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General

Newcraighall Colliery is situated near the eastern boundary of the City and Royal Burgh of Edinburgh, and on the west side of the Edge Coals of the Lothian coalfield. The upcast or inclined dook, with a varying gradient of 63 degrees to 70 degrees to the horizontal, was driven in 1889 and the vertical shaft or downcast was sunk in 1910 to a depth of 811 feet. The dook has an average cross-section of 14 feet wide by 7 feet high and the shaft is 16 feet in diameter.

The output is about 800 tons of coal per day and 640 persons are employed below ground and 145 on the surface.

The dook is equipped with a fan circulating about 45,000 cubic feet of air per minute at 1.2 inches water gauge.

Management

The mine is in the Northern District of the No. 2 Area (Lothians) of the Scottish Division of the National Coal Board and the officials deemed to be in line of technical management are as follows :—

Area General Manager	Mr. L. R. Milligan.
Assistant Area General Manager	Mr. D. S. Harrison.
Area Production Manager	Mr. G. R. Buchanan.
Deputy Area Production Managers:
Planning	Mr. D. C. McGill.
Development	Mr. W. H. Forgan.
Assistant Area Production Manager	Mr. G. Rowan.
Assistant Area Production Manager (Operations) Northern District	Mr. H. P. Cameron.
Group Manager	Mr. W. B. Stewart.
Manager (up to 3rd September, 1955)	Mr. L. Thomson.
Manager (from 5th September, 1955)	Mr. H. Nimmo.
Under-manager	Mr. P. Hastie.

Seams Worked

At present three seams are being worked, namely, the Five Feet (1 section), the Nine Feet (4 sections) and the Four Feet (1 section), all in the less inclined area towards the bottom of the Lothians syncline.

Naked lights are used in the normal working but the deputies are provided with Concordia electric cap lamps, type C.L.A.4/5/6, and Prestwich Patent Protector, type 6, flame safety lamps.

The workings are damp to very wet and some 1,250 gallons of water per minute are pumped continuously.

(a) Now see Section 121 of the Mines and Quarries Act, 1954.

 

A copy of this report was kindly donated by
West Cumbria Mines Research.