Woodilee Colliery

Overview

Woodilee, at Lenzie north-east of Glasgow, opened in 1890 and closed in 1930. It began as a small steam-coal working of seventy-odd men under John A. McCallum, changed hands, and grew under the Woodilee Coal and Coke Company into a coking colliery of five hundred, raising ironstone as well as coal by 1920.

History

The colliery opened in 1890 and was returned to the Mines Inspectors under John A. McCallum, employing 74 people in 1894 and 69 in 1896 and sending out steam coal. It nearly trebled by 1900, to 197, then collapsed to 28 in the 1905 return — a stoppage the sources read for this record do not explain. Recovery was quick and sustained: 265 in 1910, 305 in 1915, 472 in 1920 and 501 in 1923, its largest recorded workforce. The product changed with the workforce. Steam coal is returned from 1894 to 1905; from 1910 the output is coking coal from the seams the returns simply call Coking and Main, and by 1920 ironstone is returned alongside it. The Woodilee Coal and Coke Company, later Woodilee Coal and Coke Co. Ltd, was the company of the later years, and the 1897 Ordnance Survey shows Woodilee Colliery Pits 1 and 2 with their mineral lines running off north of Lenzie. The company worked more than this one pit. On 27 September 1918 Kenneth Robertson, a miner in its employment at its Meiklehill Colliery near Kirkintilloch, struck a match to light his pipe at the customary break in the middle of the afternoon shift and was fatally injured by the explosion that followed. Matches were prohibited in that pit by the Coal Mines Act 1911 and Robertson knew it. The Sheriff-Substitute at Dumbarton found the death an accident arising out of and in the course of the employment and awarded his widow £300, but on appeal in June 1919 the Court of Session reversed him: what the man did was innocent enough, the court held, but it was for his own purpose and added a new peril to his employment, and so did not arise out of it. Woodilee closed in 1930. The last colliery anywhere in what is now East Dunbartonshire, at Gartshore, closed in 1968.

Geology

Woodilee worked the Scottish Coal Measures on the south side of the Kelvin valley, ground that yielded coal, ironstone and limestone across the district. The Mines Inspectors' returns name only two seams here, the Coking and the Main, and ironstone is returned from 1920. No more detailed account of the strata has been found in the sources read for this record.

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

Workings

Two pits, returned as Woodilee Colliery Pits 1 and 2 on the 1897 Ordnance Survey, connected to the railway by mineral lines. Shaft depths have not been found in the sources read for this record.

Closure

The colliery closed in 1930, at which date the Woodilee Coal and Coke Co. Ltd was still the recorded owner. No account of why it stopped has been found.

What remains

No description of the colliery ground as it stands today has been found in any source read for this record, and nothing is claimed here about what survives.

Related mines

• Meiklehill Colliery — Both held by the Woodilee Coal and Coke Co. Ltd, whose 1918 explosion at Meiklehill produced the Court of Session appeal that bears the company name.

Nearby mines

• Meiklehill Colliery — 1.3 km NE
• Auchengeich Colliery — 2.8 km SE, North Lanarkshire
• Gartshore Colliery — 2.8 km N
• Cardowan Colliery — 4.3 km S, North Lanarkshire
• Cadder Colliery — 5.9 km W

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.

• The Durham Mining Museum gives Woodilee Colliery as opened in 1890 and closed in 1930. ¹
• The Mines Inspectors' returns record steam coal from 1894 to 1905, coking coal from 1910, and ironstone alongside the coal from 1920. ¹
• In June 1919 the Court of Session reversed a Sheriff-Substitute's award of £300 to the widow of Kenneth Robertson, killed by an explosion at the company's Meiklehill Colliery on 27 September 1918 after striking a prohibited match, holding that in doing so he added a new peril to his employment and that the accident did not arise out of it. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Woodilee Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Dunbartonshire Accidents — Scottish Mining Website
3. (secondary) Kirky Miners (KW-22) — Trails and Tales, East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture
4. (secondary) Old Ordnance Survey Maps: Lenzie 1897 — The Godfrey Edition

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