Lodge Colliery

SMR 1734 / NS 8463 7162

Lodge Colliery to the west of Slamannan was connected by sidings with the North British Railway giving access to the markets in and around Edinburgh and Glasgow.  It was well known for its steaming coal.  It started operations in the mid 1840s shortly after the opening of the Slamannan Railway.  Over the years a number of accidents, some fatal, occurred, and these are recorded in the bibliography below.

The owners of Lodge Colliery were:

Pit No. 1  Located at the North Monkland Junction on the Slamannan Railway (NS 8465 7164)

Pit No. 2  Located immediately south of Lodge Farm (NS 8445 7125)

The colliery was one of several that caused pollution of the River Avon.  In 1890 it was noted that :

“Binniehill and Lodge are unimportant Collieries, with leases to run for 10 and 6 years respectively, which periods will probably be sufficient for their exhaustion.” 

The coal was exhausted in 1896 when the lease ran out and the colliery was closed with the plant and equipment being sold off.

Bibliography

Murray, A.	1911	Fifty Years of Slamannan Co-operative Society Limited. “The Lodge colliery opened about the same period [as Binniehill Colliery].  This field belonged to the Aitkens of Falkirk, who had also a lease of Todsbughts and Drumclair.  Mr John Nimmo secured these fields from the Aitkens about 1851.  The old houses at Lodge, Newfielddykes, the Thorn Row, and the village of Drumclair were built in connection with those fields.” (p.17)
Newspapers		Various. Listed and quoted below.

Falkirk Herald 29 November 1855, 3:
“Lodge Colliery of Mr Nimmo.  Richard Bell, underground manager, presented with a miner’s compass; and Robert Walkinshaw, and eight-day clock.”

Falkirk Herald 25 July 1867, 5:  
“Pit Accident. — On Friday last an accident occurred in No. 1 Pit at the Lodge Colliery. Slamannan, whereby two men, named James Robertson and James Dunn, were very severely burned.  They had been putting some gun cotton into a hole which had been bored in the stone face for the purpose of blasting, when the steel pinch with which they were pushing the cotton in struck fire against the stone, the cotton thereby igniting, and the whole affair exploded, burning the two very severely about the face and hands.”

Falkirk Herald 13 October 1870, 4:
“Accident at Lodge Colliery. — On Tuesday afternoon an accident occurred at No. 2 pit, Lodge Colliery, to Edward Hall, a brusher, who resides at Binniehill, Slamannan.  It appears that between two and three pm on the day above mentioned, Hall and a man named Docherty were engaged in blasting and driving sledges into the roof of the pit, when suddenly a block of stone gave way falling on Hall and severely fracturing his left thigh.  Medical aid was immediately sent for, and the fractured limb set.”

1874 – Messrs John Watson, Balquhatstone & Lodge Collieries.

Falkirk Herald 24 March 1883, 2:  
“ASSAULT. M’Millan, a miner, residing at Burnrow, Slamannan, was charged with having, on the 16th inst., at No. 2 coal pit, Lodge Colliery, occupied by Mr John Watson, assaulted Francis Davidson, A miner, by striking him a blow on the nose with his clenched …”

North British Daily Mail 24 November 1883, 4:
“Action for Damages – Before Sheriff Lees, yesterday, proof was led in an action by Thomas M’Gee, miner, Avonhead, near Airdrie, against John Watson, coalmaster, 123 St Vincent Street, Glasgow, in respect of the death of his son, John, 19 years of age, also a miner.  Pursuer in his condescendence states that on 8^th May last his son was working in the upper seam of Lodge Colliery, Slamannan.  Having loaded a hutch, he drew it to the bottom, and seeing the gates open, he pushed it forward to put it on the cage.  No cage, however, was there, and his son and the hutch went headlong to the bottom of the pit, whereby he was instantly killed.  The pursuer avers that the accident was caused through the fault or negligence of the defender or of those for whom he is responsible.  The defender denies responsibility, and attributes the accident to the deceased’s own negligence.  His lordship made avizandum..”

Falkirk Herald 14 March 1888, 4:
“Fraud in a coal pit – Gabriel Macfarlane, miner, residing At Binniehill, Slamannan, pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing a hutch coal from the pit bottom at Lodge Colliery on 9th inst.  Macfarlane was working at the No. 2 seam of coal, and tried to get money he had not worked for by putting his own check in another miner’s full hutch, at the same time lifting away the “check” of the miner who filled the hutch thus deceiving the pitheadman…”

West Lothian Courier 24 March 1888, 3:
“Colliery Accident at Lodge Collieries –  On Tuesday last a fatal accident occurred to a boy named Allan, a drawer in No. 3 Lodge Pit, belonging to John Watson Esq, whilst at his usual work, a fall of stones from the roof completely covered his neck, and after he was relieved it was found that life was extinct – his skull was fractured.  He had only recently gone to work in the pit.”

Edinburgh Evening News 21 August 1889, 2:
“Instantaneously Killed by a Big Stone – John Alan, pit brusher, Slamannan, was yesterday afternoon instantaneously killed by a stone weighing 4cwt falling from the roof of the Lady Grange seam of No. 2 pit at Lodge Colliery.  His son was beside him at the time, and had to run a quarter of a mile for aid.”

Dundee Courier 7 August 1890, 1:
“– John Watson Ltd floated with collieries at Earnock, Eddlewood and Motherwell in the County of Lanark; and Lodge and Binniehill in the County of Stirling… “Binniehill and Lodge are unimportant Collieries, with leases to run for 10 and 6 years respectively, which periods will probably be sufficient for their exhaustion.  For the full terms of the leases reference is made to the leases themselves…”

Falkirk Herald 11 February 1893, 5:  
“Pollution of the River Avon – the works of Messrs John Nimmo & Sons at Broadrigg and also at the works of Messrs John Watson & Co, Lodge Colliery, all these being within the district. coal-washing works of Messrs Nimmo & McKillop are situated in Lanarkshire just …”

Falkirk Herald 16 September 1893, 5:  
“Pit Accident.— An elderly man named William Moore, a miner, was injured by a stone falling upon him in No. 1 pit, Lodge Colliery, on Tuesday morning. He was conveyed home, a number of his ribs being broken, but no serious results anticipated.”

Falkirk Herald 16 May 1896:
“Extensive sale of colliery plant at Binniehill and Lodge Collieries, Slamannan, on Thursday, 21st May, at 11 o’clock, Shirlaw, Allan & Co have received instructions from Messrs John Watson, Ltd, to sell by auction: eight pumping, winding, and driving engines; eleven steam boilers and mountings, pit pumps, pipes, and connections; wagon, cart, and hutch weighing machines; pit cranes, pithead frames, pulleys, screes and scaffolding, railway wagons, brake van, hutches, & c; about 450 tons railway rails, points and crossings, &c & c. Also building material of workshops, offices, engine, and boiler seats, and chimney stalks. For trains see NBR timetable. Catalogues from auctioneers. Hamilton, 12th May, 1896.”

Edinburgh Evening News 4 January 1897, 3:
Two leading collieries have, during the past twelve months, succumbed to exhaustion. These were Binniehill and Lodge Collieries Slamannan, lately owned by Messrs John Watson, Ltd. 

G.B. Bailey, 2025