Wellsgreen Colliery

Overview

The Fife Coal Company's pit beside the Standing Stane Road south of Windygates, in the parish of Wemyss, sunk around 1890 to the Dysart Main at 83 fathoms. It employed over 400 men at its height, gained a drift mine in 1946 and closed in April 1959; a golf driving range now covers the site.

History

Wellsgreen lay just by the Standing Stane Road between Kirkcaldy and Windygates, south of Cameron Bridge, in the Wemyss district of Fife, north of the ravine of Wemyss Den. The lease is thought to have been granted several years before 1890, when the Fife Coal Company's pits were recorded as sinking with 59 men under Dugald Baird. The shaft reached the Dysart Main, the thickest seam in Fife, at 83 fathoms, passing through the Parrot seam. The Dysart Main was worked in two layers, the lower first, and in small areas, so that the ventilation could be shut off if the coal fired spontaneously.

Wellsgreen raised manufacturing and steam coal, then household and steam coal, from the Dysart Main, Sandwell, Boreland, Three Feet, Bowhouse and Lower Dysart. It employed 228 to 298 people in the 1890s and over 400 by 1910, under managers including Richard Kirkby, Peter Dunsire, William Lang and John Brown. It closed temporarily in 1927 and employed only 149 in 1933, rising again to 260 by 1940.

In 1946 a drift mine was opened to feed coal by conveyor to the pit's screens and washer. The National Coal Board took over in 1947, when Wellsgreen raised 78,400 tons with 210 people, and 306 worked there in 1954. The drift closed in 1958 and the pit in April 1959. A golf driving range and leisure complex has since been built on the site.

Geology

Fife coalfield, upper coal measures: the Dysart Main, Earl David's Parrot, Sandwell, Boreland (Three Feet), Bowhouse and Lower Dysart seams.

Workings

A shaft to the Dysart Main at 83 fathoms; a drift mine opened in 1946 feeding a conveyor to the screens and washer.

Closure

Closed by the National Coal Board in April 1959, a year after its drift mine; the Lower Dysart plan is dated 1959.

What remains

The site is occupied by a golf driving range and leisure complex.

Redevelopment

A golf driving range and leisure complex has been built on the former site of the pit.

Recorded claims

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

• Wellsgreen pits were recorded as sinking in 1890, under the Fife Coal Company. ¹
• The Dysart Main was reached at Wellsgreen at 83 fathoms, passing through the Parrot seam. ¹
• Wellsgreen, Coaltown of Wemyss, is dated 1888 to April 1959. ²
• Wellsgreen employed 276 people in 1894, 420 in 1910 and 210 in 1947, when it raised 78,400 tons. ³
• The Fife Coal Company worked the upper coal measures at Wellsgreen for household and steam coal. ⁴
• A drift mine feeding the screens and washer by conveyor opened in 1946 and closed in 1958; the pit closed in April 1959. ^1,5
• A golf driving range and leisure complex has been built on the site. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Wellsgreen Pit, Wemyss — Fife Pits
2. (secondary) NCB Collieries - Scotland (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) Wellsgreen Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) The Fife Coal Company: a short history (1922) — Scottish Mining Website
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Wellsgreen, Dysart Lower, abandoned 1959 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

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