Shale Mines of West Lothian

Shale Mining was once a very busy industry, employing thousands of men and women in Scotland. Although few records still survive, the Almond Valley Heritage Trust is working to preserve those that did. They are working to digitize and make available salary records, tenancy records, employee cards, apprenticeship records, accident records and other materials. These are slowly being added to their website. The website also includes maps of the shale villages in West Lothian as well as photographs of the various miners houses.

The Almond Valley Heritage Trust have digitized a number of books on Shale Mining and made these available on their website along with a list of the various jobs within the shale mining industry. This is definitely worth a look for those with shale miners in their family tree.

Here’s the link:  http://www.scottishshale.co.uk/

Happy Searching!