Dysart, Frances Colliery
Colliery (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Dysart, Frances Colliery
Classification Colliery (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Frances Industrial Park
Canmore ID 53997
Site Number NT39SW 25
NGR NT 3120 9408
NGR Description Centred NT 3120 9408
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/53997
- Council Fife
- Parish Kirkcaldy And Dysart
- Former Region Fife
- Former District Kirkcaldy
- Former County Fife
NT39SW 25.00 3120 9408
NT39SW 25.01 NT 30985 93887 Headframe and Winding Engine House (Mainshaft)
(Location cited as NT 310 939). Frances Colliery, sunk c 1850. The present steel-framed headframe and coal-preparation plant are relatively recent.
J R Hume 1976.
Site recorded by Maritime Fife during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, Kincardine to Fife Ness 1996.
(Location cited as NT 3098 9388 (Frances shaft)). FRANCES Colliery (also known as THE DUBBIE)
Location: Dysart
Previous Owners: Originally the Early of Rosslyn's Collieries Limited, Fife Coal Company from 1923
Types of Coal: House and Steam
Sinking/Production Commenced: c.1850
Closed: 1988 (production ceased in 1985)
Average Workforce: 1,104
Peak Workforce: 1,482
Peak Year: 1957
Shaft/Mine Details: Frances shaft 460m deep (upcast, eliptical for 183m, and circular for remaining 277m (NT 3098 9388) Lady Blanche shaft 73m, Frances surface mine 732m long at 1 in 4 (NT 3096 9392) driven in 1924. New ventilation mine (NT 3091 9405).
Details in 1948: Output 1,250 tons per day, 266,000 tons per annum. 916 employees. Baum-type washer (coal cleaning system using water and compressed air), baths (1931), canteen, ambulance room. Reconstruction of underground transport in mid-1940s, including the introduction of large mine cars with direct-rope and locomotive haulage. Electricity supplied by National Coal Board (NCB) from their Kelty power station. Report dated 10-08-1948.
Other Details: Frances worked undersea coals from its cliff-top location. It was known locally as 'The Dubbie' because of wet undergound conditions, and was taken over by the Fife Coal Company in 1923 and subsequently equipped with its own washery (for cleaning the coal subsequent to bringing to the surface), built by Simon Carves in 1925. Further redevelopment occurred in the 1930s, and in the 1940s, new headgear and a ground-mounted Robey & Metro Vickers electric 1,600hp winding engine were installed with minimum disruption to production. Underground locomotive haulage (electric Greenbat units) was introduced in 1957. Its washery was closed in 1965, coal being taken to Bowhill (NT29NW 54) for treatment. Linked underground to Seafield (NT28NE 45) by 1981, and drained latterly from unit retained at Michael (NT39NW 23, previously closed in 1967). Fires caused by spontaneous combustion broke out during the 1984 strike. Retained on care and maintenance basis after 1985, but planned 'Frances Project' of 1990 never materialised, and the surface buildings were subsequently demolished with the exception of the headframe (NT 30985 93887), which survives as a monument to the Fife coal industry.
M K Oglethorpe 2006.
