11 Morningside
— 10/01/2024Found in the Melrose, Scottish Borders area. Morningside Fireclay Works, Wishaw, Lanarkshire. . . . .
Hyndshaw Fireclay Mine, Morningside, Newmains, North Lanarkshire
Hyndshaw Fireclay Mine, Morningside, Newmains, North Lanarkshire.
1896 – Morningside Mine – Morningside Coal Co, Newmains. Coal and Fire Clay mined. John Gray Manager. (Note – SBH – This is believed to be the Hyndshaw Mine)
1920 – Special report on the mineral resources of Great Britain – Chapel Coal Company Limited.
Morningside Brickworks, Newmains.
Situation: Near Morningside Station.
Geological formation: Coal Measures.
The fireclay used here is the floor of the Lower Drumgray Coal and is brought by rail a distance of about a mile from the company’s Chapel and Hyndshaw Pits.
The section of the seam shows fireclay variable between 2 and 3 feet. The clay as raised is grey, rooty and fairly hard; it burns a white colour and provides excellent material for making refractory bricks. It is ground at the works; the bricks are hand moulded, dried and burnt in coal-fired Newcastle kilns. The contraction is low being only 3/4of an inch. This clay seems specially adapted for difficult shapes, and a large trade in these is done. For some of these, the ground clay is mixed with ground ‘grog’ (burnt bricks) and a proportion of a ground clayey sandstone from the Fauldhouse district. Reserves: If the quality of the clay holds good throughout the field, there are ample reserves in view.
1933 – Operated by the Morningside Fireclay Company Limited.
1938 – Morningside Fireclay Company Limited. – Hyndshaw Mine. 8 employees below ground and 3 above – Abandoned. Also, reference to a Watsonhead Fireclay Mine with all the same details as Hyndshaw.
23/9/1938 – Wishaw Press – Notable new fireclay mine. Morningside Company’s enterprise. Interest attaches to the recent opening of the Watsonhead Fireclay Mine by the Morningside Fireclay Company Ltd. The Millstone Grit formation has long been worked for fireclay in the Glenboig and Bonnybridge districts, but this is the first attempt to tap it for that purpose in the Morningside, by Newmains, area. The company formerly made firebrick from the clay pavement of the Lower Drumbray coal at the Hyndshaw Pit, but last year it became apparent that this source was approaching exhaustion. The greater part of the new bed is of the same ” high alumina” quality as that of Bonnybridge, but the top ply is even richer, running as high as 41 per cent alumina. The new mine is entirely electrically operated as to haulage, pumping and ventilation and the pithead is a steel structure. It is designed for an output of 50 tons a day. The new brickwork is a 12-chamber Hoffman continuous kiln of the latest type and a Fawcett “stiff-plastic” brickmaker has been installed to turn out 10,000 firebricks per shift. The field is expected to last at least 50 years.
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