Barblues Colliery
Colliery(S) (19th Century), Ironstone Mine(S) (19th Century)
Site Name Barblues Colliery
Classification Colliery(S) (19th Century), Ironstone Mine(S) (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Arden
Canmore ID 83359
Site Number NS86NW 42.02
NGR NS 804 678
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/83359
- Council North Lanarkshire
- Parish New Monkland (Monklands)
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Monklands
- Former County Lanarkshire
Field Visit (September 1992)
NS86NW 42.02 804 678
The development of Barblues Colliery can be traced through the first three editions of the OS 6-inch map. The 1st edition (Lanarkshire sheet viii, 1864) depicts 'Arden Pit' (NS 8036 6787; CSW 4550), an ironstone mine at the end of a siding running N from the Monkland Railway. About 250m to the NW of this a spoil heap is depicted (NS 8014 6810; CSW 4556), apparently a disused mine, and one which had been linked, like the numerous pits depicted to the W and NW, to the Ballochney and Slamannan Railways rather than the Monklands line.
The 2nd edition depicts a very different landscape (Lanarkshire sheets iii and viii, 1899). The Barblues Colliery had come into being, centred to the SE of Arden Pit at NS 8047 6788 (CSW 4551): a complex of buildings, tips and sidings is depicted, linked to Stepends Junction to the S, on what had now become the Monkland Section of the North British Railway. From this hub, tramways fanned out to the WNW, NW and NE towards a number of mines and shafts, some of them disused. Amongst these were Arden Pit (CSW 4550), still in use, the spoil tip to the NW of that (CSW 4556), which appears to hav grown since the 1st edition (ibid), and two large pits, Pit No.9 at NS 7985 6803 (CSW 4864) and Pit No.4, 1200m to the NE at NS 8121 6894 (CSW 4583). By the time of the revised edition of the map (Lanarkshire sheet viii 1914, resurveyed 1910; sheet iii, 1922 resurveyed 1910), however, the entire complex had been abandoned, and all that remained were the spoil tips, those at the core of the colliery covering about 4ha.
Little survives above ground of these mines. The centre of the complex (CSW 4551) is marked by an area of disturbed ground and water-filled hollows, with a bing to the SE. Another large bing to the SW of this, and SE of Arden Pit (CSW 4550) has been landscaped, but there is no trace of the adit shown on the 2nd edition (ibid) to the NW of Arden Pit (CSW 4557). To the NW of this a crow's foot bing marks the site of the mine abandoned on the 1st edition (ibid) (CSW 4556). At the NE edge of the colliery, the site of Pit No.4 has been levelled and planted with trees, although to the E of the tramway leading to it, in a field S of Easterton steading at NS 8082 6832, there is a crow's foot bing (CSW 4558) which does not appear on any of the early OS maps (ibid).
(CSW 4550-1, 4556-8, 4583, 4864)
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB, PJD) September 1992
