tarboat's photos with the keyword: west lothian

P. & M. Hurll Ltd., a fire-brick manufacturer based at Glenboig (North Lanarkshire) acquired the Birkhill estate in 1916 and drove a series of adits on both sides of the River Avon in the 1930s. Peak production was in the 1950s and the pillar and stall workings eventually extended for around 6 miles underground in the 1970s just before the company went into liquidation in 1980. This bridge carried the rails from the adit of Mine No.3 on the west bank to the incline on the east bank that lead up to the processing works. In 1987 the workings were opened as a tourist attraction, but this has been closed for some time now with little sign of an imminent reopening. Sadly the processing works was demolished a short while ago.

There are several disused adits at Birkhill where high silica fireclay was extracted until 1981. One mine has been used as a museum until recently whilst the processing works stands derelict close to the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway. Seen here is the top of the incline from the works with the tensioning system for the continuous rope haulage underneath the staging.

Not mushrooms; rather these are vertical rollers to take the haulage cable around a bend on the tubway below the incline to the processing works at Birkhill Fireclay Mine.

Birkhill No.1 Mine was started in 1932 by firebrick manufacturer P & M Hurll Ltd. Two further mines followed in the vicinity and production of fireclay peaked in the 1950s. The mines closed in 1981 and the No.3 mine bacame a museum although it is now closed (temporarily?).

Barbauchlaw Brickworks, Armadale, West Lothian, operated from c1893 to 1971. Robert Muir and Company originally owned the Barbauchlaw fireclay works as part of their Barbauchlaw Colliery. It passed to the National Coal Board in 1947 but the colliery closed in 1952. In its last two years the works was owned by the Scottish Brick Corporation. Image courtesy of Alan Fleming

The Etna Works at Bathville near Armadale began operation in the 1860's and, among other fireclay products, produced a common building brick. The works were modernised in the 1950's, and new kilns built in the 1960's. Production of red common bricks continued into the 1990's

Wooden garages at Philpstoun, West Lothian. Provision of garages in groups such as this was a popular phenomenon in the 1950s. I was surprised to find the practice alive and well in 2002.