Comrie Colliery

(Location cited as NT 0053 9100 - centred on No.1 shaft). COMRIE Colliery

Location: Oakley, Dunfermline

Previous Owners: Fife Coal Company

Types of Coal: House, and blaes

Sinking/Production Commenced: 1936-9

Year Closed: 1986

Average Workforce: 1,245

Peak Workforce: 1,498

Peak Year: 1963

Shaft/Mine Details: 2 circular shafts, both 130m deep and with concrete lining, 6.1m and 6.7m diameter respectively. No. 1 shaft (NT 0053 9100) utilised a skip-winding system, and No. 2 shaft (NT 0064 9094) carried men and materials in conventional cages, and was also used for downcast ventilation. Main pumping was from No. 2 shaft pit bottom. Both shafts had ground-mounted electric winding engines with dynamic braking and rope guides.

Details in 1948: Output 1,600 per day, 425,000 per annum. 1,000 employees. Norton Washer, Baum type. Baths (1942), canteen, first-aid room. All electricity AC, supplied by National Coal Board (NCB) power station. Report dated 23-08-1948.

Other Details: At the time of construction, Comrie was the new showpiece pit of the Fife Coal Company, and was described in detail in The Layout and Equipment of Comrie Colliery in Fifeshire by William Reid, Inst. of Mining Engineers, Cardiff, 18-5-1939. Important features included the use of forced-fan ventilation (unusual at the time), and of skip-winding for raising coal from the pit bottom. The skips were brought in from Germany, and one week before the outbreak of World War II, the German engineers responsible for their installation were called home with the job unfinished. Unusual features included the ornamental fountain and pond at the heart of the surface arrangement, the real purpose of which was to provide a cooling system for Shaft No. 2's braking system. Underground transport was fully mechanised, with locomotive haulage and belt conveyors. Surface facilities included a Baum-type washer, and an areial ropeway to the bing. Scottish Rexco established a smokeless fuel plant at Comrie in 1964. In 1983, 75% of the mine's output was sold to the South of Scotland Electricity Board.

M K Oglethorpe 2006