Miscellaneous Fife Mining Snippets

Daniel Defoe

From "A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain" (1726)

Beyond this is the Methuel, a little town, but a very safe and good harbour, firmly built of stone, almost like the Cobb at Lime, though not wholly projecting into the sea, but standing within the land, and built out with two heads, and walls of thick strong stone: It stands a little on the west side of the mouth of the River Leven; the salmon of this river are esteem'd the best in this part of Scotland.

Here my Lord Weemys brings his coal, which he digs above two miles off, on the banks of the River Leven, and here it is sold or shipp'd off; as also what salt he can make, which is not a great deal. Nor is the estate his lordship makes from the said coal-works equal to what it has been, the water having, after an immense charge to throw it off, broken in upon the works, and hinder'd their going on, at least to any considerable advantage. The people who work in the coal mines in this country, what with the dejected countenances of the men, occasion'd by their poverty and hard labour, and what with the colour or discolouring, which comes from the coal, both to their clothes and complexions, are well described by their own countryman Samuel Colvil, in his famous macaronick poem, call'd, Polemo Midinia, thus:

Cole-hewersNigri , Girnantes more Divelli. Pol. Mid.
They are, indeed, frightful fellows at first sight.

Newspaper Reports

An extraordinary disturbance, arising out of a quarrel between two miners, has occurred in the colliery village of Kingseat, Dunfermline. The whole inhabitants of the village, male and female, are said to have taken part in the fight, and a number of persons were severely wounded with missiles. [Scotsman 27 August 1873]

25 April 1925

Sixty Years In the Pits – Mr John Halley, who was one of the oldest Scottish miners, has died at Kirkland, Leven, at the age of 94 years. He was a native of Kennoway, and worked in the Fife pits for sixty years, chiefly in the Methil district. Deceased had great immunity from accident, and enjoyed exceptionally good health. He was well known in Methil, where he resided for many years, but latterly he returned to Bonnybank, his native village. On the death of his wife two years ago he began to fail, and returned to reside with his grandchildren at Kirkland. In addition to 26 grandchildren, Mr Halley is survived by six great grandchildren. [Dunfermline Journal 25 April 1925]