Lady Victoria Colliery, Newtongrange

Lady Victoria Colliery, Newtongrange

This is a complete model colliery built between 1890 and 1894 under the supervision of John Morison (mining engineer) and Archibald Hood (managing director of the Lothian Coal Co). The steelwork for the headgear and probably the remainder of the colliery was supplied by Sir William Arrol & Co. The complex originally comprised a chimney, engine house, power station, and pithead installation with tub circuit, tipplers, and picking tables. Subsequent additions include a washer and hopper (circa 1906–14), extension of the boiler house and power station (circa 1924), extended picking tables (1930s), and a gantry to the baths (circa 1954). Most of the plant remains in situ with various modernisations. The structures are brick-built and steel-framed with sheet-metal-clad roofs.

Engine House

The engine house dates to 1890–91 and is a tall single-storey building with basement, constructed in red and yellow brick with cornice and angle pilasters. It features cross windows with ashlar mullions and transoms in their original glazing pattern. The 3-bay front has a central door approached by modern concrete steps. A segmental-arched basement door is flanked by oculi, with a louvred ventilator in the tympanum. The sides are 4-bays and the sheet metal roof (renewed) has a curved ridge ventilator.

The interior contains a 2400 hp winding engine by Grant Ritchie & Co Ltd of Kilmarnock. This is a twin compound horizontal engine with 42-inch diameter steam-jacketed cylinders and 7-foot stroke, fitted with Cornish drop valves. The original 20-foot diameter and 10 feet 6 inches wide drum was replaced by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co in 1964. Brakes were also supplied by Barclay in 1953. A spray shield bears a repainted lion rampant. The walls are tiled and a modern travelling crane is present. The roof is supported on steel Polonceau roof trusses.

Headgear

The headgear was constructed by Sir William Arrol & Co between 1893 and 1894. It comprises steel box girders 85 feet high with back stays and latticed braces. T-shaped supports carry a platform and 19-foot diameter wheels. A light superstructure for maintenance is provided.

Pithead

Tub Circuit: The original 3-storey 9-bay structure has a gabled north elevation, with each gable rising above two tall ground floor railway arches. The first floor contains blocked oculi and the second floor has twin blocked arched windows. Buttresses and a finialled north-west angle provide structural and decorative support. The ground floor interior features brick arcades with some remarkably wide arches. The upper floors were originally double-decked (as was the lift cage) but have been altered to single decking, although the original floor survives beneath. The roof is supported on steel Polonceau trusses running on segmentally arched steel links between I-section stanchions. The structure was extended by approximately 8 feet due to lowering of the steel plate floor. The tub circuit was restored to working order in 1986.

Tipplers: A tall 2-storey range of 7 by 7 bays with ground floor brick arcades. The western elevation is buttressed with a ground floor arcade and blind first floor windows. The interior is roofed with steel Polonceau trusses on segmentally arched steel links between I-section stanchions, with a steel plate floor. The structure contains tipplers and a "plough".

Picking Tables: The lower 2-storey 7-bay block was originally 4-bays deep with an arcaded brick ground floor, built 1891–94. It was extended by 4-bays to the south circa 1933–46 and entirely re-equipped and re-roofed with standard steel trusses at this time.

Eastern Elevation of Pithead

An extension circa 1906–14 houses a first floor smithy and switch house. A narrow 3-storey gabled bay with an arched opening for steps to the pithead projects from a wider gabled bay on tall arcade. A smith's hearth is located at first floor level. Post-1932 steel-framed infill extends to the south. A small 2-storey 4-bay buttressed motor house, circa 1906–14, has a later flat concrete roof. An elevator chute to the washer was probably originally used to transfer coal by conveyor belt to the washer.

Southern Gables

Old Washer: This tall 6-bay brick building, circa 1906–14, is largely blind except for two tiers of small arched windows in recessed panels. A lower 4-storey 2-by 3-bay re-washer was added to the south circa 1914–32, with gabled ends, the taller block having oculi. A 2-bay motor house projects to the east with a round-headed window and sheet metal-clad belt drive powered by an electric motor by Peebles of Edinburgh.

The interior contains an important survival: two felspar Baum washers (cast-iron, with jiggers) driven by belt pulleys on line shafts, probably disused since the 1960s. The re-washer is now empty.

Dross Hopper: A remarkable brick-built gabled and vaulted hopper with each elevation featuring arched concave recessed panels between battered buttresses. The 4-bay south gable has a contemporary 2-storey flat-roofed projection. Twin barrel-vaulted railway tracks run beneath, fed by hydraulically-opened flaps. A tall steel-framed metal-clad elevator rises above. 1960s hoppers to either side are fed from the west by conveyor belts.

New Washer: Designated "Drew Boy", this structure was added circa 1963–64 to the picking table block. It is steel-framed with brick infill and has an asbestos M-roof.

Buildings North of Pithead

Workshops, Underground Haulage Motor House, and Settling Tanks: Single storey with arched windows within six recessed arched bays, cornice, angle finials (cut down circa 1987), and decorative swept-roofed ventilators. Part of the roof has been rebuilt flat. A demolished link to the pithead may have held a sinking engine. The property department to the north was replaced circa 1960 by a tall brick building and a circular concrete settling tank on pilotis. A parallel dredger tank is present.

Pulveriser Plant: A tall timber-framed elevator with struts similar to the headgear is located over the end of the original boiler range. It supplied coal dust to a drier and thence by gravity to the boilers. An adjoining platform is carried on re-used 19th-century cast iron pipes, adapted to meet a reinforced concrete gantry of circa 1954.

Chimney Stack: A circular section brick stack with steel tie bands. Originally approximately 150 feet tall with an oversailer, it has been reduced twice, most recently in 1986, to approximately 100 feet. An adjacent cast-iron cylinder of uncertain purpose stands nearby.

Boiler House: Built circa 1915–17, this steel-framed structure is M-roofed and brick-clad with arched openings to the eastern elevation; the remaining elevations are open. It contains seven Lancashire boilers by Tinker Shenton Ltd of Hyde, economisers by Green & Co Ltd of Wakefield, and superheaters by Cooper & Greig of Dundee.

Power Station: The original power station, circa 1891–94, was enlarged in 1924. A rectangular single-storey and basement gabled turbine hall was brought forward by approximately 6 feet between 1914 and 1934, partially masking the engine house. Triple round-headed openings face south and oculi occupy each gable, with a curved ridge ventilator. Slightly later infill was heightened circa 1954, linking to a larger 3-by 5-bay power station. The main structure is tall, single-storey and basement, altered to 3-storey circa 1954. Arched windows within arched recessed panels are set between pilaster piers, with cornice and gable oculi. The interior turbine hall has a travelling crane on brick pilaster piers. Blocked windows to the east are within wide elliptical arches. A steel-trussed roof covers the space. The eastern block was altered in 1954 with reinforced concrete floors inserted. The top floor is tiled for distribution of lamps and tokens, and for searches for contraband.

Gantry: A reinforced concrete overhead passage, circa 1954, connects the pithead to the baths (demolished 1985) on T-shaped stanchions, changing to H-shaped form beyond the power station. Small unglazed rectangular windows are present.

Time Office and Lamp Station: Dating to circa 1914–32, this structure is bypassed by the overhead gantry of circa 1954. It is single storey, panelled brick-built with a piended M-roof. A post-war engineering workshop (now British Coal archives) has its windows blocked. To the south are tubular steel gates forming the letters 'NCB'.