Bogside Pit, Kinglassie

Owners: Fife Coal Company Ltd.

Bogside Pit, north-west of Kinglassie, was in existence in 1886, at the same time as the Kirkness Pit, and lay to the east of North Bogside Farm. The pit wrought coals and also some oil shale on lands which included the parishes of Portmoak (Kinross-shire) and Auchterderran (Fife).
Approaching the mid-20th century, this area, including the lands of the old Bogside Pit, was to become one of the largest opencast mining areas in the country but was probably better known to Fife locals as the Westfield opencast coalworks.

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Extract: Statistical Account of Kinglassie Parish, Fife - 1791

"... There are many stone quarries and coal mines. Coal is the only fuel. The mine presently worked is esteemed the best burning coal in Fife. The coals are sold on the hill at 6d. the load, each load weighing 22 stone Dutch weight. ... "

Extract: Statistical Account of Kinglassie Parish, Fife - 1845

" ... Mineralogy.- Although, at no very remote period, coal-works were in operation, yet during several preceding years that occupation has been entirely suspended within this parish. There is reason to believe, however, that were coal pits less numerous in the neighbourhood, a copious supply of this fossil could be obtained. In various parts, ironstone, the constant companion of coal, is found. ... "

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Information on coals worked at, or near, Bogside Pit

(based on a report from 1934)

The structure of the coalfield to the west and north-west of Kinglassie was difficult to understand in the nineteenth century. The coals in it did not seem to fall into any recognisable association with those of any other part of Fife, though there can be no doubt that they must be classed in the true Coal Measures. Approaching the 1890s, coal mining had not been carried on with much energy, and for a while the only pit in operation (identity presently unknown) ceased to be used.
Since that time the ground has been largely explored and has been opened up to a considerable extent. The coal seams of the Dysart field have been found in it, though with such variations in thickness and character and such differences in the nature and depth of the intervening strata that identifications of the individual seams with those of Dysart are perhaps somewhat doubtful. In particular, the sedimentary strata between the separate coals appear to be much thinner than in the main coalfield.

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These coals were disposed in a synclinal trough which was truncated on the north by the great Ochil fault. Its western lip began about 500 yards to the west of Kinninmonth Farm, where it struck from the fault-boundary in a south-westerly direction to near North Bogside Farm, then it turned round under Boglochty and bent northwards on the west side of Whinnyhall.

Westfield Shale: Above the Millstone Grit lay a thick bed of greenish, faky fireclay containing a variable coaly layer. The fireclay was succeeded by the Westfield Shale which, in the above table, is taken as the base for the Coal Measures. The shale underlay a thick coal and has been identified over all the southern and western part of the coalfield. (Apparently, it was worked for oil-making for a few years in the 1860s and again in the 1880s with a yield of crude oil varying from 18½ to 30 gallons per ton!) The Shale was succeeded by about 25 fathoms of strata that contained coaly matter throughout. In the southern part of the basin, a brown coal, from 5 ft. to 6 ft. thick, lay 20 to 30 ft. above the 'roof coal' of the shale. Three to five fathoms of sandy beds with thin coals succeeded this seam and was followed by a thick mass of coal and fireclay in variable beds. In the north-western part of the basin, the coaly material was concentrated more definitely into seams but the quality of the coals was generally poor.

Bogside Main Coal: The Bogside Main Coal occurred in leaves with an estimated total thickness of more than 20 ft. It was worked in the early 1890s from the Bogside Pit where a narrow strip was taken out near the outcrop. The main workings were in a 9 ft. upper leaf but parts of the lower 10 ft. coal were extracted to the west of the pit. A considerable quantity of the seam was raised at Kinninmonth Colliery as late as 1908. In a bore from 1856, put down at the side of the Dow Burn, north of Boglochty, the Bogside Main Coal was only 4 ft. 6 in. thick. Along the west side of the coalfield nearly the whole of the 15 fathoms of strata immediately overlying the Bogside Main Coal was composed of coal with thin partings of faky fireclay and blaes. In a boring from the late 1890s, put down east of North Bogside Farm, this part of the sequence contained 30 seams of coal having a total thickness of 65 ft.

Bogside Ironstone: The Bogside Ironstone was separated from the top of the thick coals by 21 to 25 fathoms of sandstones and fakes, with one or two thin coals and beds of fireclay. The Ironstone was known only on the west side of the basin and even there it was not constant. It outcropped in a semi-circular fashion from west of Kinninmonth Upper Pit by way of North Bogside Farm, to the north side of Boglochty.

The ground was bored to a considerable extent about the middle of the nineteenth century but the records left are imperfect. The journals give conflicting evidence but seem to agree that the Ironstone did not extend far to the east.

The Ironstone seam appears to have first been noticed in 1839 and was described as a blackband ironstone up to 2 ft. in thickness, overlying a coal 2 ft. to 2 ft. 6 in. thick. Near Kinninmonth Farm, the ironstone was 1 ft. 9 in. when worked and 1 ft. 1 in. of this was said to be real blackband. Around 1870, the ironstone was opened out on the outcrop, east of North Bogside Farm, and worked by means of an incline from the surface, for about two years. The seam was about 1 ft. 6 in. in the workings and the extracted ironstone was carted to Oakley to be smelted.

Wee Pit Coal: To the east of North Bogside Farm, the development of this seam was similar to the average section at Kinninmonth except that the lower leaf was somewhat soft:

Note: In the late 1890s, it was recognised that there may possibly be another smaller basin of coal in the same field, somewhere to the south of Kinglassie, but the mineral capabilities of the ground could only be determined by further boring exploration. This, of course, proved to be the case and coals in the southern part of the Kinglassie coalfield were mined at Kinglassie Pit and Mine (see separate entry).

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"Fifeshire Journal"
August-October, 1837

Several issues of the newspaper, announcing that the farms of Manorleys and Bogside were available to let on leasses of 19 years, had no mention of coal (or any other mineral) being worked on the lands.

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"The Scotsman"
1 October, 1881

TO LET on Lease, for such term as may be agreed on, the COAL (other than the CAPLEDRAE PARROT or GAS COAL) and BITUMINOUS SHALES, &c., as possessed by the CAPLEDRAE OIL and COAL COMPANY, lying in and under the FARMS of WESTFIELD, BOGSIDE, and HARESTANES, forming part of the Estate of CAPLEDRAE, in the Parish of Auchterderran and County of Fife. It is understood that there is abundance of Coal in the Seams, and an arrangement might be come to with the present Tenants to take over the existing Plant at valuation. Entry at Martinmas next.
For further information apply to Messrs GIBSON & SPEARS, Writers, Kirkcaldy; or to Messrs J. & J. PATTEN, W.S., 67 Hanover Street, Edinburgh, by either of whom offers will be received till 15th October next.

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"Dunfermline Saturday Press"
19 July, 1890
THE FIFE COAL COMPANY'S ACTIONS
39 MINERS SUED FOR DAMAGES
ALLEGED TYRANNY ON THE PART OF EMPLOYEES

These were the headlines of an article in the 19 July issue concerning an action being raised. The apparent failure of some men at Dalbeath, Hill of Beath, and Bogside Colliery, Kinglassie, to join the Union seemed to be at the root of the trouble. Only the opening paragraph, and a letter contained in the article, have been included here.

In Dunfermline Small Debts Court on Tuesday - Sheriff Gillespie on the bench - the actions in which the Fife Coal Company (Limited) sued 20 of their men employed at Hill of Beath Colliery and 19 at Bogside Colliery for damages came up for hearing.

The letter ...

Kinglassie, June 11, 1890
Mr. D. Beveridge, manager, Bogside Colliery.

Dear Sir,

I have to inform you that unless Drummond Bros. and a drawer named Sibbald pay into the Union the sum of £5, and his men the same, Kirkness and Bogside miners will come out on strike. If this £5 is not paid, your best plan would be to dismiss 'him' from the works.

Yours & c.,

David Farquharson, District Secretary.

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"Dunfermline Press"
20 May, 1944
FIFE COAL DEVELOPMENT
Opencast Working at Kinglassie
FIFE PLANNING COMMITTEE'S CRITICISM

At a meeting of the Fife Regional Planning Committee at Cupar on Friday last week, a scheme by the Ministry of Works for the extraction of coal by opencast methods at Bogside, Kinglassie, was severely criticised on the ground that it was spoiling the appearance of the countryside. ...

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"Dunfermline Press"
26 May, 1945
BOGSIDE OPENCAST COAL SEAM

The suggestion that Bogside opencast coal seam, Kinglassie, has been discarded as worthless is decried in official circles. It is stated clearly that the only reason the seam is not being worked is a delay in getting a washing plant erected near the scene.
Plans produced show that in a square mile there is a total of approximately fifteen million tons of coal at a depth of over one hundred yards. A part of the seam to a depth of fifty yards has been bared, and this will yield 500,000 tons, but washing plant is required to put it into a state for the market. The coal is in the well-known Dysart Main Seam, which is being worked in several pits in Fife principally at the coast, and its quality is undisputedly good. It is not so good in the "opencast" but it is still good and improves with depth.

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"Dunfermline Press"
16 June, 1945
GIANT EXCAVATOR
Crosses Railway

A giant excavator, 41 feet wide by 35 feet in height, weighing about 380 tons, is being moved across country in Fife under its own power from the site of an opencast coal working at Bogside, near Kinglassie, to Cocklaw, near Kelty. This journey necessitated the crossing of the L.N.E.R. Edinburgh-Perth main lines between Kelty and Blairadam stations, and owing to traffic considerations this could not be made on week-days and the crossing was successfully accomplished on Sunday.
The excavator moves on floats by eccentric travelling gear and its progress is 6 feet 6 inches at each movement, and the journey across these important main lines necessitated special precautions being taken by the railway company to ensure its safe passage.
One hundred feet of fencing protecting the line had to be removed and twelve telegraph lines in the vicinity were cut, drawn clear, and joined up again when the movement was completed. A portable telephone was also installed to give communication with the adjoining signal boxes, and, as an additional precaution to ensure safety, flagmen were provided for protection from either direction until the operation was completed.
The L.N.E.R. engineer made arrangements for the laying down of a temporary level crossing, 45 feet wide, over the double track, about 40 tons of ballast being used to bring up the formation to a uniform level, with 200 sleepers - 150 to form a surface and 50 with permanent-way rails as skids for the actual movement.
Having successfully crossed the main lines, the excavator has yet to cross the Kelty-Blairadam branch line, and it was expected that this would be performed yesterday. In this case the single line track will be dismantled and removed for the passage over the railway property and the track afterwards reinstated.

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