Seaforth Colliery

Overview

A New Cumnock colliery opened in 1940 and named after Seaforth House, its manager's home; the National Coal Board took it over in 1947 with over 200 people, and it closed in 1953.

History

Seaforth Colliery was a New Cumnock pit of the 1940s and early 1950s. It took its name from Seaforth House, which stands beside Furnace Road opposite the Furnace Row cottages. The name came to the parish with Kenneth McKenzie, partner in the Bank Coal Company formed in 1860, whose son Duncan Seaforth McKenzie was born at Bank Furnaces in 1882; it is that of the Earls of Seaforth, a branch of the McKenzie clan. A Seaforth No. 1 Mine working the Four Feet seam had already been abandoned in 1874.

The colliery came into production in 1940, with William Dryburgh as manager living at Seaforth House; the Northern Mine Research Society's list of nationalised pits dates it from April 1940. The National Coal Board took it over in 1947, when it employed 214 people, 174 of them underground, and raised 74,000 tons of household and industrial coal. The following year it was producing 200 tonnes a day with 125 employees, a much smaller workforce than the 1947 return. On 9 January 1948 two men were killed there.

Seaforth closed in 1953 and was abandoned two years later. Its plans, dated 1955, cover the Five Feet, Three Feet, Four Feet and Diamond, Musselband, Blackband and Eight Feet seams of the Seaforth No. 1 and No. 2 workings, and its workings also appear on a combined plan with the Knockshinnoch workings.

Geology

The Five Feet, Three Feet, Four Feet and Diamond, Musselband, Blackband and Eight Feet seams of the New Cumnock coalfield.

Workings

Two workings, Seaforth No. 1 and No. 2, whose plans cover at least six seams.

Closure

Closed in 1953 and abandoned in 1955.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery — Neighbouring New Cumnock workings shown together on one abandonment plan.

Recorded claims

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

• Came into production in 1940, with William Dryburgh as colliery manager. ^1,2
• Named after Seaforth House, whose name Kenneth McKenzie of the Bank Coal Company brought to New Cumnock from the Earls of Seaforth. ²
• Employed 214 people in 1947, 174 underground, and raised 74,000 tons of household and industrial coal. ³
• Produced 200 tonnes of coal a day with 125 employees in 1948. ²
• Two men were killed on 9 January 1948. ⁴
• Closed in 1953 and abandoned two years later. ^1,2,5
• A Seaforth No. 1 Mine working the Four Feet seam was abandoned in 1874. ⁶
• Seaforth's workings appear on a combined plan with Knockshinnoch Mine in the Three Feet and Four Feet seams. ⁷

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) NCB Collieries - Scotland (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Seaforth House - What's in a name? — New Cumnock History
3. (primary) Seaforth Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Fatalities 1940s — New Cumnock History
5. (primary) Seaforth 1 & 2 Mine Plans (Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan S146, Five Feet, abandoned 1955) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
6. (primary) Seaforth No 1 Mine, South Boig No 1 Mine Plans (Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan S1191, Four Feet, abandoned 1874) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
7. (primary) Knockshinnoch Mine, Seaforth Mine, Bank No 2 Mine Plans (Mining Remediation Authority plan S1609, Three Feet and Four Feet) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 9 October 2026