#west lothian

Jousting at Linlitgow Palace,

On 10th January 1947, the West Lothian village of Burngrange was witness to its worst underground mining disaster.

he disaster and rescue attempt were national news, but the impact on the local communities and the victims’ families is still felt today.

The flame from a carbide lamp ignited a pocket of firedamp. Only a small explosion was felt at first, but this ignited more gas and within half an hour the timbers and oil shale in the mine were on fire. Thirty eight men were able to escape, bringing with them the body of John McGarty who had been killed by the initial explosion.

Another fourteen men were trapped behind the fire. Despite “one of the most dramatic and gallant rescue bids.....

"The first rescue squad was driven back by smoke, but others equipped with breathing apparatus quickly followed them. Talk among the waiting crowd was hushed when two men appeared carrying a stretcher with a blanket covering the figure on it."

"...a crowd of 300, including the wives and mothers of many of the men on the shift who had remained below after the explosion in the hope of helping their stricken comrades, waited silently and anxiously at the shaft. "

Source: Aberdeen Journal, 11th January 1947.

The fires went on burning for 4 days and it was very difficult for the fire crew to reach the miners. The families had to wait all this time, still hoping that their loved ones were alive. It must have been horrible for them waiting like this.

In the history of mining”, the trapped men could not be reached, and their bodies were brought out of the pit on the 15th of January

On 13th October 1862 tragedy struck when two trains collided at Winchburgh to the west of Edinburgh.

This is thought to have been the first head on collision between two trains in the country, it was certainly the first one with loss of life as 17 people died.

It caused horror and dismay at the time, but today has been almost forgotten. The crash occurred a mile and a half northwest of Winchburgh. The site of the accident was just west of Craigton House in a 30-feet-deep cutting.

Usually there would not have been a problem as there were two tracks there, but one was being repaired at the time. The cutting is on a curve, and by the time the two drivers saw each other, they were barely 300 yards apart.

The subsequent investigation of the wreckage showed that both drivers had reversed their engines and applied the brakes. The driver of the train from Glasgow, Archibald Neil, leapt from his engine and survived though badly injured. The other driver was killed.

The dead included James Hosie, manager of the Oakley Iron Works, who had just recently married. He was the founder of the Bathgate Foundry in 1857. Ironically, much of his foundry work was iron castings for railways; as he had lived, so he died by railways.

Dozens of the injured were taken by cart or train to Linlithgow, and accommodated in the Star and Garter and Red Lion inns. The Falkirk Herald reported that an injured woman gave birth prematurely in the Star and Garter, but the incident seems to have been a false alarm. Others were taken into private houses – four in the home of Alex Miller, a saddler, and another two in the home of Mr John Robertson. Twelve died in the crash, another four in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and a Mr Bolton died on arrival at Linlithgow Station.

The dead were listed as:

Robert Morton, engine-driver on the train from Edinburgh

Andrew Cochrane, fireman on the train from Edinburgh

John Cunningham, fireman on the train from Glasgow

Mrs Honeyman, wife of the railway guard on the train from Glasgow

E.S. Bolton, a Birmingham commercial traveller

Mr Cowie, a railway clerk at Stirling

James Hosie, manager of the Oakley Ironworks, Dunfermline

Mrs Gill, a Yorkshire lady in her seventies

Mr Hardy, an attendant at the Morningside Asylum

Mr C.M. Haxton, a Kirkintilloch printer

Alexander Hedderwick, a Falkirk solicitor

William McFarlane, a Leith shoemaker

Michael McQuade, a Dunblane railway porter

Emily Smith, daughter of an Edinburgh joiner

Elizabeth Stevenson, a servant girl

Robert White, a Falkirk fish-dealer

John Wightman, the Earl of Lauderdale’s estate manager.

The casualties were fewer than they might have been because both trains were going slowly – the east-bound train at 20mph and the west-bound train at a mere 8mph.