Barony Colliery 1, 2, 3 And 4
Colliery (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Barony Colliery 1, 2, 3 And 4
Classification Colliery (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 72648
Site Number NS52SW 34
NGR NS 52748 21755
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/72648
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- Council East Ayrshire
- Parish Auchinleck
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Cumnock And Doon Valley
- Former County Ayrshire
NS52SW 34 52748 21755
Production ceased temporarily when No.2 pit collapsed in 1962. No. 1 pit was filled in to protect the surface buildings and shaft No. 3. In 1965 a fourth shaft was sunk. Production resumed in 1966. No 3 shaft (6.58m in diameter, 623.32m in depth) was downcast with two sets of cages and a winding capacity of 250 tonnes per hour. No.4 shaft was upcast (5.49m in diameter, 509.63m in depth) and had a single, one deck cage. The general underground layout is to the E of the colliery 'take' or from whence the coal is removed with 1988 workings to the NW and SW of the shafts.
Source: British Coal 1988.
This colliery is located midway between Auchinleck and Ochiltree and is 120m above sea level, and exploits strata which dip gently from NE to SW in the SE part of the Mauchline Basin. The area of working is bounded on the W side by a fault which has prevented links with the neighbouring Killoch Colliery. The two main phases of development in the pit are reflected in its surviving buildings. The original shafts (numbers 1 and 2) were sunk between 1906 and 1912 and associated polychrome brick buildings were erected in the same period. The latter include two winding engine houses built to house horizontal steam engines, as well as an electricity power station and a water treatment plant for a bank of Lancashire boilers, the flue of which still leads to a brick-built circular-section chimney.
Reconstruction of the colliery was begun in 1937, but was delayed for 10 years because of World War II. New projects included the sinking of a third shaft, which was subsequently equipped with a German-designed steel headframe which now dominates the colliery. This and all the other shafts operated using a continuous rope winding system driven by two electrically -powered ground-mounted winding engines, each housed in rectangular, brick buildings on the W and E sides of the headframe. Associated with No.3 shaft were a new car hall, workshops, lamp room, administration buildings and medical centre. Also included within the reconstruction was a new coal preparation plant located to the N of the site on the other side of the Barony Road and connected to the Car Hall by a covered gantry containing a belt conveyor. Another improvement was the provision of new pithead baths which replaced the earlier baths that had been built in 1931 by the Miners' Welfare Committee. The old baths were later converted to an NCB training centre.
In 1962, not long after the completion of reconstruction, production ceased following the total collapse of No.2 shaft in which several men were killed. The neighbouring shaft No. 1 had to be filled in, and in the ensuing redevelopment, the old headframe above the shafts were removed, as was the old coal preparation plant nearby to the S. The two steam winding engines were dismantled and the engine houses subsequently re-used as stores. In 1965, the resumption of production was achieved through the sinking of a fourth shaft 500m to the S. The new shaft provided emergency winding facilities, and was also equipped with an extracting fan house which ventilated the pit. During the period, the mine was connected to the national grid, and its power station converted to an electrified substation and workshop.
During the 1980s, rationalisation in the Scottish coalfield has isolated Barony as the only colliery outside the Forth Valley. The neighbouring coal-fired power station (built in the 1950s/60s at the same time as reconstruction) was closed and demolished, and electricity generation in Northern Ireland emerged as the pit's major market. The new coal preparation plant was closed, the coal being shipped by road haulage to Killoch Colliery's preparation plant, which has been retained (despite the closure of the remainder of Killoch Colliery) in order to treat coal from neighbouring open-cast developments. In early 1989, the future of Barony was in doubt. affected not only by uncertain geological factors, but also by electricity privatisation, which was encouraging an influx of cheap open-cast foreign coal. A recent surge in productivity has resulted from the successful exploitation of the Musselburgh seam, but this may not be enough to guarantee the future of the colliery.
See RCAHMS Record Sheet, MS 232/ST/CD/1.
Visited by RCAHMS (MKO), 20 October 1988.
There was a plaque situated on 'A'-frame headgear above No.3 shaft bearing the words, 'HEADFRAME manufactured and erected by MECHANS LIMITED of GLASGOW'.
Information from Mr Alan Riddle (British Coal Opencast), 1992.
Barony Colliery is visible on vertical air photographs (RAF 106G/UK/571, 3135-7, flown 1945).
Information from RCAHMS (DE), February 2000.
(Location cited as NS 5275 2175). BARONY 1, 2 3, and 4 Colliery
Location: Auchinleck
Previous Owners: Bairds & Dalmellington Limited from 1931
Types of Coal: House and Steam
Sinking/Production Commenced: 1910 (1 and 2), 1945 (3), 1965 (4)
Year Closed: 1989
Average Workforce: 1,078
Peak Workforce: 1,695
Peak Year: 1958
Shaft/Mine Details: 4 shafts, Nos.1 and 2 (NS 5276 2173) both 626m, No. 3 shaft (623m) added in reconstruction (1938-40 and 1945-50), and had 'A'-frame headgear (NS 5267 2187), the only part of the colliery to survive after closure in 1989, despite listed-building status. No. 4 (ventilation and emergency winding, 509m, NS 5264 2134) was sunk in 1965 after the collapse of Nos. 1 and 2 shafts in 1962, during which four men were killed.
Details in 1948: Output 1,520 tons per day, 380,000 tons per annum, longwall and stoop and room working. 1,264 employees. 5 screens for dry coal, Jig washer (Campbell Binnie and Reid). Canteen and Baths (built 1931, later replaced and converted into training centre). Morphia administration scheme. Steam and electricity, all generated at mine in its own power station. Report dated 09-08-1948.
Other Details: Barony Power Station opened by the SSEB on an adjacent site in 1953, burning slurry from the washery. It closed in 1982 and was subsequently demolished. The Coppee coal preparation plant was the first full-scale dense-medium plant in Scotland, and was opened in 1957. Linked underground to Highhouse (NS52SW 29). The last working pit in Ayrshire at closure in 1989.
M K Oglethorpe 2006.
'A' Frame surviving from the Barony Colliery.
Photographed on behalf of the Buildings of Scotland publications.
RCAHMS 2009.
Note (14 December 2022)
The A frame and stone monument form a memorial for the former Barony Colliery.
Information from HES 14 December 2022
