South Bantaskine Colliery

Overview

Coal was worked on this Falkirk estate twice over. Robert Wilson took the lease in 1828 and ran adits straight out of the hillside into boats on the Union Canal; his son stopped mining and laid gardens over the ground. After the war the National Coal Board demolished the house and opened a new pit on the same land, which closed in 1959.

History

The South Bantaskine coalfield was advertised to let in the Edinburgh Evening Courant of 5 May 1828 with an unusual selling point. Two of the workable seams lay above the level of the Union Canal, so the coal could be wrought by mines and run straight out of the workings into the boats without being raised by pits at all. One seam was splint coal of fine quality, suitable for steam engines and distilleries; the others were clean soft caking coal producing little ashes, meant for the Edinburgh market. Ironstone in the lands could be taken with the coal or left, as the tenant preferred. Two earlier attempts on this coalfield had already failed. The estate and its mineral rights, leased from William Forbes of Callendar, had been bought in 1827 by James Russel and Henry Aitken, Falkirk solicitors, and it was Russel who advertised it. The man who took it was Robert Wilson, who had made a success of coal mines at Banton near Kilsyth and sold a great deal of that coal to the Carron Company. He signed the lease and moved his family into the house at South Bantaskine in 1828. It was a gamble: the sales would depend on building up domestic markets in Falkirk and Edinburgh. It worked. Wilson got the colliery established while his thirteen-year-old son John was put to the practical side — 'my first work, for some months, was to notice the output of coal, keep the workmen's accounts and drive the Gin'. Ironstone as well as coal came out of the mines beside the canal, through deep cuttings driven into the hillside to bring the minerals out on the level to new wharves. The pits were named for the times: Triumph, Britannia, Victory and Victoria. The men lived partly at Corunna Row opposite the south avenue, described by the Ordnance Survey name book of 1858 as a row of colliers' houses, one storey in height, slated and in good repair, and partly in Falkirk and Camelon. Robert Wilson died at the house in 1836 and John took over both the estate and the coalfield. He paid £26 a year for the house and offices, £12 10s for the parks and £17 for the colliers' houses. He set up a friendly society for his workforce and gave every house a garden, on a principle a parliamentary commission had recommended; the men left the gardens in what he called an interesting state of nature until he offered prizes, after which they competed at the annual shows. Around 1860 John Wilson stopped mining altogether and turned the estate into a gentleman's seat, with a new gothic house, a waste heap flattened into a bowling and tennis lawn, and the old mine track dressed up as a country drive. Immediately after the Second World War the National Coal Board took over the estate and occupied the mansion. In 1947 it decided to demolish the house, offering the stained glass window from the staircase to Falkirk Town Council in October; the window sat boxed in storage until 1990 and is now in the Howgate shopping centre. The house came down late in 1949. A new mine and its buildings went up on the site of the old coke ovens, not far from the Wilsons' Britannia Pit, and an overhead gantry carried the coal over the canal to wagons on a railway siding. Production began in 1946. By 1948 the pit was raising 85 tons a day with 84 people, and it reached its peak in 1954, the year its pithead baths opened at a cost of £25,000, with 141 employed. It closed in 1959.

Geology

The Midland Valley coalfield at Falkirk, and shallow here. The 1828 advertisement says the coal lay at a very moderate depth and that two workable seams were above the level of the Union Canal, which is what made adit working possible. One seam was splint coal, the others soft caking coal; ironstone lay in the same ground. The Coal Board's 1954 return names the Drumgray seam.

Workings

The Wilsons worked by mines rather than pits: deep cuttings into the hillside and adits driven on the level, so that coal and ironstone ran out of the workings straight onto wharves on the Union Canal without being wound. Four pits are named — Triumph, Britannia, Victory and Victoria. The Coal Board's mine of 1946 stood on the site of the old coke ovens near the Britannia, with an overhead gantry taking coal across the canal to a railway siding, and employed 24 below ground in 1947 and 80 in 1954.

Closure

John Wilson ended coal production about 1860. The National Coal Board's pit began in 1946, peaked at 141 employed in 1954 and closed in 1959. Its buildings and infrastructure were removed and the ground covered with a large concrete apron under an environmental improvement scheme.

What remains

The estate is Bantaskine Park, public woodland and parkland west of Falkirk. Nothing of either colliery stands. The Seagull Trust's boathouse, built in 1991 for free canal cruises for people with special needs, occupies the site of the Coal Board's pit and uses its concrete apron as a car park. The Wilsons' walled garden was cleared in 2009 and handed to the Falkirk Allotment Society in 2010, and their ice house survives near the canal.

Nothing of the workings. The concrete apron of the Coal Board's pit is now a car park.

Nearby mines

• Carronhall Colliery — 4.7 km N
• Redding Colliery — 6.6 km E
• Herbertshire Colliery — 7.1 km NW
• Plean Colliery — 7.9 km NW, Stirling
• Longannet Colliery — 9.9 km NE, Fife

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• Robert Wilson, a coal master, moved his family to South Bantaskine in 1828, and the Wilsons lived cheek by jowl with their working pits. An early nineteenth-century mine map shows the walled garden behind the house literally next to coal workings, and a water mine drained mine water into a channel that ran beside the tree-lined entrance avenue. ¹
• Around 1860 coal production ceased and John Wilson began repurposing the estate, flattening a waste heap to make a bowling and tennis lawn. After the death of the Wilson sisters the land was rented to the Callendar Coal Company Ltd., and after the war the estate passed to the National Coal Board, which demolished all the houses on the estate and opened a colliery. ¹
• The National Coal Board's returns give 36 employed in 1947, 24 of them below ground, with an output of 2,000 tons of gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal; and 109 employed in 1954, 80 below ground, working the Drumgray seam. ²
• The National Record of the Historic Environment classifies South Bantaskine as a colliery, site number NS87NE 60, record 134515, at NS 8750 7920 in the parish of Falkirk. Two photographs are held, from the papers of the industrial historian Professor John R. Hume, both captioned as views showing the site of the colliery. ³
• Buddlepit's database, drawn from Northern Mine Research Society data, gives South Bantaskine as a coal mine worked from 1940 to 1959, under the National Coal Board from 1947, at an elevation of 112 m. ⁴
• The 1828 advertisement states that two of the workable seams lie above the level of the canal and can be wrought by mines, through which the coal for canal sale can be run out from the workings into the boats without requiring to be raised by pits. ⁵
• Robert Wilson had made a great success of running coal mines at Banton near Kilsyth, much of that coal going to the Carron Company. He signed the lease with Russel and Aitken and moved his family into the house at South Bantaskine in 1828. His thirteen-year-old son John wrote that his first work, for some months, was to notice the output of coal, keep the workmen's accounts and drive the gin. ⁵
• The names of the pits at South Bantaskine reflected the times: Triumph, Britannia, Victory and Victoria. Ironstone as well as coal was extracted from the mines beside the Union Canal, through deep cuttings made into the hillside to run the minerals out of adits on the level to new wharves. ⁵
• John Wilson set up a friendly society for his workforce and ensured that the colliers' houses each had a garden attached, on a principle recommended by a parliamentary commission. The men left them from year to year in an interesting state of nature until he offered premiums for the best vegetables and flowers, after which they competed at the annual shows. ⁵
• Production of coal began in 1946; by 1948 the pit had an output of 85 tons per day and employed 84 people. Pithead baths opened in January 1954 at a cost of £25,000. It reached its peak in 1954 when 141 were employed, and closed in 1959. ⁵
• The National Coal Board took over the estate immediately after the war and temporarily occupied the mansion house. In 1947 it decided to demolish it and in October offered the stained glass window from the staircase to Falkirk Town Council; the house came down late in 1949. The new mine was set up on the former site of the coke ovens, not far from the old Britannia Pit, with an overhead gantry feeding coal over the canal to wagons on a railway siding. ⁵
• In 1991 a boathouse was built on the south bank of the Union Canal for the Seagull Trust. It occupies the site of the Coal Board's pit and uses the concrete apron for its car park. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Glorious Gardens: South Bantaskine — Our Stories Falkirk / Scotland's Garden and Landscape Heritage
2. (secondary) South Bantaskine Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) South Bantaskine (NRHE 134515) — Historic Environment Scotland, trove.scot
4. (observational) South Bantaskine — Buddlepit
5. (secondary) South Bantaskine Park, by Geoff B Bailey — Falkirk Local History Society

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026