Whitrigg Colliery

Also known as	Lady of the Dales, Whitrigg 2, 4 and 5 Colliery, Whitrigg Nos 1 & 2 Pits
Location	Whitrigg, Whitburn, West Lothian — 55.8632, -3.6521 (site)
Commodity	Coal
Type	Coal
Worked	Sinking and production from about 1900–1972
Maximum depth	No. 5 pit 323 metres (downcast)
Operators	R. Forrester and Co., Ltd. (1900–1947), National Coal Board (1947–1972)

Overview

Whitrigg at Whitburn, known locally as the Lady of the Dales, was one of the larger West Lothian pits: three shafts and two surface mines, over twelve hundred people at its peak in 1952, and 1,260 tons a day in 1948. It generated all its own electricity and had pithead baths from 1932. It closed in 1972.

Young trees and a waymarked path through Whitrigg Community Woodland by Whitburn — Whitrigg Community Woodland Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph

History

Sinking and production began about 1900 under Robert Forrester and Company, later R. Forrester and Co. Ltd, which held the colliery until nationalisation in 1947. The Mines Inspectors' returns give 176 people in 1900, 322 in 1905 and 419 in 1910, when the colliery is marked as sinking, then 498 in 1915 and 713 in 1920. It dipped to 487 in 1923 before climbing again: 584 in 1933, 850 in 1940 and 900 at nationalisation, when it turned out 300,000 tons of coking, household, industrial, manufacturing and steam coal. By 1948 the workings were Whitrigg 2, 4 and 5. The National Coal Board's report of 30 July that year gives an output of 1,260 tons a day and 315,000 tons a year on longwall working, with 910 employees, four screens, a Baum-type washer by the Norton Engineering Company, pithead baths dating from 1932, a canteen and a first-aid room. All the electricity was generated at the mine. A No. 6 mine was added later, beginning production in 1952 and ceasing in 1958, with an average workforce of 109. The peak came in 1952, with 1,208 people. The 1954 return splits them: 111 at No. 6 on household coal from the China seam, and 1,208 at Nos. 2, 4 and 5 on gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal from the China, Main and Smithy. The colliery closed and was abandoned in 1972, its average workforce across its life 953.

Geology

Whitrigg worked the West Lothian coalfield at Whitburn. The seams returned are the Jewel and the Main from 1905, the China from 1910, the Balbardie from 1920 and the Smithy by 1954. It sent out gas, coking, household, industrial, manufacturing and steam coal, which is a wider range than most pits managed from one set of workings.

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

Workings

Three shafts and two surface mines. No. 5 pit was the downcast at 323 metres; No. 1 was 77 metres and No. 2 was 106 metres; No. 4 mine fell at one in six for 34 metres. A No. 6 mine was added later, producing from 1952 to 1958. The surface plant included four screens and a Baum-type washer by the Norton Engineering Company, with pithead baths from 1932, a canteen and a first-aid room. All electricity was generated at the mine rather than bought in.

Closure

The colliery closed and was abandoned in 1972.

What remains

No account of the colliery ground as it stands today has been found in the sources read for this record. Whitrigg Community Woodland, a newly wooded area with waymarked paths, lies by Whitburn nearby.

Related mines

Polkemmet Colliery — Neighbouring West Lothian pits at Whitburn, working the same coalfield.

Nearby mines

Riddochhill Colliery — 2.0 km NE
Loganlea Colliery — 2.6 km S
Addiewell Oil Works — 3.1 km SE
Polkemmet Colliery — 3.3 km W
Bathville Colliery — 4.6 km NW

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.

Three shafts and two surface mines: No. 5 pit 323 metres deep and the downcast, No. 1 pit 77 metres, No. 2 pit 106 metres, and No. 4 mine falling at one in six for 34 metres. A No. 6 mine was added later, producing from 1952 to 1958 with an average workforce of 109. ¹
A National Coal Board report dated 30 July 1948 gives an output of 1,260 tons a day and 315,000 tons a year on longwall working with 910 employees, four screens, a Baum-type washer by the Norton Engineering Company, baths dating from 1932, a canteen and a first-aid room, with all electricity generated at the mine. ¹
The colliery's average workforce over its life was 953 and its peak 1,208, reached in 1952. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Whitrigg Colliery in the National Record of the Historic Environment (reference)

Historic Environment Scotland’s record, from M. K. Oglethorpe’s inventory of the nationalised Scottish coal industry: owners, dates, workforce, every shaft and mine with its depth, and the 1948 Coal Board report in full, with four photographs of the colliery taken by John R. Hume in 1966.

View source

Whitrigg Colliery at the Durham Mining Museum (reference)

Owners, output and employment from 1900 to 1954 including the split between No. 6 and Nos. 2, 4 and 5, the seams worked, and a partial list of those killed with the inspectors’ accounts of each death.

View source

Sources

(primary) Whitrigg Colliery — Historic Environment Scotland
(observational) Whitrigg Community Woodland (Geograph 1672468) — Geograph Britain and Ireland, Richard Webb
(secondary) Whitrigg Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

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