§ 49. Mr. Timmonsasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works, as representing the Lord President of the Council, what coal measures were found, before the nationalisation of the coal industry, by Robert Addie and Sons and by United Collieries Limited, when they bored the area of Newhouse, Lanarkshire, details of which are in the possession of the Geological Survey Office. Edinburgh.
§ Mr. BevinsRobert Addie and Sons had borings made in the Newhouse area in a very small untouched area of coal measures, surrounded by old workings. I understand that three coal seams were found and proved to be workable but they were exhausted by 1954.
United Collieries had borings made through the upper part of the productive coal measures (in which the thicker coals had long been worked out) in order to prove any untouched workable seams in a lower part of these measures. I understand that only one thin seam was found to be an economic mining proposition; this was worked until 1950.