Archaeology Notes

Event ID 851449

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/851449

NS66NE 7.00 6663 6828

NS66NE 7.01 NS 666 683 boiler

NS66NE 7.02 NS 666 682 baths

(Location cited as NS 665 683). Sunk c. 1924. A three-shaft pit, with the two older shafts upcast. These have steam winding engines built by Murray and Paterson, Coatbridge, in 1924, both with piston valves operated by Stephenson valve gear. The engines are supplied with steam by six Lancashire boilers.

J R Hume 1976.

(Location cited as NS6661 6834 - centred on No. 1 shaft). CARDOWAN Colliery (also known as THE STEPPS)

Location: Stepps, by Glasgow

Previous Owners: Nimmo and Dunlop

Types of Coal: Gas, Manufacturing, House and Coking

Sinking/Production: 1924-28, production 1929

Year Closed: 1983

Average Workforce: 1,493

Peak Workforce: 1,970

Peak Year: 1959

Shaft/Mine Details: 3 shafts, No. 1 (upcast) 626m (NS 6661 6834), No. 2 (upcast) 626m deep (NS 6664 6835), No. 3 (downcast) new shaft sunk in 1958 (NS 6682 6823) with steel-framed tower 23m high, built by Redpath & Brown to house overhead electric winder. Shafts 1 & 2 powered by steam winders. Pneumatic mine-car handling circuit at the surface.

Details in 1948: Output 1,550 tons per day, 418,500 tons per annum. 1,346 employees. Simon Carves Baum-type washer [wet coal cleaning process], and flotation and filter plant for fines recovery [fines are small particles (less than 3mm) of coal or shale and are usually a by-product of coal preparation]. Baths (1935 for 792 men, with 65 cubicles), canteen, first-aid room. Fifty percent electricity self-generated, fifty percent from Clyde Valley. Report dated 19-08-1948.

Other Details: Reconstructed by the National Coal Board (NCB) in the 1950s involving third shaft in a plan to increase output from 1,500 to 2,750 tons per day. The scheme also included a new coal preparation plant [a complex where coal is separated into different sizes mechanically and often incorporates a washery where coal is separated from dirt using water - based processes of various degrees of sophistocation], and underground locomotive haulage. A very gassy pit, restricting underground power to compressed air until 1940s, when improved conditions permitted the introduction of electricity. Methane was susequently tapped to supply the colliery's 11 Lancashire boilers from 1958, and later to supply the neighbouring Black & White whisky bottling plant. An explosion in 1982 injured 42 men. This led to changes in national ventilation regulations, and the automatic isolation of electricity in facelines when methane levels rose above 1.25% by volume. Following closure in 1983, the surviving Murray and Paterson of Coatbridge steam winder was dismantled and is now on display not far away at the industrial museum in Summerlee Heritage Park, Coatbridge [NS76NW 14.00].

M K Oglethorpe 2006.