Scottish shale Scottish shale

Crofthead No.7 pit

Alternative names:
The North Pole
Parish:
Whitburn, Linlithgowshire
Local authority:
West Lothian
Ownership:
Peter Thornton
Closed:
c.1923?
Current status of site:
Bings and some building foundations survive

A coal pit, popularly known as the North Pole, in a remote part of Polkemmet Moor, to the north of Crofthead No.5.& 6 pits, and linked by a haulage.

  • Listed in the 1924 Colliery Year Book as employing 91 underground and 10 surface workers. Joseph, Dodd manager. Working (along with Crofthead No.6 pit), the Main, Ball, and Lower Drumgray seams, and ironstone.

  • Location of pit, and boundaries of the lands of Eastfield
    crofthead No.7 1913.jpg crofthead No.7 aerial.jpg crofthead No.7 lidar.jpg
    P1120633 P1120626

    References

    ACCIDENT. —A distessing accident oocurred on Friday morning at the North Pole Pit of Peter Thornton's Crofthead Collieries resulting in serious injuries to James Yeardley (17), who resides at Steel’s Rows Fauldhouae. Just after the pit started, Yeardly was caught by a runaway hutch, and sustained severe injuries the head and body. Dr. Ogilvy attended, and ordered his removal to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where lies a precarious condition.

    Linlithgowshire Gazette, 24th November 1922

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