Together, the colliery and the village of Newtongrange are of great importance in helping present and future generations to understand the scale of Scotland’s once great mining industry. The colliery surface buildings are amongst the best preserved of their period in Europe and the finest remaining late Victorian colliery in Britain.
From the moment work started to sink the shaft in 1981, the Lady Victoria Colliery has been a centre of innovation, industry and community. The advanced engineering of the infrastructure and the progressive ideology shown in the provision for the community distinguished the company from the rest. The colliery provided coal and jobs for nearly 100 years before closing its doors in 1981.
It wasn’t long before it was open again, this time as a museum in 1984. The particularly well preserved site with its many buildings and structures provided a unique opportunity to tell the story of coal mining in Scotland. The museum is now home to an extensive collection of archives and artefacts. It is also home to a national memorial on mining disasters in Scotland.
The Lady Victoria Colliery, home of the National Mining Museum Scotland, was opened in 1895 as Scotland's first super-pit. It ceased production in 1981 and now serves as an example of one of the best preserved Victorian Collieries in Europe.
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