Local History

The Courier have teamed up with our friends at Almond Valley Heritage Trust to bring our readers stories from West Lothian’s past.

Fawnspark shale mine was the most northerly of the shale pits operated by Youngs Oil Co. It was connected to Young’s oil works at Hopetoun and at Uphall by a five mile long mineral railway.

In 1903, the Earl of Hopetoun granted a mineral lease to Young’s Oil Co entitling them to work the minerals that lay beneath the lands of Fawnspark. Shale occurred only in a small part of the lands immediately south of the Union Canal, and in an area on the northern side.

It was always known that reserves were restricted and working conditions would be difficult however the good quality of the shale promised to make the operation worthwhile.

The Broxburn shale outcropped in the field east of Fawnspark farm house. A mine was driven from the outcrop, heading northward. The main roadways were subsequently extended beneath the canal to reach the area of shale that lay beneath on the northern side.

In 1905 Young’s wrote to the canal company (NBR) informing them that their workings now extended to within 40 feet of the canal and that they now intended to mine beneath it.

The NBR accepted that roadways pass beneath the canal, but warned against working shale from beneath the bed of the canal. The oil company went ahead and drove a brick-arched tunnel at a depth of only 21 feet beneath the canal.

Large fissures appeared in the ground and by 1910 the ground surface had subsided by four feet. Fences were erected to prevent walkers and huntsmen entering the plantation, which had been a regular haunt of the local hunt.

Correspondence continued between Young’s and the NBR regarding the shale that remained intact beneath the canal.

It was usual practice for railway companies to purchase the minerals beneath their tracks. The NBR maintained that this did not apply to Union Canal. A lengthy succession of court actions took place, culminating in an appeal to the House of Lords.

Leading experts were called to testify at these grand hearings. All agreed that extracting shale from beneath the canal was not a good idea.

At one point the shale was only 14 feet beneath the bed of the canal. Because of this, one expert described the potential consequences to those working beneath as“hair-raising”, and suggested that collapse of workings would have much more serious consequences to those mining the shale than those navigating the canal.

Ultimately is was decided that the canal company - the North British Railway - should pay to keep the shale in place.

The mine was worked-out and abandoned by 1927. Today the canal and the lands 40 feet to either side stand proud above the surrounding landscape.