Polbeth No. 26 Mine

Overview

A steeply inclined oil-shale mine in the Dunnet Shale north-east of West Calder, serving Young's Addiewell Chemical Works, worked into the 1940s and abandoned in 1947. Its gradient of 1 in 1.6 called for steam haulage and stepped steel carriages. Its winding engine house survives as Polbeth Community Centre.

History

Polbeth No. 26 Mine was an inclined adit, at a gradient of 1 in 1.6, driven into the Dunnet Shale north-east of West Calder to supply the Addiewell Chemical Works. Its extensive, steep workings had a cross-cut mine giving access to more Dunnet Shale beneath Mossend. Its early dates are uncertain, possibly the 1880s with a closure about 1900; it was working again by 1911, when Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company was licensed to keep a mixed explosives store in a locked box at the pithead, and in 1915, when a slight explosion of gas burned a miner. The owner that year is recorded as James Ross and Co., Philpstoun Oil Works.

In 1917 Young's leased the shale and coal under Hermand and Birniehill, and an agreement of 1929 left the Dunnet Shale unworked in pillars beneath Woodend Cottage, Raeburn Rows and Gavieside Rows to protect them. In June 1924 an axle broke on one of the carriages on the main line, causing a collision that cost a day and a half's output, and that autumn a new electric haulage replaced four ponies. By 1938 steam haulage was still used on the main incline, where the average gradient was 32 degrees, with two-stepped steel carriages each holding four hutches.

Falls of shale and roof stone killed men in 1922, 1927, 1929, 1935 and 1937, and in 1932 a miner died when the scaffold he had built in a steep working gave way. The Dunnet Shale workings were abandoned in 1947. The site is now a landscaped public space, and the winding engine house is Polbeth Community Centre.

Geology

The Dunnet Shale, worked in steeply inclined seams; a large fault in part of the workings by 1924.

Workings

An inclined adit at 1 in 1.6 (about 32 degrees) with a cross-cut mine to further Dunnet Shale beneath Mossend; steam and, from 1924, electric haulage, with two-stepped steel carriages each holding four hutches.

Closure

Its Dunnet Shale workings were abandoned in 1947.

What remains

A landscaped public space; the winding engine house is now Polbeth Community Centre.

The former winding engine house, now Polbeth Community Centre.

Redevelopment

Landscaped public space and community centre.

Related mines

• Addiewell Oil Works — No. 26 mine supplied shale to the Addiewell Chemical Works.

Recorded claims

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

• Polbeth No. 26 was an inclined adit at a gradient of 1 in 1.6 into the Dunnet Shale, serving Addiewell Chemical Works. ¹
• By 1938 steam haulage on an average gradient of 32 degrees used two-stepped steel carriages each holding four hutches. ¹
• Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Co. Ltd owned No. 26 mine in 1922-1937. ^2,3
• In January 1915 a slight explosion of gas in No. 26 mine burned a miner. ⁴
• The Dunnet Shale workings were abandoned in 1947. ^1,5
• The winding engine house is now Polbeth Community Centre. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Scottish Shale: Polbeth No. 26 mine — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
2. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Polbeth, No.26 Mine, 1922 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Polbeth, No.26 Mine, 1937 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Polbeth, No.26 Mine, 1915 — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Polbeth No. 26, Dunnet, abandoned 1947 — British Geological Survey
6. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Polbeth, No.26 Mine, 1932 — Northern Mine Research Society
7. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Polbeth, No.26 Mine, 1935 — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026