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Prestongrange Colliery
Colliery (19th Century), Museum (20th Century)
Site Name Prestongrange Colliery
Classification Colliery (19th Century), Museum (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Prestongrange Pumping Engine; Scottish Mining Museum, Prestongrange; Scottish Mining Museum Trust; Morrison's Haven
Canmore ID 53724
Site Number NT37SE 78
NGR NT 37349 73680
NGR Description Centred NT 37349 73680
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/53724
- Council East Lothian
- Parish Prestonpans
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District East Lothian
- Former County East Lothian
NT37SE 78.00 centred 37349 73680
Mining Museum [NAT]
OS (GIS) MasterMap, September 2010.
NT37SE 78.01 NT 37303 73651 Pumping Engine
NT37SE 78.02 NT 373 736 Boiler
NT37SE 78.03 NT 371 738 Building
NT37SE 78.04 NT 37363 73679 Power Station
NT37SE 78.05 NT 37095 73593 Hoffman Kiln
NT37SE 78.06 NT 37104 73585 Chimney
See also NT37SE 79 Prestongrange brickworks. (Pump house and old generating station listed).
For adjacent and associated harbour of Morrison's Haven, see NT37SE 12.
Not to be confused with Scottish Mining Museum, Lady Victoria, Newtongrange (NT 333 637), for which see NT36SW 22.00.
Now a museum, under the Scottish Mining Museum Trust, and part of a 'coal trail'.
J R Baldwin 1985.
The remains of Prestongrange colliery and associated buildings are visible on a vertical air photograph (OS 85/015/28, flown 1985).
Information from RCAHMS.
(Location cited as NT 3728 7365). PRESTONGRANGE Colliery (also known as THE GRANGE)
Location: Prestonpans
Previous Owners: Originally the Grant Suttie family, and from 1874 the Prestongrange Coal and Iron Company. Taken over in 1895 by the Summerlee and Mossend Iron Company, which became the Summerlee Iron Company in 1898.
Types of Coal: Steam and House
Sinking/Production Commenced: from c.1820
Year Closed: 1962
Year Abandoned: 1963
Average Workforce: 686
Peak Workforce: 700
Peak Year: 1952
Shaft/Mine Details: 3 shafts, 115m, 166m, and 225m deep
Details in 1948: Output 670 tons per day, 167,000 tons per annum. 654 employees. Norton washer. Canteen (sandwich), ambulance room with ambulance. Power generated at colliery, but to be replaced by SE Scotland Electricity Board supply in September 1948. Report dated 15-07-1948.
Other Details: The beam engine for No. 1 shaft (which was built in Plymouth and survives as part of the museum, NT37SE 78.01) ) was bought from Harvey & Company of Hayle in Cornwall, and pumped water from the mineworkings from 1874 until 1954.
The pithead baths were completed in 1952 and were the 100th to be installed at Scottish collieries.
The colliery was greatly enlarged by the addition of a brick, tile and fireclay works in the 1890s, which operated until the 1970s. Following the mine's closure in the 1960s, it became a pioneering force behind the creation of the Scottish Mining Museum, of which it formed a major part along with Lady Victoria Colliery in neighbouring Midlothian. Following local authority re-organisation in the 1990s and the abolition of Lothian Region, Prestongrange became part of the East Lothian Museums Service, and remains open to the public as 'Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum'.
M K Oglethorpe 2006.
This site has only been partially upgraded for SCRAN. For further information, please consult the Architecture Catalogues for East Lothian District.
January 1998
Watching Brief (April 2008 - September 2008)
The Prestongrange Community Archaeology Project (PCAP) has completed its final season of fieldwork at the Prestongrange Industrial Museum (www.prestongrange.org/pcap). A Level 1 standing building survey was undertaken of the Customs House remains. A watching brief was carried out during the excavation of a trial pit at the location of the former salt girnal; this work revealed the footings of a possible substantial stone wall but further work to explore this was not possible. Walkover survey, including the foreshore, was undertaken, and this work will be
extended in 2009. Oral reminiscence work and historical research are ongoing.
Information from Oasis (cfaarcha1-66199) 16 January 2013
Watching Brief (25 July 2023 - 27 July 2023)
NT 37228 73670 The works consisted of a watching brief which comprised monitoring the groundbreaking works for a cable access track that ran from an existing electrical pylon to the newly constructed storage building. A series of concrete and brick structures relating to the rail infrastructure associated with Prestongrange Colliery and Brick and Fireclay Works were uncovered. Due to the limited nature of the site it was not possible to identify the use of these structures. All the features and deposits encountered were 19th or 20th century in origin.
Information from OASIS ID: rathmell1-518463 (S Krischer) 2023
