Oakfield Colliery
Colliery (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Oakfield Colliery
Classification Colliery (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 131524
Site Number NT19SW 62
NGR NT 1329 9354
NGR Description Centred NT 1329 9354
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/131524
- Council Fife
- Parish Beath
- Former Region Fife
- Former District Dunfermline
- Former County Fife
NT19SW 62 133 936
Oakfield Colliery
This site has been generated from bibliographic references ('Guide to the Coalfields 1948') and has not been checked in the field.
Guide to The Coalfields, 1948
Information from RCAHMS (MKO) 9 July 1998
Noted from vertical air photographs (RAF 106G/UK/983, 4012-4014, flown 8 November 1945) at this location is an area of open-cast mining with the remains of a traditional deep mine (Lassodie Colliery) situated to the S.
Information from RCAHMS (DE), December 2003
(Location cited as NT 1333 9355). OAKFIELD Colliery
Location: Kelty
Previous Owners: Fife Coal Company
Types of Coal: Steam
Sinking/Production Commenced: 1944
Year Closed: 1949
Year Abandoned: 1950
Average Workforce: 70
Peak Workforce: 70
Peak Year: 1947
Shaft/Mine Details: two surface mines, main mine 503m, return mine 375m long
Details in 1948: Output 60 tons per day, 15,000 tons per annum. 62 employees. All electricity from National Coal Board. Report dated 10-08-1948.
Other Details: With Benarty (NT19NE 74) and Blairenbathie (NT19SW 63), one of a group of successful post-war short-term drift mines commenced by the Fife Coal Company and continued by the National Coal Board.
M K Oglethorpe 2006.
Ground Survey (29 August 2009 - 28 September 2009)
NT 105 945 (centred on) A desk-based assessment and walkover survey of Blairadam Forest were undertaken to enable the FCS to make informed decisions on the management of the cultural heritage within it. The forest lies W of the M90 motorway, near Kelty, and measures c12sqkm. Sites identified in the assessment were visited over several days between 29 August and 28 September 2009. The survey found that many of the boundaries that once belonged to Blairadam estate can still be identified in the forest. The boundaries (comprising tree-lined banks, ha-has and walls), belong to the designed landscape created by the Adam family over three generations between 1733 and 1834. It was possible, in many areas, to distinguish between three different phases of boundary alterations. The survey also found extensive mining remains along three different burns, some of which may date to the medieval period. The most extensive of these remains was an area of bell pits dating to the 18th century and possibly earlier. Later mining remains included a possible 19th-century mine almost hidden along the Kelty Burn, as well as remains of Blairenbathie Colliery and a later drift mine dating to the 1940s. The ruins of two farmsteads were found on the periphery of the forest close to the large opencast mine, as well as a possible WW2 watchtower. Other sites of interest included several reservoirs, waterworks and dams, the ruins of two cottages, and a great many quarries. As part of the study a suite of GIS shape files and a database were created to help with future mitigation.
Archive: RCAHMS
Funder: Forestry Commission of Scotland
Tamlin Barton, David Perry, Ray Cachart and David Bowler - Alder Archaeology Ltd
