Archaeology Notes

Event ID 752184

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/752184

NS62NE 42 6847 2619

This colliery is depicted on the 1:10560 scale Ordnance Survey map (Provisional Edition, 1958).

Information from RCAHMS (MMD) 20 August 1998.

(Location cited as NS 6848 2622). KAMES Colliery

Location: Muirkirk

Previous Owners: Bairds & Dalmellington Limited from 1931

Types of Coal: Gas and Steam

Sinking/Production Commenced: c.1870

Year Closed: 1968

Year Abandoned: 1968

Average Workforce: 569

Peak Workforce: 634

Peak Year: 1957

Shaft/Mine Details: 2 shafts, No. 1 249m, No. 2 251m

Details in 1948: Output 660 tons per day, 165,000 tons per annum, longwall and stoop and room working. 606 employees. 3 screens for dry coal, Baum-type washer (Blantyre Engineering Company). Baths (1933, for 540 men, with 40 shower cubicles), canteen, morphia administration scheme. Steam and electricity, all generated on site. Report dated 09-08-1948.

Other Details: Thought to be a gas-free pit until a gas/dust explosion killed 17 men in 1957. Reconstructed in 1950s, headframes and engine houses being replaced by tower-mounted Koepe winders, and major developments underground. No. 1 shaft was equipped with automatic skip winding, with a single 3.5 ton skip and counter balance. No. 2 shaft had two double-deck cages, accommodating 5 men or 1 hutch per deck. The electric winding equipment was supplied by the Swedish company, ASEA. Clean air was provided by 'forced ventilation', an unusual arrangement compared with most pits, where exhaust ventilation was the norm.

M K Oglethorpe 2006.