Fife Coal Company facts for kids
| Successor | National Coal Board |
|---|---|
| Formation | September 1872 |
| Dissolved | 1946 |
| Headquarters | Leven, Fife |
| Products | coal, ironstone, bricks |
|
Chairman
|
William Lindsay (1872–1884) Thomas Aitken (1884–1907) Charles Carlow (1907–?) C. Augustus Carlow (?–1946) |
The Fife Coal Company was a big company that started in 1872. Its main job was to dig up coal and ironstone from mines in Fife, Scotland. The company also made bricks. Its main office was in Leven.
The company began by buying a small mine called Beath and Blairadam Colliery in Kelty. Over the years, it grew much bigger. It became the largest coal company in Scotland. At its peak in 1911, it dug up 4.3 million tons of coal each year. The company was mostly run by Charles Carlow and later by his son, C. Augustus Carlow. The Fife Coal Company stopped operating at the end of 1946 when the British government took over all coal mines.
Contents
A Look Back: Company History
Starting Small and Growing Big
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The first meeting of the company's leaders happened in September 1872 in Edinburgh. William Lindsay, a shipowner, was in charge. They decided to create a new company. They bought the Beath and Blairadam Colliery for £22,000. This mine had several small pits in Kelty, Fife.
In January 1873, people bought shares in the company. Work began to make the Kelty pits better and to build new mines. The leaders wanted someone great to manage the company. They hired Charles Carlow, who was only 24 years old. He came from a nearby mine. Charles Carlow led the company for the next 50 years. He was a manager, a director, and later the chairman. His son took over after him.
The first few years were hard. The price of coal went down, and the coal they found wasn't the best quality. The company didn't make much money. One important step was to find better coal deeper underground. They started working on what became the high-quality mines of the Lindsay Colliery.
The company also looked for more profitable areas. In 1876, they leased the Methil coalfield. They got a loan from a bank to pay for it. Then, they bought the Leven fields, and the company's office moved there. After that, they bought the Pirnie colliery. By 1878, the company started making a profit.
These new mines helped the company dig up much more coal. In 1884, they produced almost 300,000 tons. This was a big jump from 79,000 tons in 1872. The company sold coal to gas and train companies in Scotland. They also exported coal to countries like France and the Netherlands. They kept adding new fields and digging new pits. By 1893, their output reached 794,000 tons.
Challenges and Major Expansion
Working in coal mines often led to disagreements over pay. In 1894, there was a four-month strike. This meant the company lost about 150,000 tons of coal production. But this didn't stop them from growing even more.
In 1893, they started the Aitken Colliery. This mine soon became the biggest in Scotland. It eventually produced 500,000 tons of coal each year. In 1896, the company bought nine pits from Cowdenbeath Coal. This made Fife Coal one of the largest mining companies in Scotland. By 1900, they were digging up 2 million tons of coal. They also had more than 5,000 employees. As the company grew, they needed to sell more coal to other countries.
In the early 1900s, Fife Coal bought four smaller mines. The most important new mine was the Mary pit. It was built on the recently bought Lochore estate. This pit eventually produced 250,000 tons of coal a year. By 1909, after buying eight more companies, Fife Coal was the biggest mining company in Fife.
The new large pits helped double the company's output in ten years. They also bought Donibristle Colliery in 1908 and Bowhill in 1909. By 1911, they reached 4.4 million tons of coal. They had 14,500 employees. By 1913, Fife Coal was the biggest employer in the mining industry in Scotland. It was also the third-largest in the United Kingdom. The company was now responsible for almost half of all the coal dug up in the Fife Coalfield. But this was their highest point.
Difficult Times Between the World Wars
After a long period of growth, the years between World War I and World War II were much harder. The company never reached its highest production levels again.
World War I caused big problems. A quarter of the company's workers joined the military. This affected how much coal they could dig. Also, before the war, half of their coal was sold to other countries. By the end of 1915, this amount was cut in half. In March 1916, the government took control of all the coal mines in the area. They kept control until after the war.
In 1920, the coal industry had a short time of great success. They sold coal to other countries at very high prices. But this didn't last long. In 1921, prices dropped. Mine owners lost money and wanted miners to accept lower pay. This led to a big national disagreement. Some mines in Fife had serious problems. Even safety workers stopped working. Water pumps were turned off, and some mines flooded. It took months for them to recover after the dispute ended. Fife Coal's output fell by a million tons.
Charles Carlow passed away in January 1923. His son, Augustus Carlow, took over as managing director. The company still planned to grow. In 1923, they bought the Earl of Rosslyn’s mines, which could produce 500,000 tons of coal. In 1924, they bought Oakley Collieries. This was their last big purchase.
The British coal industry faced more problems selling coal to other countries. They had competition from France, Germany, and Poland, where workers were paid less. In April 1925, the British currency became more expensive compared to others. This made it even harder to sell coal abroad. Fife Coal was losing money. The pressure on miners to accept lower wages led to a big miners' strike in May 1926. A few days later, the TUC called a general strike to support the miners. After nine days, the general strike ended, but the miners continued their strike until November.
Fife Coal was still losing money in 1927. But then, foreign competition started to lessen. In 1929, exports reached 2.5 million tons. Their total output was almost 4 million tons, the highest since 1913. But this didn't last long. The start of the Great Depression in 1930 led to mines closing. The company's profits fell a lot.
The company realized they needed to work in more productive areas. In 1935, they started work at Comrie. They believed it could produce 1 million tons a year. This mine finally started operating in 1940. WWII meant the company almost completely lost its export markets.
After the war, production recovered a lot. In 1946, they produced 3 million tons. The Fife Coal Company said it was the largest coal mining company in Scotland. They had big plans to increase output to 6.25 million tons by the early 1960s. But these plans were stopped. The government decided to take over all coal mines. On the last day of 1946, the company was officially closed. Its mines and property were given to the National Coal Board the next day. The Fife Coal Company was fully closed down in 1952.
See also
