Lady Victoria Colliery, Newtongrange, Midlothian South, Midlothian

Description

Built under supervision of John Morison and Archibald Hood, respectively mining engineer and managing director of the Lothian Coal Co. Steelwork of headgear and probably of remainder of colliery by Sir William Arrol & Co. Complete model colliery with chimney, engine house, power station, and pithead (tub circuit, tipplers and picking tables) built 1890-94. Washer and hopper added circa 1906-14, boiler house and power station extended circa 1924, picking tables extended in 1930s, gantry to baths added circa 1954. Most of plant, with various modernisations, in situ. Structures brick-built and steel-framed with sheet-metal-clad roofs.

ENGINE HOUSE: 1890-91 tall single storey and basement red and yellow brick with cornice and angle pilasters. Cross windows with ashlar mullions and transoms, original glazing pattern. 3-bay front with centre door approached by modern concrete steps. Segmental-arched basement door flanked by oculi. Louvred ventilator in tympanm. 4-bay sides. Sheet metal roof (renewed) with curved ridge ventilator.

Interior: 2400 hp winding engine by Grant Ritchie & Co Ltd, Kilmarnock, twin compound horizontal with 42" diam steam jacketted cylinders, 7' stroke, and Cornish drop valves. Drum 20' diam and 10'6" wide, replaced by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co 1964. Brakes also by Barclay, 1953. Spray shield with repainted lion rampant. Tiled walls. Modern travelling crane. Steel Polonceau roof trusses.

HEADGEAR by Sir William Arrol & Co, 1893-4. Steel box girders 85' high with back stays and latticed braces. T-shaped supports to platform and 19' diam wheels. Light super-structure for maintenance.

Pithead: From N to S. TUB CIRCUIT originally 3-storey, 9-bay gabled N elevation, each gable over 2 tall ground floor railway arches, 1st floor blocked oculi and 2nd floor twin blocked arched windows. Buttresses and finialled NW angle. Interior: ground floor brick arcades, some arches remarkably wide. Upper floors originally double decked (as was the lift cage), altered to 1, but with original floor surviving beneath it. Steel Polonceau trussed roofs on segmentally arched steel links between I-section stanchions, extended by about 8' due to lowering of steel plate floor. Post-war tub circuit restored to working order, 1986.

TIPPLERS tall 2-storey 7 by 7-bay range with ground floor brick arcades. Buttressed W elevation with ground floor arcade and blind 1st floor windows. Interior: steel Polonceau trussed roofs on segmentally arched steel links between I-section stanchions. Steel plate floor. Contains tipplers and "plough".

PICKING TABLES: lower 2-storey 7-bay block, originally 4-bays deep with arcaded brick ground floor, 1891-4, extended by 4-bays to S circa 1933-46 and entirely re-equipped and re-roofed with standard steel trusses at this period.

E ELEVATION of pithead extended circa 1906-14 to house 1st floor smithy and switch house. Narrow 3-storey gabled bay with arched opening for steps to pithead, projects from wider gabled bay on tall arcade. Smith's hearth at 1st floor. Post-1932 steel-framed infill to S. Small 2-storey 4-bay buttressed motor house, circa 1906-14 with later flat concrete roof. Elevator chute to washer (probably originally to transfer coal by conveyor belt to washer).

S GABLES:

OLD WASHER circa 1906-14 tall 6-bay brick building, blind except 2 tiers of small arched windows in recessed panels. Lower 4-storey 2-by 3-bay re-washer added to S circa 1914-32. Gabled ends, the taller block having oculi. 2-bay motor house projects to E with round headed window and sheet metal clad belt drive powered by Peebles (Edinburgh) electric motor.

Interior: important survival - 2 felspar Baum washers (cast-iron, with jiggers) driven by belt pulleys on line shafts. Probably disused since 1960s. Re-washer now empty.

DROSS HOPPER: remarkable brick-built gabled and vaulted hopper with each elevation of arched concave recessed panels between battered buttresses. 4-bay S gable with contemporary 2-storey flat-roofed projection. Twin barrel vaulted railway tracks run beneath, fed by hydraulically-opened flaps. Tall steel-framed metal clad elevator. 1960s hoppers to either side, fed from W by conveyor belts.

NEW WASHER ("Drew Boy") added circa 1963-4 to picking table block, steel-framed with brick infill. Asbestos M-roof.

Buildings N of Pithead:

WORKSHOPS, UNDERGROUND HAULAGE MOTOR HOUSE AND SETTLING TANKS. Single storey, arched windows within 6 recessed arched bays. Cornice, angle finials (cut down circa 1987) and decorative swept-roofed ventilators. Part of roof rebuilt flat. Demolished link to pithead may have held sinking engine. Prop department to N replaced circa 1960 by tall brick building and circular concrete settling tank on pilotis. Dredger tank parallel.

PULVERISER PLANT tall timber-framed elevator, with struts similar to headgear located over end of original boiler range. Supplied coal dust to drier and thence by gravity to boilers. Adjoining platform carried on re-used old 19th century cast iron pipes, adapted to meet reinforced concrete gantry of circa 1954.

CHIMNEY STALK: circular section brick with steel tie bands. Originally circa 150' tall with oversailer. Twice reduced, last in 1986, to circa 100'. Adjacent cast-iron cylinder, purpose uncertain.

BOILER HOUSE: built circa 1915-17 Steel-framed, M-roofed and brick clad with arched openings to E elevation, remaining elevations open. Contains 7 Lancashire boilers, by Tinker Shenton Ltd, Hyde, economisers by Green & Co Ltd, Wakefield and superheaters by Cooper & Greig, Dundee.

POWER STATION: circa 1891-94, enlarged 1924. Rectangular single storey and basement gabled turbine hall brought forward by about 6' by 1914-34, masking part of engine house. Triple round-headed openings to S and oculi in each gable. Curved ridge ventilator. Slightly later infill, heightened circa 1954, links to larger 3-by 5-bay power station: tall single storey and basement, altered to 3-storey circa 1954. Altered arched windows within arched recessed panels between pilaster piers. Cornice and gable oculi. Interior, turbine hall travelling crane on brick pilaster piers. Blocked windows to E within wide alliptical arches. Steel trussed roof. E block altered 1954 with reinforced concrete floors inserted. Top floor tiled area (for distribution of lamps and tokens, and searches for contraband).

GANTRY, circa 1954, reinforced concrete overhead passage from pithead to baths (latter demolished 1985) on T-shaped stanchions, H-shaped beyond power station. Small unglazed rectangular windows.

TIME OFFICE AND LAMP STATION, circa 1914-32, bypassed by overhead gantry circa 1954. Single storey panelled brick-built with piended M-roof. Post-war engineering workshop (now British Coal archives) windows blocked, to N. Tubular steel gates forming the letters 'NCB' to S.

Statement of Interest

The winding engine, De-scheduled 15 December 1998, is the largest steam engine to survive in Scotland. Noteworthy among other items of plant is the contents of the boiler house and the old washer. The surface buildings and plant together form the best preserved pre-First World War model colliery complex in the UK. The Lothian Coal Company Ltd was formed in March 1890 by the combination of Newbattle and Rosewell Collieries with the aim of building a showpiece pit. The Lady Victoria had a 1650' deep winding shaft to the Jewel Seam and was among the first in Scotland to be extensively equipped with electric plant. Steel pit props (from 1911-19) and mechanised mining were early innovations here. Ventilation was supplied from nearby Lingerwood Pit. Closed 1981 and in the care of the Scottish Mining Museum. Group with Items 17, 18. N.B. The engine house was statutorily listed on 10/4/81 (former item No 15, Newbattle Parish).

External Links

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