Pather Colliery

Overview

An old colliery at Pather, Cambusnethan, worked by the Coltness Iron Company and William Boyd in the 1860s and 1870s and by only a handful of men by the 1890s.

History

Pather lay at Pather, in Cambusnethan parish. Its pits were at work by the early 1860s: in November 1863 a collier was killed by the roof falling while he took out coal stoops, and in 1864 a trimmer of 13 fell in front of waggons. On Monday 7 January 1867 the fireman, Alexander MacNeil, took a collier, John Smith, down to examine the pit after the ventilating furnace had been out for forty hours; they carried both safety lamps and naked lights, and firedamp ignited at the naked lights and killed them both. The fireman was held to have neglected the 22nd and 27th Special Rules of the colliery.

In 1873-4 two concerns were listed at Pather: the Coltness Iron Company's No. 3 pit, and William Boyd. Falls of roof and coal killed men there through the 1870s, among them a boy of 15 on a road in 1871 and a drawer of 22 whose runaway tub knocked out props in 1872. By the 1890s Pather was a very small working, with four to six men raising household, manufacturing and steam coal, and two in the Main coal in 1905.

Geology

The Main coal, worked in stoops.

Workings

Stoop-and-room workings ventilated by a furnace; No. 3 pit (Coltness Iron Company).

Closure

Two men worked it in 1905, the year of its last abandonment plans; when it closed is unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Herdshill Colliery — Neighbouring Coltness Iron Company workings in Cambusnethan parish.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1873-4 the Coltness Iron Co.'s Pather No. 3 and William Boyd's Pather pit, Cambusnethan, were both listed as working coal. ¹
• On 7 January 1867 a fireman and a collier examining Pather after its ventilating furnace had been out for forty hours were killed when firedamp ignited at their naked lights. ²
• Pather employed 4 to 6 men in the 1890s and 2 in 1905, working the Main coal. ²
• Abandonment plans of Pather workings are dated 1872 and 1905. ^3,4

Sources

1. (secondary) List of Mines in Scotland 1873, part 4 — Scottish Mining Website
2. (primary) Pather Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21937536: Pather, abandoned 1872 — British Geological Survey
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21913452: Pather, abandoned 1905 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 21 October 2026 · Last researched: 21 October 2026