Doon the Pits: Six old pictures looking back at Glasgow's coal mines

Today we wanted to examine the coal mining legacy we have here in Glasgow.

The Clyde Valley was rich with coal, and while it was never Glasgow’s main industry, it employed a massive percentage of the population in the 19th and early 20th century.

It was a dangerous job, the life expectancy of a coal miner in Britain around halfway through the 19th century was just 36 years. If you didn’t die in the mines from a fire, collapse, or gas leak - you wouldn’t live long once you got out. Their lungs were as black as the coal they dug, ruined by years of inhaling soot hundreds of metres below the earth.

Though the conditions were cramped, hot, and generally awful - collieries extend for miles underneath Glasgow, geologists estimate that half of the city is undermined by some kind of tunnel - even with many of the old pits being filled, closed off, or otherwise made inaccessible.

Industry heads pushed for more and more profit, pushing men further into the earth to bring up black gold - making conditions even more deadly. One noble family, based in Lanarkshire, lost their ancestral home, legacy, and land thanks to their greed in establishing collieries on their land. You can read all about that story here: How one aristocratic Lanarkshire family lost the grandest manor in Britain.

Miners oftentimes moved to Glasgow or the surrounding area for work, and were housed in very small miners rows - the most famous of which were found in Knightswood and Baillieston. Even more cramped and confined than the cities existing tenements, most of the miners rows were demolished in the redevelopment of Glasgow in the mid-20th century.

The pits were mostly used for coal mining - though at some points pits were set up for gas, coking coals, ironstone, and fireclay.

Over 150 years or so, there were dozens of mines of varying sizes - though the largest could be found in Tollcross, Shettleston and Mount Vernon. Coal mining was much more popular and lucrative in Lanarkshire.

The number of pits in Glasgow declined drastically following the end of World War 1 and the onset of the great depression. Following the Second World War, the coal industry had been nationalised, and only 5 pits remained: Garscube, Cardowan, Blantyreferme, Bardykes, and Coatspark.

The final pit to close in Glasgow was Garscube in 1966, closely followed by Wester Auchengeich in Bishopbriggs which closed in 1968.