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Foulford No.1 Pit

Blackdean Hill, Cowdenbeath, Fife.

Mines (Ironstone & Coal), 19th-20th Centuries.

The now-treated shaft at the given coordinates is thought to be the Foulford No.1 Pit that was 43 fathoms [79m] to ironstone. This was used in conjunction with the Foulford No.2 'Fair Helen' Pit to the east at NT 1747 9215, which was 69 fathom [126m] deep and would have been a separate workings prior to connection with those of No.1 pit. The plan of the ironstone workings is shown in the abandonment plans (see refs). The sites of the two aforementioned shafts are now within wooded sections separating fairways of Cowdenbeath Golf Course.

The ironstone workings of Foulford No.1 appear to have been connected to the shaft by a 'dook' passage along the Little Splint Coal seam, inclined to the NW as far as the line of the (now demolished) Dunfermline-Thornton Railway Line. The workings here were surveyed in 1870 and therefore predate the 'Foulford Colliery' operation of the Cowdenbeath Coal Co. / Fife Coal Co. The No.1 Pit is located at a central position in the ironstone workings which measure c.500m from E to W.

The abandonment plans in the refs also show the small ironstone workings of the Cowdenbeath No. 5 & 6 pits immediately S of the workings from ironstone pits No.1/2, the former being (barely) separate small mines worked up to the boundary between the lands of Foulford & Cowdenbeath.

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"In 1850, when the Lochgelly Iron Company formed to work the rich ironstone seams in the grounds south of Lumphinnans, between Cowdenbeath and Lochgelly, it sunk a number of ironstone pits, among them the Foulford Nos. 1, 2 and 3. These Foulford ironstone pits, which worked over the next twenty years or so, were located to the north-east of the early Cowdenbeath Colliery, but by the early 1870s, the Foulford pits - always thought of as 'Cowdenbeath pits' - particularly the No. 2 (sunk in 1854 to a depth of around 71 fathoms), were producing more coal than ironstone. A name change to the Lochgelly Iron and Coal Company, in 1872, and early mining reports from 1850-1880 bear witness to the extensive workings of the Splint, Parrot and Mynheer coals in addition to ironstone.

Whilst coaling may have ceased at the early Foulford Nos. 1 and 3 around 1871, the Lochgelly Company's Foulford No. 2 Pit, known locally as the 'Fair Helen', successfully wrought the Lochgelly Splint and Parrot seams, closing we believe around the end of the century." [Fife Pits]

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"When the Cowdenbeath Coal Co. eventually sank their Foulford No. 1 Pit in 1884, some 200 yds. to the west of the Lochgelly Iron and Coal Company's Foulford Pit, they took over the 'Fair Helen' shaft to be used as an upcast for the complex...

Foulford Colliery continued into the mid-1950s as a central washery for the surrounding pits and the mountainous conical bings and extensive settling lagoons were left as evidence (see aerial view). The area has since been reclaimed and landscaped to form part of the Dora golf course." [Fife Pits]

Alternative Names: Foulford No.1

Notes: Marked as 'Ironstone Pit's on 1856 OS 6" map.

The Foulford Colliery No.1 Pit was sunk in 1884, post-dating abandonment of the Foulford No.1 Pit ironstone workings. Furthermore, the No.2 'Fair Helen' Pit cannot be the 19th Century Foulford No. 2 coal shaft as the latter was sunk in 1924. The naming convention in the area is therefore complex, and there may be multiple No.1 and two No.2 pits for the ironstone and coal workings. The MRA map shows an additional treated shaft to the SE of the given coordinates, at c. NT 1730 9207.

"Foulford Colliery was adjacent to the original Dunfermline-Thornton rail line used latterly for goods traffic avoiding Cowdenbeath (New) Station. Fife Coal Company had their own railway system linking their pits which did not have N.B./L.N.E.R. access." [Fife Pits]

Given coordinates are those for Foulford Pit No.1.