Cobbinshaw South No. 1 pit

Parish:

West Calder, Midlothian

Local authority:

West Lothian

Ownership:

South Cobinshaw Oil Co.

Seams worked:

Raeburn Shale

Opened:

c.1870

Closed:

c.1875

Current status of site:

Moorland with traces of earthworks

Regional overview:

Mines in the Cobbinshaw area

Vertical shaft

Serving Cobbinshaw South Oil Works

In c.1870 the West Calder Oil Company Ltd sub-let rights of the north-eastern part of the Cobbinshaw shale-field to the South Cobbinshaw Oil Company (a partnership of Jonathan Hyslop, Hugh Rose and James Falshaw) who mined shale to supply Cobbinshaw South Oil Works.

Surviving mine plans are ambiguous, but suggest extension of workings northwards, beyond the extent shown on the Underground Workings map below. Other plans also show two unidentified shafts to the Raeburn shale (marked on the Map below).

Shale-field: Cobbinshaw shale-field.

Mapped by the Ordnance Survey of c.1895, showing probable site of No. 1 immediately north of the railway siding.

Location & workings at Cobbinshaw South No.1 pit

Detailed maps

Cobbinshaw South No.1 Pit - 25" OS map c.1895, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Cobbinshaw South No.1 Pit - 25" OS map c.1906, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Cobbinshaw South No.1 Pit - Aerial, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Drawings

Extent of South Cobbinshaw workings as surveyed in March 1874 (British Geological Survey LSP 55 (15646-01)).

Ink tracing (perhaps based on LSP 55 above) labelled "reduced from Mr Hyslop's plan" with lines that suggest a northward extension of workings, the principal line dated October 1873. (British Geological Survey LSP 392B (16301-01)).