Mid Breich No.3 pit

Parish:

Livingston, Linlithgowshire

Local authority:

West Lothian

Ownership:

Hermand Oil Co. Ltd (1890)

Seams worked:

Broxburn Shale

Opened:

Early 1880's?

Closed:

1887

Current status of site:

Storage yard, remains of waste bing survive in adjoining woodland

Regional overview:

Mines in the Breich area

A pithead adjacent to Breich Oil Works. Mine plans show that the workings were served by a second shaft immediately south of the West Calder loop lines. The staging associated with No. 3 Pit seems also to have received shale via tramways from No. 4 Pit (to the west), and Easter Breich No. 1 and No. 2 (to the east).

The Ordnance Survey of c.1897, suggests that the pithead staging of No. 3 Pit remained intact at that time.

Location & workings at Mid Breich No.3 pit

Detailed maps

Mid Breich No.3 Pit - 25" OS map c.1897, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Mid Breich No.3 Pit - 25" OS map c.1917, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Mid Breich No.3 Pit - 1:2,500 OS map c.1959, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Mid Breich No.3 Pit - Aerial, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Drawings

Plan of workings for No. 3 Pit, showing the buildings of Breich Oil Works. Courtesy British Geological Survey LSP 48 (15647-01).

Recent images

The shaft of Mid Breich No. 3 Pit lies beneath the gates to the caravan storage park. Looking north west. November 2011.

External references

Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 2104, showing workings in the Broxburn Shale from Breich No. 3, abandoned in 1887.