Ormiston Station Colliery

Overview

The Ormiston Coal Company's colliery by Ormiston station, sunk in 1880 to the Four and Three Foot seams and worked with fireclay into the 1900s, employing nearly 200 men by 1910.

History

Ormiston Station Colliery was sunk in 1880 by the Ormiston Coal Company, beside the railway station at Ormiston, to work the Four and Three Foot seams. It employed 98 men in 1890. In 1894 there were 126, 102 of them underground, raising household, manufacturing and steam coal together with fireclay; 100 in 1900, 148 in 1905 and 196 in 1910. By then the colliery worked the Five Feet, Four Feet and Splint seams. John Hogg, a haulage engine driver of 15, was crushed between waggon buffers while helping to move waggons at the screens in 1905.

One local account gives the colliery's closure as 1901, the same year as the Cockum mine a mile and a half to the west. Abandonment plans of its Splint, Parrot, Three Feet and Four Feet workings are indeed dated 1901, but further plans of the Splint, Four Feet, Three Feet and Parrot are dated 1909, and the colliery is listed with 196 men in 1910, so working seems to have gone on, or resumed, after 1901.

Geology

The colliery worked the Four Feet and Three Feet seams of the Midlothian coalfield's eastern edge, with the Splint, Parrot and Five Feet, and fireclay.

Workings

Shaft workings in up to five seams; 144 of the 196 men employed in 1910 worked underground.

Closure

Said to have closed in 1901, when one set of abandonment plans is dated; a second set is dated 1909 and the colliery was still listed with 196 men in 1910.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Limeylands Colliery — Ormiston collieries of the Ormiston 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.

• Ormiston Station Colliery closed in 1901. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• Ormiston Station Colliery was sunk in 1880 by the Ormiston Coal Company to work the Four and Three Foot seams, and employed 98 men in 1890. ¹
• Ormiston Station employed 196 men in 1910, 144 below ground, working the Five Feet, Four Feet and Splint seams. ²
• Ormiston Station Colliery closed in 1901. (disputed) ¹
• Abandonment plans of Ormiston Station workings are dated 1901 and 1909. ^3,4
• John Hogg, a haulage engine driver of 15, was crushed between waggon buffers at the Ormiston Station screens in 1905. ²

Sources

1. (secondary) Ormiston: Economy — The Fourth Statistical Account of East Lothian
2. (primary) Ormiston Station Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21912994: Ormiston Station, Splint, Parrot, Three Feet & Four Feet, abandoned 1901 — British Geological Survey
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21911221: Ormiston Station, Splint, Four Feet & Three Feet, abandoned 1909 — British Geological Survey

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