Udston Colliery

Overview

A small Lanarkshire pit of about two hundred people, near Hamilton. On the morning of 28 May 1887 an explosion in its Splint Coal killed seventy-three of the hundred and eighty-two men underground — Scotland's second worst coal mining disaster, five years after Blantyre and two miles away.

History

Udston belonged to the Udston Coal Company Limited and stood within three miles of Hamilton. It was begun about 1875 on a leasehold of some 150 acres, with two pits forty-seven yards apart, each 150 fathoms deep. They reached the Ell Coal at 118 fathoms, six feet thick; the Main Coal at 133, four feet; and the Splint Coal at 150, six feet. The Ell had been worked over the whole area, the Main over most of it, the Splint over sixty acres. No. 1, the upcast, worked the Main; No. 2, the downcast, the Ell and the Splint. A fan twenty feet across and six wide drew 53,500 cubic feet of air a minute out of the three seams. The Splint workings had been opened three years before the disaster and were worked stoop and room, the rooms eight feet wide and the pillars twenty-two yards square, in five sections. The Blantyre section's fourteen men were reached by a horse level and two cousies — self-acting inclines, in the Scottish word. At about five minutes past nine on Saturday 28 May 1887 the explosion came. A hundred and eighty-four men had gone down that morning and all but two were still below. The Ell and Main workings were undamaged and everyone in them was out by three in the afternoon, but five men in the Main had been killed by chokedamp coming up from the Splint, and it was feared that all seventy-one in the Splint were dead. Two were found alive within thirty yards of the bottom of No. 2 and recovered. Seventy-three died. Dr Robertson of Hamilton, who examined the bodies, certified fifty-three burned and twenty suffocated. All but seven bodies were recovered within forty-five hours; the last came out on 14 June. The colliery went on working. The Lists of Mines give 334 employed in 1894, 387 in 1910 and 229 in 1920, on household, manufacturing and steam coal from the Blackband, Humph, Pyotshaw, Kiltongue and Virgin seams.

Geology

The colliery worked three seams of the Lanarkshire coalfield in a shaft column of 150 fathoms: the Ell at 118 fathoms and six feet thick, the Main at 133 and four feet, and the Splint at 150 and six feet. Later returns name the Blackband, Humph, Pyotshaw, Kiltongue and Virgin. It was the Splint that exploded.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Two pits forty-seven yards apart, each 150 fathoms deep, on a leasehold of about 150 acres. No. 1 was the upcast and worked the Main Coal; No. 2 the downcast, working the Ell and the Splint. Ventilation was by a fan twenty feet in diameter and six feet wide, drawing 53,500 cubic feet a minute. The Splint was worked stoop and room, rooms eight feet wide and pillars twenty-two yards square, in five named sections, with horse levels and self-acting inclines between them.

Closure

No closure date has been established. The Lists of Mines return the colliery to 1920.

What remains

No account of the site as it is now was found in the sources read.

No account of surviving remains was found in the sources read.

Redevelopment

Not established.

Related mines

• Earnock Colliery — Adjoining collieries: Udston marched with Earnock on its north side, and Earnock sent its manager, oversman and roadsman to the 1887 explosion.

Nearby mines

• Blantyreferme Colliery — 0.9 km N
• Earnock Colliery — 1.2 km E
• Auchinraith Colliery — 1.6 km N
• Bent Colliery — 2.5 km E
• Blantyre Colliery — 2.7 km N

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.

• Udston Colliery belonged to the Udston Coal Company Limited, stood within three miles of Hamilton and was commenced about twelve years before 1887. The leasehold extended to about 150 acres. There were two pits forty-seven yards apart, each 150 fathoms deep, reaching the Ell Coal at 118 fathoms and six feet thick, the Main at 133 fathoms and four feet, and the Splint at 150 fathoms and six feet. ¹
• No. 1 pit, the upcast, worked the Main Coal; No. 2, the downcast, worked the Ell and the Splint. Ventilation was by a fan twenty feet in diameter and six feet wide, drawing 16,500 cubic feet of air a minute from the Ell, 12,617 from the Main and 24,383 from the Splint — 53,500 in all. ¹
• The Splint Coal workings were commenced three years before the explosion and covered sixty acres, worked stoop and room with rooms eight feet wide and stoops twenty-two yards square, in five sections — the Blantyre, the Rise, the Horse Road, the Horse Road Stoops and the Dook. The Blantyre section's fourteen men reached their face by a horse level and two cousies, or self-acting inclines. ¹
• The Lists of Mines return the colliery under Dunn and Ure and then the Udston Coal Company Limited, with 334 employed in 1894, 261 in 1900, 387 in 1910 and 229 in 1920, producing household, manufacturing and steam coal from the Blackband, Humph, Pyotshaw, Kiltongue and Virgin seams. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Report to the Secretary of State on the circumstances attending an Explosion at Udston Colliery, Hamilton, on the 28th May 1887, by Ralph Moore, H.M. Inspector of Mines — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Udston Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026