Stonelaw Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Rutherglen, south-east of Glasgow, worked from 1854 to about 1900 by John R. Reid and then the Farme Coal Company through its No. 1 and No. 3 pits. In 1894 it employed 280 people raising gas, household and manufacturing coal, ironstone and fireclay. Three men died together in a firedamp explosion in 1858.

History

Stonelaw Colliery lay at Rutherglen, three miles south-east of Glasgow. It is recorded as opening in 1854, under John R. Reid, and later passed to the Farme Coal Company Limited, which also worked Farme Colliery. It had at least two pits, No. 1 and No. 3, and plans survive of its workings in the Main, Humph, Ell, Upper, Splint, Virtuewell and Kiltongue coals.

Deaths at Stonelaw run through the inspectors' reports from 1856. On 15 May 1858 an explosion of firedamp killed the sub-oversman, John Angus, and two roadsmen, James Hughes and Thomas Malloy (see Disasters, below). Later deaths include a bottomer killed by overwinding in 1874, a fireman in another explosion in 1879, and in 1895 a nineteen-year-old engineman believed suffocated by the exhaust fumes of an oil engine.

In 1894 the colliery employed 280 people, 226 of them underground, and raised gas, household and manufacturing coal together with ironstone and fireclay; in 1900 it employed 240. That December the bottomer William Dunsmore pushed a full hutch into the open shaft at a mid-working of the No. 1 Pit, a blind pit, thinking the cage had been raised to him, and fell after it to the bottom. The museum gives 1900 as the year of closure, but a miner was killed at Stonelaw No. 1 Pit in 1903.

Geology

The Main, Humph, Ell, Upper, Splint, Virtuewell and Kiltongue coals of the Lanarkshire coalfield, with ironstone and fireclay.

Workings

No. 1 and No. 3 pits, No. 1 a blind pit with a mid-working, worked under the Farme Coal Company.

Closure

Listed as closed in 1900; the No. 1 Pit was still working in 1903.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Farme Colliery — Both Rutherglen collieries of the Farme Coal Company.

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery is listed as working from 1854 to 1900, under John R. Reid and then the Farme Coal Co. Ltd. ¹
• Stonelaw No. 1 Pit was worked by the Farme Coal Co. Ltd in 1900 and 1903, when a miner was killed there by a fall of roof. ^2,3
• An explosion of firedamp on 15 May 1858 killed the sub-oversman John Angus and the roadsmen James Hughes and Thomas Malloy. ¹
• In 1894 the colliery employed 280 people and raised gas, household and manufacturing coal, ironstone and fireclay. ¹
• Plans survive of Stonelaw's workings in the Main, Humph, Ell, Upper, Splint, Virtuewell and Kiltongue coals. ^4,5
• On 3 December 1900 a bottomer fell to his death down the No. 1 Pit after pushing a full hutch into the open shaft at a mid-working. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Stonelaw Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) William Dunsmore, bottomer, Stonelaw No. 1 Pit, 3 December 1900 (accident record) — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Joseph Rincavich, miner, Stonelaw No. 1 Pit, 1903 (accident record) — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) STONELAW, Main coal: abandonment plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (primary) STONELAW, Splint, Virtuewell and Kiltongue: abandonment plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 8 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026