The Pumpherston Oil Company, one of the principal concerns in the country, having acquired the works of the New Hermand Company, West Calder, are at present sinking a new pit in proximity to the works at Breich, and this promises to give an impetus to industry in the district.
Edinburgh Evening News, 14th September 1903
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Operations are also proceeding on the Breich properties of the Company, where two shafts are being sunk to the Broxburn and Dunnet seams which are known to underlie the estate and in this way the company is able to obtain an ample supply of high-class shales for their Seafield works. The Breich field has been thoroughly tested by bores, and it is only a question of a few month's time before the bottom or Dunnet shale is reached. Already one of the shafts have pierced the Broxburn seam lying 4 ft thick.
Glasgow Herald, 18th September 1911
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The sinking of the...two pits to the the Dunnet shale on the company's freehold property at Mid Breich was now completed and the surface plant was well advanced......Powerful generating plant had been installed at Deans Works, and from there the current was to be carried to the new mines at Deans and the new pits on Mid Breich, in addition to supplying power for Deans and Seafield Works.
Pumpherston Oil Company Ltd AGM reported in the Scotsman, 29th May 1912
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At Mid-Breich pit certain of the workings have become very steep and are therefore difficult to carry on, but otherwise are proceeding normally (February 1924). It has been necessary to drive an upset for ventilation (June 1925).
From Scottish Oils Ltd, Managing Director's Monthly Report to the Board. (BP Archive No. 215662)
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...the first electric winding gear in Scotland was installed at No. 1 pit Cobbinshaw, Tarbrax. The plant was designed on the Ilgner System, which has a balancing set supplying current to a 200-h.p. motor directly coupled to the drum shaft ... one of a similar type was installed at Breich Pit, West Calder, in 1912 which is still giving first-rate service.
Sneddon, Caldwell and Stein, Seventy Five Years of Oil Shale Mining, Institute of Petroleum, 1938
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...it was decided to try our coal-cutters and conveyors in the Broxburn oil-shale seam at the Breich Pit. The first face was started in August 1941 and the second in December 1943. Both faces were in operation until July 1946, when, as a result of labour shortage, the pit was temporarily stopped, due to the necessity of concentrating output in other openings.
Caldwell, Stein, and Keddie. Longwall working of the Broxburn Oil-Shale seam with Coal-Cutters and Conveyors, Institute of Petroleum, 1950
