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Hurlet [Overview]

Levern Water, Hurlet, Priesthill, Nitshill, Renfrewshire.

Mines, Quarries.

Extensive area worked from 16th to 20th century. By the 1830's, limestone was mined from pits up to 70m deep, in conjunction with coal, alum, and copperas. [Nisbet]

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Excerpts from Skillen, 1990:

At Hurlet, coal, ironstone, limestone and alum shales were all taken from below ground. All enjoyed separate leasing and there were many clashes of interest, resulting in litigation of the Earl of Glasgow as proprietor. Back-biting was further encouraged in that surface holdings were often under a separate tenure and land use and mineral values were often at odds.

The Alum Company rented all the alum found, or at least claimed a right, they had however no right to the ironstone, coal, nor limestone, found in the same pits. It was therefore the case that different sets of miners were active at the same time in anyone pit, working different seams and often at odds with one another and their masters. Considering these points it is possible to gain a better appreciation of underground life about Hurlet in the mid 19th century. It was of considerable intensity, so much so as to necessitate the use of 3 horse gin winders, that could lift 20 tons in an hour.

The working area was considerable, there being miles of passages, and numerous shafts. These were of varying depths such as Waterloo at 282 ft; Leggin shaft at 138 ft; Hardfauld shaft at 135 ft; Crossmill shaft at 129 ft; and Maggie's Hill shaft at 84 ft. The drawing shafts for alum were concentrated close to the actual works, but like the coal miners the alum workers had to use a stair pit about a ½ mile distant of the site.

This stair pit was just a big black hole in the middle of a field, measuring 6 ft. by 6ft. and surrounded by a low picket fence, from it a ladderway of tiny steps descended into the void. At shaft bottom low passageways went off into the workings, their walls damp and gloomy and their floors a soppy muddy mess, it would have been difficult to stay upright in the semi-crouching procession of miners into the works...

The Renfrewshire alum shales were abandoned for those of Campsie and elsewhere, perhaps just in time for the Hurlet mines system was falling about the ears of the miners, crumbling into oblivion... old Hurlet was physically shut down over much of its area by the middle of the 19th century...

Attention then turned to the nearby Househill Estate which had also enjoyed a long period of exploitation, principally for ironstone which had been worked with vigour from the early 19th century when Clyde Iron Works had been attracted to the site as a source of raw material. The ironstone with all the locally wrought ores found use in the works at Nitshill, where at least 2 furnaces can be identified by 1841.

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: Hurlet lends it's name to the Hurlet Limestone, a key metre-scale marker horizon (at the base of the Lower Limestone Formation) that became one of the primary lime sources across central Scotland.