KNOCKSHINNOCH CASTLE
New Cumnock, Ayrshire.
7th September 1950.

The Pit

Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery was situated in the Parish of New Cumnock in Ayrshire about 22 miles due east of the town of Ayr.

Before the accident the colliery employed about 600 men underground and 120 at the surface with a weekly output varying from 4,500 to 5,000 tons. The output came from two seams, the Main Coal and the Turf Coal with the major proportion coming from the Main Coal.

The downcast shaft was completed in 1942 and was used for winding men, materials and mineral and was 16 feet in diameter sunk to 122 fathoms.

The older Knockshinnoch No.1 pit served as the upcast shaft and as the second exit which was only about a quarter of a mile to the north of the downcast shaft and was 12 feet in diameter and 70 fathoms deep.

• The ventilation was produced by an Aeroto fan which was at the surface of the No.1 pit and passed 65,000 cubic feet of air per minute at a water gauge of 4.5 inches.
• Safety lamps were used throughout the mine and the type provided for the workmen underground were the Oldham, Wheat Q Type, 4-volt electric cap lamp. For gas testing, the workmen were issued with Prestwich Patent Protector, Type SL, magnetically locked flame safety lamps and the officials with the Prestwich Patent Protector, Type No.6 flame safety lamp fitted with internal re-lighters and magnetically locked.
• Limestone dust was used for stone dusting throughout the colliery.
• At Knockshinnoch Castle downcast shaft an underground pump, with the capacity of 500 gallons per minute, which ran for three hours a day and a second with a capacity of 125 gallons per minute which ran for 12 hours a day.

The colliery was operated by the National Coal Board, Scottish Division and was one of fifty producing collieries, many relatively small which were in the Ayr and Dumfries Area. The Area was divide into three Sub-Areas, each of which were divided into Groups. Knockshinnoch Castle was the largest of the six collieries in the New Cumnock Group in the Dunaskin Sub-Area which had 21 collieries in it.

The manager of the colliery was Mr. W.C. Halliday who was assisted by an Undermanager, Mr. B.Y. Kennedy. There was an overman, Mr. J.N. Houston who was in general charge underground of the day shift and he was followed by a second overman, Mr. Andrew Houston, who was in charge underground on the afternoon shift. There was no overman on the night shift. Five firemen were in charge of the working districts on each of the three shifts, Mr. J. Bone was the Agent for the New Cumnock Group. the Dunaskin Sub-Area was under the general charge of Mr. A.M. Smart, the Sub-Area Production Manager who was in turn responsible to Mr. A.B. Macdonald, the Area Production Manager. Mr. D.L. McCardel was the Area General Manager.

All these higher officials held a first-class Certificate of Competency.

The Sub-Area had a Planning Department and a Surveying Department. The Planning Department employed planning engineers and planners. The Sub-Area Planning Engineer was Mr. Alex Gardner who held a first-class Certificate of Competency and Mine Surveyor’s Certificate. His assistant was
Mr. Donald Mackinnon who possessed a first class certificate. The Sub-Area Senior Planner was
Mr. J.H. Cairns who controlled activities of four Assistant Planners, one for each of the Agent’s Group of collieries in the Sub-Area. The Assistant Planner concerned with the Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery was Mr. R. McLean who held a Mine Surveyor’s Certificate. The Sub-Area Chief Surveyor was
Mr. C. Stewart and his senior assistant was Mr. T.D. Brown. The surveyor attached to the New Cumnock Group was Mr. R. Arbuckle who was assisted by an apprentice surveyor, Mr. Ian Murray.

This portion of the Ayrshire coalfield in the New Cumnock district lay at the extreme southern edge of the coal measures and was bounded on the south by a large upthrow fault, the Southern Uplands Fault. The coalfields was unique among the coalfields of Britain in that the workable seams that are found in four groups of the carboniferous rocks, the Barren Red Measures, True Coal Measures, Millstone Grit Series and the Limestone Series. There were twenty eight coal seams which were greater than two feet thick which had been proved and of these seventeen are over three feet thick and nine exceeded four feet. These seams were unknown in the Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery Area until a few years before the disaster and the existence of the Main Coal was only finally proved in 1938.

Apart from the Southern Uplands Fault, the New Cumnock coalfield was very faulted which resulted in the field being broken up in to areas that were more or less detached and in some of these area coal had been worked for many years. One of the seams that had been worked over the years was locally known as the ‘Eight Feet’. In an older colliery near the Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery a thick seam had been worked for many years and it was believed to be the Eight Feet. About 1932 the Geological Survey suggested that this was not the Eight Feet but was an entirely new seam and the geological position of this seam was about 100 fathoms below the Eight Feet in the True Coal Measures. To test this theory a borehole was put down in 1924 but the recorded results were disappointing and did nothing to alter local opinion. Some years later the views of the Geological Survey were reconsidered and it was decided that further boring was justified. A borehole was put down in 1938 and gave excellent results. It proved the existence of the Main Coal at the approximate position previously indicated by the geologists of the Survey as well as that of three other workable seams. Further boring confirmed the existence of these seams over several square miles which added many millions of tons to the reserves of the area. This valuable extension to the coalfield led very soon to the planning of the Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery and the sinking of the downcast shaft began in 1940 and was completed in 1942.