The Lothian Coal Company: 1900-1920
1901 was a good year for the Lothian Coal Co. but for the following five years demand for coal was poor and prices low. There was a tax on coal exports and this affected the Coal Co. as it exported a lot of coal to the Continent. The company was tempted to reduce wages but since 1899 wages had been controlled nationally by a Conciliation Board composed of coal owners and miners. The profit for the year 1903 -1904 was £10,000. One of the directors commented at the A.G.M. that "the balance is a miserable affair, considering the large amount of capital in the company. The company has done much for the comfort of the workers and the workers in return ought to do all they could for the company." (Dalkeith Advertiser, 6 October 1904)
Other ways were sought to reduce production costs and in 1905 electric coal cutting machinery was introduced to Newbattle Colliery and this increased output and cut the average cost of coal production. That year, the great seam was reached. It was six feet of excellent steam coal and good household coal. Newbattle Colliery was noted for the quality of its cannel coal which was particularly suitable for the manufacture of gas and was in demand in London, Europe and America.
In 1907 work was begun on a new project to replace the old Bryans Pit. A drift mine was developed at Easthouses and when opened in 1910 Bryans Pit was closed.
1907 was a good year for business and the minimum wage rose to 7/6d (37½p) a day, though it fell back the following year. Part of the Dalkeith Advertiser report of the chairman's speech at the 1908 A.G.M. went as follows "The advance of the rate of wages was more serious for them than the mere increase of wages, for they always found that when colliers had high wages they worked a great deal less. He hoped they would not have that difficulty to contend with now that the wages were back to 6/3d (31p). They had no fear of the exhaustion of the collieries; coal would last for many more generations, and that was another reason why they were anxious to build houses, and build them substantially, and tempt the workmen by giving good accommodation." (Dalkeith Advertiser, 24 October 1908)
1909 and 1910 were good years for the company with profits around £20,000
each year and wage rates quite low.
On the outbreak of war in 1914 many miners enlisted and coal production fell
as a result. The government brought out a Coal Emergency Act and took control
of the coal industry. Minimum wage rates rose continuously and at the end of
the war they stood at 13/- (65p) a day. There was a coal famine with huge demand
at home and abroad. At this time the miner's leaders demanded that wages should
be increased by 3/6d (17½p) a day, that the working day should be reduced
from eight to six hours and that collieries should be nationalised. The Coal
Controller, on the advice of the coal owners offered 1/- (5p) a day. A national
strike was imminent and a Royal Commission was hastily set up under the chairmanship
of Sir John Sankey. Of the twelve members, six were miners representatives and
three represented the coal owners. The main recommendations of the Sankey Commission
were:
(1) An immediate increase of 2/- (10p) a day,
(2) The introduction of a seven hour day,
(3) Nationalisation of the pits as from 1922
(4) One penny per ton of coal produced to be set aside to provide amenities
in mining areas.
Three of these recommendations were accepted and acted upon. Only the one concerning
nationalisation was rejected.
The massive house building programme of the Lothian Coal Co. begun in 1896 had
continued into the twentieth century. Between 1901 and 1914 another 350 houses
were built at Newtongrange in the schemes of Dean Park, St. David's and Monkswood
by the Newbattle and Whitehill Building Co. (a subsidiary of the Coal Co.).
Shareholders in the Coal Company were given first preference to purchase the
£10 shares and a dividend of 5% was assured. The whole project proved
to be extremely profitable for the shareholders. The Building Company was able
to secure government loans of up to half to cost of the building programme at
low interest rates ...and the rents actually paid by the Coal Company were sufficient
to pay not only five percent dividends, but to permit a sinking fund to redeem
the whole capital at the conclusion of the lease, to pay the interest and repayment
of Government loans which were acquired, and to permit heavy depreciation of
the houses. The original cost of the houses appears on the books as £59,893
but by 1913 their depreciated value was £4,262." (Michael Cotterill:
Mining Museum Research Paper No. 1).
The Lothian Coal Co. leased the houses from the Building Co. for fifteen years from the date of completion and then were able to buy the houses at a fraction of the actual value. The Newbattle and Whitehall Building Co. built no more houses after 1904 but was not wound up until 1914 to ensure the maximum financial benefits could be reaped.
Meantime, another company, the Newtongrange and Easthouses Building Co., had been formed in 1906. It operated in the same way as the previous company erecting houses for the Lothian Coal Co. It was wound up in 1930.
There were three separate districts in Newtongrange at the turn of the century. The old village of Newtongrange now came under the name of Abbeyland and there were the two new schemes of Deanpark and Monkswood. There were no street names (apart from the Loan in Abbeyland) and all the houses were numbered in succession. Deanpark is still like that but Monkswood was changed in 1912 when plans were laid to extend house building as far as the colliery railway line to Easthouses. Part of Monkswood was re-named St. David’s, one street was called Lingerwood Road and the other six streets were named First to Sixth Street. Some larger houses for colliery foremen were built around a large grassed area in 1914. This was called The Square