Broxburn - Steele's Oil Works

Parish:

Uphall, Linlithgowshire

Local authority:

West Lothian

Ownership:

Dr. James Steele (firm)

James Miller

Glasgow Oil Co. (Broxburn) Ltd.

Broxburn Oil Co. Ltd.

Opened:

Built c.1863

Closed:

Presumed demolished c 1876

Current status of site:

Waste ground and bing

Regional overview:

Early oil works in the Broxburn area

Redwood noted that Steel's (sic) Works lay on the North side of the canal in Broxburn, operated between 1862 and 1868 producing only crude oil from 30 horizontal and 50 vertical retorts.

Primrose, in "Strathbrock or The history and antiquities of the Parish of Uphall", 1898 states:

"Messrs. Miller and Steele erected a small works at Broxburn on the north side of the canal, where the present gas works stand"

Valuation rolls suggest that ownership passed from Dr. James Steele, a doctor of medicine living in Wishaw, to James Millar in about 1866. Millar, a banker from Wishaw, was a director in the Glasgow Oil Co. Ltd.(Broxburn). The lease of the land transfered to the Broxburn Oil Co. Ltd.in 1876; see BP archive 143391.

The Broxburn Oil Co. constructed a gas works on the site.

Location map

Site boundaries when passed to Broxburn Oil Co. Ltd. in 1881 143391

25" OS map c.1895, courtesy National Library of Scotland

1:2500 OS map overlaid on recent Lidar scan, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Aerial view

Recent images

Possible site of Steele's Oil Works. Looking north east. October 2015.

Related file records

143391 - Broxburn - Lord Cardross, land at Greendykes Rd. 1881 - Certified Copy Lease by The Honourable Shipley Gordon Stuart Erskine, Lord Cardross to The Broxburn Oil Company Ltd of 3.984 acres at Greendykes Road. Dated 1881. Entry Whitsunday 1881 Endurance - years 35.5 Expiry- Martinmass 1916 Rent £16.10/. Handwritten document in ink with pencil notes in margin. Includes Plan or Tracing Ground Let to Mr. Millar highlighted in red. Handwritten note states "This is the plan or Tracing referred to in the foregoing lease by the Honourable Shipley Gordon Stuart Erskine, Lord Cardross to the Broxburn Oil Company Limited dated 1st and 7th June 1881". Plan has been signed by Cardross, and 2 directors of the Broxburn Oil Company James Steel and John Hurll. Scale is given in Links/Chains.