Polmaise Past and Present 

Polmaise 3 & 4 (and 5)

With coal being dug at Millhall, attention turned to the site near the village of Fallin. Two shafts were sunk in August 1904, Polmaise 3 and 4, and these were producing coal by April 1906.[i] Eventually the Millhall and Fallin sites became joined up underground, and the Millhall site closed. Partially to cope with this, in the 1960’s a fifth shaft was sunk at Fallin – Polmaise 5 – this shaft was used mainly for delivering supplies down to the pit in mine cars and Bogies. No 5 shaft also housed two large submersible pumps which pumped all the water from the bottom of the shaft up to the surface through 12 inch pipes

                Polmaise Colliery Gates shortly before closure of the mine

David Paterson, a Menstrie poet, wrote a poem entitled ‘Fall In’:

                In the Carse of Polmaise there’s a hole in the ground

                Where the borers have bored and the coal has been found

                The hefty geologists kicked up a din

                Then built a new city and called in Fallin[ii]

At Millhall, most miners had found living accommodation within the town of Stirling itself. With the new colliery being further out from Stirling the mining company found it necessary in 1905 to construct housing for the miners and their families, this included 180 homes in 5 blocks near the entrance to the colliery.

Despite this being the 20th Century, these homes were of the cheapest and most basic nature. They were of two sizes, one with a living room/kitchen/bedroom with another small bedroom, and one (a ‘single end’) which was just the first room. Toilets and washing facilities were shared between houses[v]. These houses were deeply unsatisfactory, so during the late 1920’s the Council started building houses of far better quality nearby – the first houses were in Woodside Place – and by 1957 all families had been removed from the blocks and rehoused. The blocks were gradually demolished and no trace remains of them, with new private houses on the site of them.[vi]

A school and church for the community was also built (Fallin Primary School opened under the Head Teacher Mr Alexander “Sany” McLeod in June 1907: the church opened in 1908). To complete the picture a public house opened under the Gothenburg system, and run by Fallin Public House Society Ltd in November 1910. With funding support from ‘the Goth’ adjacent Bowling Club was able to open in 1911.

The mine went into public ownership under the National Coal Board in 1947, a plaque at the mine read: “This colliery is now owned by the people, for the people”.[vii]

The mine closed in 1987 shortly after the end of the miners’ strike and the entire site was cleared not long after, even the coal bing was reduced in size to make it a safe walk up and down for people. Today there are few traces of the former industry, a small industrial facility occupies the area; however a small outdoor museum of equipment makes a visit worthwhile.

[i] Tom Paterson, Mining around Stirling: POLMAISE AND BANDEATH COLLIERIES Extracted from Industries of Stirling and District Originally published in the Stirling Observer - 1908

http://tompaterson.co.uk/mining/Polmaise.htm

[ii] Archie Bone: The Histroy of Fallin

[iii] https://twitter.com/polmaise34/status/622164813792288768

[iv] Scottish Mining website: http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/380.html

[v] Hugh G Kerr: Fallin – Tales from a Mining Village, Stirling District Libraries 1991

[vii] Archie Bone