Archaeology Notes

Event ID 855826

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/855826

NS98SE 81 centred 9867 8121

For Kinneil Ironworks which occupied part of this site see NS98SE 160

(Location cites as NS 9866 8121 - centred on No. 1 Shaft). KINNEIL Colliery

Location: Bo'ness

Previous Owners: Kinneil Cannel & Coking Coal Company

Types of Coal: House, Coking, Gas and Manufacturing

Sinking/Production Commenced: 1880-90

Year Closed: 1982

Year Abandoned: 1983

Average Workforce: 1,184

Peak Workforce: 1,268

Peak Year: 1960

Shaft/Mine Details: 4 older shafts, Furnaceyard Pit 311m, No. 2 Snab 351m, No. 4 Snab 128m, and Lothians 196m deep. New project begun in 1951, and completed in 1956. The 2 new shafts were 6.71m diameter and concrete-lined. No. 1 (NS 9866 8121) was downcast and equipped with 2 Koepe single-rope winders mounted in a tower, and raised the coal in 2 sets of two cages, each cage having 3 decks capable of carrying a 2-ton capacity mine car. No. 2 (NS 9879 8128) had a single ground-mounted Koepe winder and steel headframe for winding men and materials, and was upcast. In 1951, the new shafts were expected to exceed 900m in depth. Kinneil was merged with Valleyfield (under the Forth) in 1965 (NT08NW 43).

Details in 1948: Output 650 tons per day, 194,584 per annum. 601 employees. Baum type washer with froth flotation tank. Baths (1933), no canteen, first-aid. Electricity AC, none bought from outside. Report dated 19-08-1948.

Other Details: National Coal Board (NCB) reconstruction commenced in 1951, and was described in the new colliery brochure as marking 'the beginning of a major project in the great reconstruction programmes for the coal mines of Scotland envisaged in the Board's national plan'. The new design, including the car hall, had emerged following a visit to Bismark Colliery in the Ruhr, West Germany, and was designed to handle 3,000 tons of coal a day. A new Coppee coal washery was added as part of the scheme, which also included new offices, baths, canteen and medical facilities, the new layout of the colliery being overseen by the NCB's Scottish region architect, Egon Riss. Closed on 14 December 1982 because of severe geological conditions.

M K Oglethorpe 2006.