Redding Colliery

Overview

The biggest colliery in the Falkirk area, leased from the Duke of Hamilton and sunk by James Nimmo & Co — permanently marked by the catastrophic 1923 flooding of its No.23 pit, one of Scotland's worst mining disasters.

History

Coal had been worked in the Redding area, in the Parish of Grangemouth about a mile west of Polmont station, for over a century before James Nimmo & Co. Ltd, leasing the ground from the Duke of Hamilton, took over the colliery as a going concern in 1894 from the previous tenants, Messrs Salvesen. Two years later, in 1896, Nimmo's began developing unworked ground by sinking two new shafts, known as Redding No.23. The Duke of Hamilton's own backing of the nearby Union Canal was significant enough to give Edinburgh's canal basin its name, Port Hamilton; under Nimmo's, Redding grew into the biggest colliery in the Falkirk district. At 5am on 25 September 1923, water from long-abandoned workings at the old Redding No.10 pit — last worked in the Coxrod and Splint seams around 1842, abandoned since 1873 — broke through the Universal Dyke, a fault the colliery's management had relied on as a natural barrier against water, and flooded much of No.23 pit's Dublin Section, trapping 66 men underground (see the separate disaster record). Rescue efforts, mounted with remarkable speed, saved 26 men; 40 died. An official inquiry in 1924 found the disaster was caused by the management's reliance on inaccurate plans of the old workings. Redding No.23 continued working after the disaster and was not finally closed until 1958.

Geology

Worked the Main Coal seam of the Falkirk-district coalfield, bordered underground by the Universal Dyke, a largely sandstone downthrow fault that separated Redding's active 20th-century workings from long-flooded 19th-century workings to the south.

Workings

A deep shaft colliery worked through the twin shafts of Redding No.23, sunk from 1896; its Dublin Section, worked close to the Universal Dyke fault, was the site of the fatal 1923 inrush.

Closure

Redding No.23 continued in production after the 1923 disaster and finally closed in 1958.

What remains

Not established from the sources checked for this pass.

A memorial to the 1923 disaster's 40 victims stands near the former colliery, unveiled 22 years after the event and marked again for the disaster's 2023 centenary.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Disasters & major incidents

• Redding Colliery inrush, 1923
  25 September 1923 · Flooding / Inundation · 40 fatalities
  Water from long-abandoned 19th-century workings burst through a fault into Redding Colliery's No.23 pit before dawn on 25 September 1923, trapping 66 men underground and killing 40 of them in one of Scotland's worst mining disasters.

Recorded claims

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

• James Nimmo & Co Ltd, leasing from the Duke of Hamilton, took over Redding Colliery in 1894 and sank the twin shafts of Redding No.23 from 1896, growing it into the biggest colliery in the Falkirk district. ^1,2
• Water from long-abandoned old workings broke through the Universal Dyke fault into Redding No.23's Dublin Section on 25 September 1923, trapping 66 men and killing 40. ¹
• Redding No.23 continued working after the 1923 disaster and finally closed in 1958. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Redding mining disaster — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Redding Colliery — Union Canal Unlocked

Record created: 27 August 2026 · Last researched: 27 August 2026