Notes on an Old Coal-Working and a Wooden Shovel from Ormiston, East Lothian

Abstract

The coal workings are believed to be about two hundred years old based on historical references and the coal workings themselves. The wooden coal shovel was found in the old Four Feet workings. No superficial evidence now exists to mark the entrance to this old working, but entry was by a short stair-pit at a point near the present railway. The bottom of this old pit was encountered recently in the course of working the seam. The birch shovel is described and is thought to date to the seventeenth century.