Pit 1 map overlaid with Modern Aerial photo

SHAFT COLLAPSES AT PIT.

Coal production at Blantyre Colliery was brought to a standstill in the first week of August 1957 by the partial collapse of the shaft of No. 1 Pit that first Monday of the month. Some 450 men are affected right away, but many were given other jobs on the surface.

So it came to be, in mid August 1957, Dixon’s Collieries, High Blantyre, where that big cave in of the shaft of No. Pit occurred, signified the end of Dixon’s when the shaft and colliery was to be closed for good. Discussions on the question of closing down the pit took place between the National Coal Board and the National Union of Miners and the decision was given a short time after. The shaft was so badly damaged, it was impossible to repair it.

On the first Friday in August 1957, the 400 miners and tradesmen were given a weeks notice to terminate their employment.
On Wednesday and Thursday of that week, labour officers of the Board interviewed a large number of men, mainly those who worked underground, regarding jobs at other pits. It was understood that about 300 miners took up jobs at other collieries among them Cardowan, Bardykes, Garscube and Blantyreferme. The men were able to start their new jobs on the following Monday with little disruption to pay and employment, despite the finality of the Dixon’s pit.

Pictured is an old map showing the shaft location of Pit 1, overlaid by a modern Aerial photo. The exact site of the shaft, is now in the corner of Priestfield Cemetery on a small, very unassuming grassy area, adjacent to the A725 Expressway.I’ve also added a brilliant photo, (still from an old film) showing some of the local Dixon’s miners a decade earlier in 1947, as their pit was Nationalised by the Coal Board.