Scottish shale Scottish shale

Alderstone No.43 mine

Parish:
Bathgate, Linlithgowshire
Local authority:
West Lothian
Seams worked:
Pumpherston Shale
Opened:
c.1908
Closed:
Abandoned 1921
Current status of site:
In the wooded margins of a housing area. No trace remains of surface features survive
Regional overview:
Mines in the Alderstone area

alderstone43mine.jpg

Inclined shaft at a dip of about 1 in 1.8

Serving Addiewell Chemical Works

The last sunk and furthest east of Young's Paraffin Light & Mineral Oil Company Ltd's mines and pits in the West Calder area, working an isolated area of the Jubilee Seam of the Pumpherston Shale. The mine was served by a standard gauge mineral railway linking to the West Calder loop line near Gavieside.

Production Records (Available statistics): 42,367 tons (1921), 4,796 (1922). Shale was supplied to Addiewell.

  • Location & workings at Alderstone No.43 mine

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  • Detailed maps
  • Drawings

    • Recent images

    Alderstone43RECENT.jpg Alderston No.43 mine 55°52'29.59N 3°31'39.jpg AlderstoneBridgeRECENT2.jpg AlderstoneBridgeRECENT.jpg
  • Newspaper references

      • YOUNG'S PARAFFIN LIGHT AND MINERAL OIL COMPANY LIMITED.

      CONTRACTORS WANTED for the CONSTRUCTION of THREE BRANCH RAILWAYS, to of which are over one mile in length viz: (1) RAILWAY from Addiewell Works to Baads Coal Mine. (2) RAILWAY from near Gavieside to Alderstone Coal Mine. (3) RAILWAY from Hopetoun Works to Niddry Shale Mine. The permanent way material will be supplied by the Company. Plans may be seen, and Specifications obtained; on and after Monday 1st June, from Messrs. D & G.R. Rankine C.E.238 West George St Glasgow; and the works will be pointed out on Friday 5th June, leaving Addiewell Station, Caledonian Railway, at 10.30 am, and the route of the three railways will be inspected in one day. Offers to be lodged with the undersigned not later than Saturday, 13th June. JOHN FYFE, Managing Director.

      Scotsman, 29th May 1908.

  • External references

      • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 7412, showing workings in the Pumpherston Shale from Alderstone No. 43 Mine, abandoned in 1921.
      • Agreement No. 468. Licence under the Explosives Act for a mixed explosives store at No.43 mine, Alderstone, December 1910. Young's Paraffin Company Ltd; Inventory of Leases, Agreements &c. BP Archive 215854

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