Bing! (West Lothian)

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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby wee minxy » Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:39 pm

That's an excellent wee find, it's the going in there and praying you walk softly enough not to bring it all down :(
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby Doorstop » Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:15 am

Fuck that! 8O
I like him ... He says "Okie Dokie!"
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby BrigitDoon » Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:56 am

Indeed, and that would make it a good place to hide the bodies. 8)
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby Lucky Poet » Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:53 pm

It does look a wee bit dangerous, I must admit. You've just got to try not to sneeze too hard, just in case.

Spent part of an afternoon in the NLS Map Library midweek, in an effort to shed some light on the thing. Consulting the (I think) 1916 25 inch to 1 mile sheet there was damn all there, though it confirmed a few other things (to be blethered about in due course, when I get a copy of it). The bing was already out of use by that point, and there are no clues at all, though there was a small oil works right next to the site of our tunnel thing. 1896 had nothing either, and the bing was again out of use by that time (judging by the lack of tram lines on it, shown on other bings that were in use). The next previous map, 1855 or so, has no industry shown at all, just the canal and some fields. Which is a fat lot of good.

Other than trying to find the oil company's archives, which is a long shot though BP may still have them as the successor company, that's a dead end. Ach well. Now to get a copy of that lovely map...
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby cell » Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:31 pm

I would think Ineos might be a better bet to get any Scottish Oil records or at least tell you where they are because BP sold them the refinery a few years back. I did a quick search to see if the Refinery Exhibition Centre was open to the public because they have some good stuff on the shale oil industry in there, however the lecture below popped up which seems to be open to the general public as long as you advise in advance.

Shale Oil & Coal Tar - Scotland's Hydrocarbon Legacy
A review of the history of the forerunners of today's chemical industry in Scotland.
Date: 18 March 2010 19:30 - 22:00
Event Subject(s): Industry & Technology
Organic
Venue
Ineos Exhibition Centre
Bo'Ness Road
GRANGEMOUTH
FK3 9XH
United Kingdom
Find this location using Google Map
RSC Organiser Information
Mid-Scotland Local Section

Contact Useful link:
http://www.rsc.org/Membership/Networkin ... ections/...

/...
Additional categories: Other
Access: Public Event
Ticket/Registration Information:
Prior notification would assist with catering arrangements.
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby Expired_Patent » Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:15 pm

There was a very well attended film show presented by John Hume of the RCAHMS in the restored Bo'Ness Hippodrome last Wednesday morning which contained some excellent black and white film of the shale oil industry, covering underground working and haulage, distillation processes and equipment, and disposal of the waste onto the bings. Scarry stuff in many of the shots! Health and safety of today would have a fit!

He also showed film of the Grangemouth wood trades and the BP and ICI chemical works, and the once large Scottish Co-operative Society soap works in Grangemouth.

I only found out about it at short notice, but he did say that he had given a similar presentation in Edinburgh, so it may be shown elsewhere in the future.

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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby Lucky Poet » Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:25 pm

Damn - wouldn't mind seeing both of those, but Bo'ness is a bit out of reach most of the time. I'll have to give Ineos a shout though, and hope the presentation goes ahead in Edinburgh again. Cheers for the info though :)
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby Lucky Poet » Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:28 am

Here's a wee thing I found the other week. Not yet complete, but somebody's been doing a lot of work listing all the known shale workers' company housing, most of them with old and contemporary photos. For a couple of them, I had no idea there had ever been houses there: Click

And the map (or a bit of it), being Ordnance Survey 1916. It links to a bigger copy, assuming I've done it right:
Image

So, there are two oil works, Hopetoun and Albyn, and no less than three working shale mines even on this small section of the map. My eyes lit up when I saw the South Greendykes mine, thinking it might be an easily accessible inclined entrance for to photographise, but comparing it with a current aerial photo shows it's now buried under the bing. Bugger.

What I hadn't expected, though, was that the Greendykes Bing was originally two separate ones, one fed from the Albyn Oil Works to the south, and the other from Hopetoun to the north. One thing it shows is how quickly these things were being built up by the early twentieth century; given the time it took to turn surveys into finished maps it probably shows the size of the bings at about 1912, meaning it (they?) reached its final size only a decade and a half later (since it was last used in 1925). Compare with some aerial shots at RCAHMS, why don't you: Click. They clearly show the two separate paths the shale hutches took from either end, which seems really obvious now.

There you go. More maps, please.
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby Hyabusa » Sun Jun 06, 2010 1:33 am

Ive not been up there for years playing on my dirt bike but i do remember finding a large tunnel open a both ends and full of tyres. But i wasn't relay into urban exploring at the time more just trying to climb the biggest hill i could find with my bike ::): . so i plan to head off there on Tuesday night after my work back of 6 for a wander about and take some pics anyone wants to come along let me know.
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby kevgrif » Wed Jun 30, 2010 10:28 pm

hi guy's new here .. but am interested in the shale oil industry myself ..am also a bottle digger (antique bottle''s)
i know where the mine entrance is that hayabusa is talking about but its bricked off now :( ..we used to bunk off school there and we used to light fire's at the entrance .. oh they were the days :wink:

Those shaft's on the west side of greendyke's bing were ventilation shaft's.. so i was told by a old friend of mine who lived in broxburn in the 30's and 40's he worked in the old candle house in greendykes(scran has a photo) then on the railway line. He called the train engine's pug's and the shale cart's hutches..... he's dead now (bless him)

next time am down i'll get photo's of the mine entrance :P
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby rabmania » Thu Jul 01, 2010 8:18 am

kevgrif wrote:hi guy's new here .. but am interested in the shale oil industry myself ..am also a bottle digger (antique bottle''s)
i know where the mine entrance is that hayabusa is talking about but its bricked off now :( ..we used to bunk off school there and we used to light fire's at the entrance .. oh they were the days :wink:

Those shaft's on the west side of greendyke's bing were ventilation shaft's.. so i was told by a old friend of mine who lived in broxburn in the 30's and 40's he worked in the old candle house in greendykes(scran has a photo) then on the railway line. He called the train engine's pug's and the shale cart's hutches..... he's dead now (bless him)
next time am down i'll get photo's of the mine entrance :P


Oh dear, please edit before Dex gets here.
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby BrigitDoon » Thu Jul 01, 2010 11:13 am

Hi kevgrif, welcome to HG :)

"Dex" is HG code for UXB and rabmania likes defusing them. :)
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Thu Jul 01, 2010 12:23 pm

I thought Kevgrif's post was an excellent contribution to this site. Interesting, educational and informative with the promise of more to come.

Welcome.
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby kevgrif » Thu Jul 01, 2010 12:41 pm

hi guy''s good to see am not the only one with a interest in shale mining a lot of people that i talk to have no idea what used to go on in the area in victorian and georgian times .... so i bore them with it. :)

i'll try get some photo's on that ive found :D

here's a link to railscot that has a couple of photo's of stankards bing. search broxburn or uphall for more. The photo's are copyrighted so i cant post them :? http://www.railbrit.co.uk/location.php? ... %20Company

and this one has a picture of one of the pug's.. the bings in the background http://broxburn.org/pictures/thumbnails.php?album=24
Here's a link to duram mining museum has info on manager's and number of empolyees etc http://www.dmm.org.uk/company/b1046.htm

This company deal's with what the shale mining left behind(shallow mine's that have sunk or collapsed causing subsidence) scary photo's imo http://www.dlmminingconsultants.com/gallery.html
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Re: Bing! (West Lothian)

Postby Lucky Poet » Thu Jul 01, 2010 5:10 pm

Dexter St. Clair wrote:I thought Kevgrif's post was an excellent contribution to this site. Interesting, educational and informative with the promise of more to come.

Welcome.

Indeed, and welcome from here too. Thanks for the links - especially the old railway bridge at Uphall :D
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