Overtown Colliery

Overview

The Coltness Iron Company's colliery at Overtown, Wishaw, with pits back to the 1860s and two 305-metre shafts from the 1930s. The Coal Board closed it in 1954 to deepen the shafts to 430 metres for coking coal, reopened it, and worked it until 1968 with a peak of 466 men.

History

Coal was worked at Overtown, near Wishaw, long before the present colliery. The inspectors recorded deaths there from the 1860s: a collier of thirteen who worked with his father was killed by a fall of coal in 1864, and in 1875 a collier died working off a pillar in a seam nine feet thick. Plans of Coltness and Overtown workings in the Ell coal were closed in 1880.

The Coltness Iron Company sank the colliery's two shafts, each 305 metres deep, from 1931. It employed 235 people in 1933 and 317 in 1947, when it raised 41,000 tons of household, manufacturing and steam coal; in 1948 it produced 180 tons a day by longwall working, with travelling bar screens, baths, a canteen and an ambulance room. In 1954, with its Upper, Kiltongue and Drumgray workings closed, it was shut so that the National Coal Board could deepen the shafts from 305 to 430 metres to reach coking coal. It reopened, in 1956 or 1959 by different accounts, reached a peak of 466 men in 1960, and closed for good in January 1968.

Geology

Lanarkshire coalfield: the Ell, Main, Splint, Kiltongue, Upper and Lower Drumgray and Upper coals, with coking coal reached after 1954.

Workings

Two shafts sunk from 1931 to 305 m and deepened to 430 m after 1954; longwall working; travelling bar screens; baths and canteen.

Closure

Closed in 1954 for the shafts to be deepened, reopened, and finally closed in January 1968.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Ardenrigg Colliery — Collieries of the Coltness Iron Company.
• Blairhall Colliery — Collieries of the Coltness Iron Company.
• Coventry Colliery — Collieries of the Coltness Iron Company.
• Crofthead Colliery — Collieries of the Coltness Iron Company.
• Hassockrigg Colliery — Collieries of the Coltness Iron Company.
• Milnwood Colliery — Collieries of the Coltness Iron 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.

• It closed in 1954 so that the shafts could be deepened from 305 to 430 m to reach coking coal, reopening in 1959. (disputed) ¹
• Overtown, Wishaw, is dated 1930 to June 1954 and again 1956 to January 1968. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Overtown Colliery, Coltness Iron Company, was sunk from 1931 with two shafts each 305 m deep. ¹
• It closed in 1954 so that the shafts could be deepened from 305 to 430 m to reach coking coal, reopening in 1959. (disputed) ¹
• Overtown, Wishaw, is dated 1930 to June 1954 and again 1956 to January 1968. (disputed) ²
• Overtown employed 235 people in 1933 and 317 in 1947, when it raised 41,000 tons; its peak was 466 in 1960. ^1,3
• In 1864 a thirteen-year-old collier working with his father was killed by a fall of coal at Overtown. ³
• Overtown's Upper workings were abandoned in 1954, and Coltness and Overtown Ell workings in 1880. ^4,5

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Overtown Colliery (NRHE 132396) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot, formerly Canmore)
2. (secondary) NCB Collieries - Scotland (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) Overtown Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Overtown, Upper, abandoned 1954 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Coltness - Overtown, Ell, abandoned 1880 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026