed, and the blast threw missiles out of the shaft that killed Marion Drysdale, a fifteen-year-old at the pit mouth. The Inspector blamed an unventilated space under a scaffold whose planks had not been made airtight.
• Oakley Colliery shaft fire, 1895
  31 May 1895 · Fire · 9 fatalities
  On 31 May 1895 the wooden lining of No. 3 Pit, the upcast shaft of Kinneddar (Oakley) Colliery near Dunfermline, caught fire from a ventilating fire lit at its foot that morning. When the lining burned out, flame and hot air were driven over men building stoppings in the Jersey seam; seven were burned and died within a day, and two more fell down No. 2 Pit in the confusion.

Recorded claims

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

• The contiguous villages of Oakley and Comrie are surrounded by a large number of ironstone and coal pits. Some date back to the eighteenth century but most were probably sunk in the late nineteenth, around the time Oakley was built in 1846 to house the workers of the Forth Ironworks. The Oakley Ironstone Field was the principal iron source in Fife because of the Inzievar or Blairhall blackband ironstone lying above the Blairhall Main Coal, both of high quality and both mined through vertical shafts, several of them described as hybrid coal and ironstone pits. ¹
• Sinking of the colliery began in 1893 under Thomas Aitken of the Fife Coal Company and it was in production by 1895 or 1896, on a site between Culross to the west and Torryburn to the east, with an adjoining washery. ¹
• The Durham Mining Museum's transcription of the Lists of Mines returns the colliery under the Forth Iron Company and then Oakley Collieries Ltd, producing household, manufacturing and steam coal from the Five Feet, Splint and Three Feet seams, with 172 employed in 1896 and 322 by 1920. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Oakley [Overview] — Scottish Cave and Mine Database
2. (primary) Oakley Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026