The Story of Scottish Coal

Scotland is better known as having been the 'Workshop of the British Empire', having developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries an extraordinary industrial base. However, all its many industries, including iron, steel, shipbuilding and textiles depended entirely for their energy on a huge coal-mining industry. Even as late as the 1950s, over 100,000 Scottish people were employed directly in the coal mines, and many thousands of others worked in industries supporting mining, producing a variety of products ranging from pit props to high explosives. In 1947, Scotland had approximately 200 coal mines that had 30 or more miners, and were therefore large enough to be nationalised. At least another hundred smaller mines remained in the private sector. Coal was therefore a major part of Scottish life.