Forest Heritage Scotland webpages - Kingshill Mine
Date 2009
Event ID 588688
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/588688
The website text produced for Kingshill No. 3 webpages on the Forest Heritage Scotland website (www.forestheritagescotland.com).
Introduction: Kingshill's coal mine
On the edge of Kingshill Forest, there are the remains of an old colliery, known as Kingshill No.3.
Sunk in 1946 it was the first major coal mine shaft constructed by the newly appointed National Coal Board (NCB) in Scotland.
Kingshill No. 3 joined the underground mines of the earlier Kingshill No 1 colliery shaft, located further north, near Allerton. It provided a second route for bringing coal to the surface, improving the speed of operations. World War II had just ended and coal was vital to the reconstruction of war torn Britain.
The benefits of this second shaft were dampened by the need to then transport the coal from Kingshill No. 3 to No.1 to be washed and processed. This involved a long tramway track to ferry the coal between the two sites.
The shaft, which was 24 metres deep, finally opened in 1951 and remained in use until 1974. At its peak, in 1958, it employed 769 staff. Little remains today of this once busy industry; however, the ruins of a building and you can see the line of the old tramway at the edge of Kingshill Forest.
