Hamilton Palace Colliery

Location formerly entered as NS 724 579.

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

Information from RCAHMS (MMD) 24 August 1998.

(Location cited as NS 7240 5799). HAMILTON PALACE (also known as THE PAILICE)

Location: Bothwellhaugh

Previous Owners: Bent Colliery Company

Types of Coal: House, Gas, Manufacturing and Steam (including locomotive)

Sinking/Production Commenced: 1884

Year Closed: 1959

Year Abandoned: 1959

Average Workforce: 552

Peak Workforce: 605

Peak Year: 1948

Shaft/Mine Details: 2 shafts each 291m deep, No. 1 winding from 168m

Details in 1948: Output 500 tons per day, 137,500 tons per annum. 605 employees. Screening: 5 bar travelling tables [mechanically-driven device for separating different sizes of coal comprising a number of parallel inclined bars spaced at regular intervals allowing the coal to slide down the incline under gravity]. Campbell Binnie Reid washer [mechanical equipment for the wet cleaning of coal as part of coal preparation prior to sale]. No baths. Canteen (pieces only) [Please note that 'pieces' is a colloquialism for sandwiches]. No medical services. DC electricity generated at colliery. AC bought from Central Electricity Board to drive 2 main pumps. Report dated 10-08-1948.

Other Details: No. 1 pit dependent on ponies for underground haultage, No. 2 pit more advanced. In 1913, one of Scotland's biggest producers, but increasing problems from the 1920s. At this time, permission was given to mine under the Duke of Hamilton's mausoleum, which had been structurally designed to withstand ground movement. Splint coals especially suited to railway steam locomotives, and exported widely (e.g. to Argentina).

M K Oglethorpe 2006.