Lady Victoria Colliery, Newtongrange

Image: © kim traynor Taken: 3 Sep 2010

Opened in 1895, the Lady Victoria Colliery was named after the wife of the Marquis of Lothian who built the adjacent village of Newtongrange to house its miners. The shaft was sunk to a depth of 530 metres, making it the deepest pit in Scotland at the time. After production stopped in 1981, it seemed destined to disappear along with all the other pits in the area, but has since been conserved as the Scottish Mining Museum. http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/dalkeith/scottishminingmuseum/index.html "Coal works have been very long carried on here. The following state of the seams of coal is given from the best authority: There are no less than 19 different seams that run through this parish, stretching nearly N. and S. Six of these seams are termed flat, because they lie in a horizontal position, and make but a small angle with the horizon; dipping to the eastward, 1 in 10, and sometimes 1 in 15 or 20 feet. The other 13 are called edge seams, owing to the position in which they stand, running down from the earth's surface in a perpendicular direction, and making an angle of near 90 degrees with the horizon. These seams vary in their thicknesses. The thickest of the flat seams are about 4 feet, and the thinnest about 2 1/2. The thickest of the edge seams are about 9 or 10 feet, and the thinnest about 2." -- entry for Newton parish, in the Old Statistical Account, 1793

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