Scottish shale Scottish shale

Archibald Hood

Company number:
Not known
Share capital:
£?
Started:
Pre 1856
Finished:
1890 or later
Registered office:

Uncertain

Oil works:
Whitehill Oil Works (Midlothian)

Archibald Hood acquired the lease of Whitehill Colliery in 1856 and greatly extended mining operations, subsequently developing brick works, gas works and oil works associated with Whitehill pit, and constructing the mining village of Rosewell. In 1890 Hood's interests at Whitehill, and a number of other Midlothian pits, were amalgamated with the Marquis of Lothian's interests in pits at Newtongrange to form the Lothian Coal Company Ltd. Hood served as chairman of the company until his death in 1902

From 1862 Hood developed substantial coal mining interests in South Wales and was highly influential in the industry, serving as Chairman of the Joint Sliding Scale Committee and the Vale of Glamorgan Railway. He left an estate valued at £210,147.

  • Newspaper references

      • BARRELS (Crude Mineral Oil) – For Sale, between 700 and 800. Apply Archd Hood, Rosewell.

      Scotsman 16th October 1876

      .......

      "THE LOTHIAN COAL COMPANY (LIMITED). - The prospectus of this Company has been issued. It has been formed for the purpose of acquiring and further developing the collieries at Newbattle, carried on by the Marquis of Lothian, and Whitehill, carried on by Mr. Archibald Hood, together with the leases held by Mr. Hood of the Whitehill and Eldin, Carrington, and Polton mineral fields, the whole forming an extensive mineral field of nearly 15,000 acres. The purchase consists of the whole plant, including 700 cottages, 600 waggons, buildings, locomotives, and machinery of every description, also the extensive brick and fireclay works carried on for many years at Whitehill. The purchase price has been fixed at £200,000, and the vendors have agreed to take payment of this amount in fully paid-up Ordinary shares, being the whole present issue of these shares. There are issued to the public 12,500 5 per Cent. Cumulative Preference shares at £10 each, and these will share ratably in the annual profits with the Ordinary shares after both have received 5 per cent. The present output is at the rate of 310,000 tons per annum, but a large increase is expected after the expenditure of £100,000 on extensions and improvement, to meet which the capital to be raised by the Preference shares will be applied. At the present rate of output the supply of coal will last 600 years. After this expenditure, the engineers, Messrs. M'Creath, Glasgow, and Geddes, Edinburgh, estimate the annual profits at £24,000, while Messrs. William Armstrong & Sons state the same at £30,000. The chairman of the board of directors is the Marquis of Lothian, and the managing director is Mr. Hood. The subscription list will close to-morrow."

      Dalkeith Advertiser, 13 March 1890

      .......

      Edinburgh Evening News,, 30th October 1902

      FUNERAL OF MID-LOTHIAN COLLIERY PROPRIETOR. The various extensive mines Lothian Coal Ltd., at Newbattle and Rosewell to-day employing nearly two thousand workmen, are closed to-day the occasion of the funeral at Cardiff of Archibald Hood, the owner Rosewell, Mid-Lothian, who died at Sherwood, Cardiff, on Monday.

      Dalkeith Advertiser, 13 March 1890

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