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, ten 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.

On Saturday 28 May 1887 an explosion in the Splint Coal killed seventy-three men and boys (see Disasters, below).

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

The closure date is not known. The Lists of Mines return the colliery to 1920.

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.

Disasters & major incidents

• Udston Colliery explosion, 1882
  15 May 1882 · Explosion · 3 fatalities
  Late on the afternoon of Monday 15 May 1882 a miner and his son driving a place through to a back drift in the main coal of No. 1 pit at Udston Colliery, near Hamilton, holed into gas with the manager and oversman beside them, and the explosion killed the manager, William Archibald, Charles Morrison and his son William, and badly burned the oversman. Most of the day shift had left the pit an hour before.
• Udston Colliery explosion, 1887
  28 May 1887 · Explosion · 73 fatalities
  At about nine o'clock on Saturday 28 May 1887, as men were breaking for food, an explosion swept through the Splint Coal workings of Udston Colliery near Hamilton, sending flame up both shafts. Seventy-three men and boys died, 53 burned and 20 suffocated; only two men and a pony driver in the Splint survived. H.M. Inspector Ralph Moore blamed a shot fired in secret that ignited gas and then coal dust. It is said to be Scotland's second worst coal mining disaster, and Keir Hardie called the deaths murder.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Udston' (catalogue 6814, Humph, dated 1934); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ³

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
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Udston' (catalogue 6814, Humph, dated 1934); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ³

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. (primary) Udston Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: UDSTON — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

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