Prestongrange Museum

The colliery winding gear

The Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum is an industrial heritage museum between Musselburgh and Prestonpans on the B1348 on the East Lothian coast, Scotland UK. Founded as the original site of the Scottish Mining Museum its operation reverted to East Lothian Council Museum Service (the current operators) in 1992. Prestongrange Colliery had closed in 1962 and the site began to be cleared. However, work stopped when a new plan 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 Scottish Mining Museum was formally launched at Prestongrange on 28 September 1984.

Main features

• the Hoffmann Kiln (or, more precisely, the Hoffmann Continuous Kiln)
• the Cornish engine (a type of beam engine) the only one in Scotland
• the winding engine
• the Power House
• the 17th century glass works
• the 18th century pottery site
• the 19th century coal mine and brick works
• Morrison's Haven, the 16th century harbour
• the railway (remains) and rolling stock
• the Visitor Centre with its exhibition

Beam engine

The beam engine is a Cornish engine, an early type of steam engine, used to pump water from the coal mine to prevent the workings from becoming flooded. It was made by Harvey and Company and used in four different mines in Cornwall before being purchased by the Prestongrange Coal and Iron Company in 1874 and shipped north. The 30-ton engine was installed in a new engine house, whose front wall is nearly 7 feet (2.1 m) thick in order to support the main pivot bearing of the huge cast iron beam.

The engine continued operating until 1954, when it was superseded by electric pumps, only eight years before the colliery closed. The engine is the only example in Scotland.

Facilities

The Museum site is open all day every day. The Museum buildings are open between April and October, 11am to 4pm. A self-guided tour by mobile phone is available, and it is narrated by the painter John Bellany who was born in Port Seton.

Photo gallery

• 
  The beam engine house, showing the 'outer' (pump) end of the beam.
• 
  The 'inner' (cylinder) end of the beam engine.
• 
  A brick, made on site, marked "Prestongrange"
• 
  The powerhouse
• 
  7-plank wooden coal wagons (with wooden chassis)
• 
  Brake van
• 
  The Vistor Centre

See also

• Manual labour
• Wage labour
• Industrial archaeology
• List of industrial archaeology topics
• European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH)
• List of places in East Lothian

External links

• The Museum's website
• Prestongrange Community Archaeological Project
• Self-guided tour leaflet
• BBC page on beam engines, including an animation
• National Trust website on Levant Beam Engine
• East Lothian Museums 'Behind the Scenes' – photos taken at Prestongrange