Scottish shale Scottish shale

Deans No.4 pit

Parish:
Bathgate, Linlithgowshire
Local authority:
West Lothian
Ownership:
West Lothian Oil Co. Ltd
Seams worked:
Broxburn Shale
Opened:
1886?
Closed:
1886
Current status of site:
Beneath loading bay of distribution depot. No surface features survive
Regional overview:
Mines in the Deans area

deans4pit.jpg

Inclined adit

Serving Deans Crude Oil Works

NOTE: This Deans No. 4 Pit, operated by West Lothian Oil Company Ltd is at a different location and completely separate from Deans No. 4 Mine, subsequently developed by the Pumpherston Oil Company Ltd.

The early history of the Deans mines remains unclear. The Second Edition (c.1897) OS maps appears to show No. 4 intact, and perhaps in operation, served by a substantial range of pit-head buildings, and with an established waste tip. Plans of the workings shows the shaft serving a very small network of tunnels in the Broxburn Shale which were last worked in 1886. It is unclear from drawings whether the shaft also served Fells Shale workings accessed from Caputhall Mine.

Shale-field: Deans shale-field.

  • Location & workings at Deans No.4 pit

      • Show seams:

  • Detailed maps
  • External references

      • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 12262, showing workings in the Upper Dunnet or Pattison, Middle Dunnet, Lower Dunnet or Barracks Shales from Deans No. 4, abandoned in 1938.

  • Accident records

      • Oral history transcript: Mr Robert McGechie.

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