Prestongrange mine

Got my 10,000 steps in today walking from Musselburgh to Prestonpans, via Prestongrange heritage museum, where I blipped the head-frame, which was the hoist allowing miners to be transported up and down to the mine.

Prestongrange Colliery had closed in 1962 and the site began to be cleared. However, work stopped when a new plan to turn the site into a museum was adopted. The museum was the idea of David Spence, a retired mining engineer. A steering committee was formed in 1968, volunteers worked to clear the site and assemble exhibits, and the National Mining Museum was formally launched at Prestongrange on 28 September 1984.

Prestongrange had three key merits as a museum site. Firstly; the estate features in the earliest written account of collieries in Scotland, often dated to 1180-1210. Secondly; the existing colliery included the first deep shaft in Scotland, which Matthias Dunn of Newcastle sank in 1830 to the Great Seam at 420 feet (128 m). Thirdly; the colliery housed the last Cornish beam engine remaining in situ in Scotland.

It’s an amazing museum, and important to be aware of the importance of the industrial revolution to the country.

Hope you have had a good day.