Scottish shale Scottish shale

Stankards No.1 pit

Parish:
Uphall, Linlithgowshire
Local authority:
West Lothian
Seams worked:
Broxburn Shale
Opened:
c.1866?
Closed:
1873
Current status of site:
Waste ground and industrial yard
Regional overview:

stankards1pit.jpg

Vertical shaft 24 fathoms deep (No.1), Adit, inclined at 1 in 4 (No.45)

Serving Uphall Oil Works

Stankards No. 1 was presumably one of the first pits serving Uphall Oil Works, which opened in about 1866. The pit was abandoned in 1873, however OS maps suggest that some surface buildings survived into the 1890's, following which the site was buried beneath the advancing bing from Uphall Oil Works.

The workings were re-opened briefly from a new mine, Stankards No. 45. The shales of the Stankards basin were also worked by Roman Camp No. 4 Mine.

Shale-field: Broxburn shale-field.

Mapped by the Ordnance Survey of c.1895 showing shaft and small surface buildings, apparently out of use.

  • Location & workings at Stankards No.1 pit
    • Show seams:

  • Detailed maps
  • Recent images

  • Newspaper references
    • A visitor to the Uphall works – more especially if he should fall into the courteous hands of Mr Meldrum, who delights in explaining everything aborigine – would probably find himself conducted in the first instance to the shale pit, where a steam-engine is constantly employed in hauling up from a depth of 27 fathoms supplies of the raw material, the quantity brought to bank varying from 120 to 130 tons per day.

      Scotsman, 27th December 1871


  • External references
    • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 5874, showing workings in Upper Broxburn, Broxburn, and Grey Shales, abandoned in 1912.