Scottish shale Scottish shale

Seafield coal mine

Parish:
Livingston, Linlithgowshire
Local authority:
West Lothian
Ownership:
Seafield Patent Fuel Company
Seams worked:
Houston Coal
Opened:
c. 1874
Closed:
c. 1874
Current status of site:
Landscaped open space; no trace of surface features remains
Regional overview:
Mines in the Seafield, Cousland, and Boghall area

seafieldcoalmine.jpg

Inclined adit

Serving Seafield Artificial Patent Fuel Works ? (see Seafield Crude Oil Works for history)

Small scale mine workings in the Houston Coal, not named on any available plan, reaching the surface a little to the west of Seafield No. 1 Shale Mine. Marked "LW 1874" on plan LSP576 . If this is taken as last year of working, it seems probable that the mine supplied the short-lived Seafield Artificial Patent Fuel Works; a plant making briquettes from a mixture of coal, peat and shale oil tars. This opened c.1874 and seems to have operated for about a year.

The OS map c.1896 shows three walls, presumably where the inclined shaft entered the ground, but labels this "old shale mine".

Shale-field: Cousland and Seafield shale-field.

Mapped by the Ordnance Survey of c.1896, showing adit labelled "old shale mine".

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