page_title: Harthill, Scotland
section_title: Coal
hierarchical_section_title: Harthill, Scotland / Coal
caption_attribution_description: English: A gravestone which shows the area's close connection with coalmining.
context_page_description: Harthill is a rural village in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, on the border with the neighbouring county of West Lothian and about halfway between Glasgow, 21 miles to the west, and Edinburgh, 25 miles to the east. It lies on the River Almond about 2 ¹⁄₂ miles west of the small town of Whitburn. The closest major towns are Bathgate, 6 miles away, and Livingston, 10 miles away. Major towns within North Lanarkshire, such as Wishaw, Airdrie, Motherwell, Coatbridge and Bellshill are all around 10 to 15 miles to the west. The M8 motorway bypasses the village and has a service station named after it.
context_section_description: Harthill and much of Central Scotland has rich deposits of coal. Digging of coal fuelled the beginnings of development in the area. Sir John Inglis of Crammond organised the first coal pits in the area at Benhar, south-west of Harthill. Nine men were initially employed and received 13 shillings per week. These miners had tied accommodation with the job and had to pay rent to the coal pit owner. If they could no longer work due to accidents or ill health, they and their family lost their accommodation. Working conditions were very poor and dangerous.
  In 1806, two miles to the east of Harthill at Greenrigg, Lord Polkemmet sank a pit which employed thirteen miners, two boys and some labourers. The seam was about 25 m (82 ft) below ground and it produced 8,000 tons of coal per year, which was sold for 6 shillings and 4d (33 new pence) per ton into Edinburgh and generated annual revenues of around £1,000 per year.
  As the demand for coal continued to increase with growth from the effects of the Industrial Revolution, factories, and housing growth in Edinburgh and Glasgow, more pits began to be sunk throughout central Scotland for more coal. More people in Scotland now worked in coal pits and factories than in agriculture.
  In 1830 it was normal for women and children as young as five and six to haul trucks full of coal to the surface of the coal pits. Accident records were not kept. The Shaftesbury Act (Mines and Collieries Act) of 1842 banned women and children under ten years of age from working in coal pits. They had up to then been employed to pull coal hutches and were known as 'coal-putters'. After women were banned from working below ground, they continued to be employed in emptying and picking unwanted debris from the coal extractions. It took a further 30 years before the Government required children to receive an education before working age.
  In 1887 a coal miner earned 4s per day (20 pence; a loaf of bread would have cost a penny).
  Greenrigg Colliery, West Lothian, owned by the Loganlea Coal Company, was taken over by United Collieries in 1905. It produced coal and clay, the clay going to the brickworks at Bathgate to make 'Etna' bricks. A fire at Greenrigg Colliery in 1924 destroyed most of the surface buildings and the headframes. The men had to escape through a connecting passage to Southrigg Colliery near Shotts. The pit was reconstructed and continued in operation until 1960.
  On 1 January 1947, The NCB (National Coal Board) took over control of all local pits. Many pits nationally needed modernisation and investment. The country's industrial, transport and housing infrastructure needed re-built. By the 1960s small pit production lost out to investment in higher productivity super-pit production. The smaller pits around Polkemmet closed.
caption: Kirk o'Shotts gravestone showing the area's close connection with coal mining
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