Scottish shale Scottish shale

Raebog Oil Works

Former parish and county:
Parish of New Monkland, Lanarkshire
Local authority:
North Lanarkshire
Ownership:
Opened:
Constructed c.1866
Closed:
Dismantled after 1880
Current status of site:
Uncertain, probably wasteland and moor
Regional overview:

raebogworks500.jpg

Not listed by Redwood.

Listed in Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland for 1878 under Oil Manufacturers in the Airdrie area as "McCallum, John, A. (crude) Raebog Oil Works".

Assumed to lie close to Raebog Collieries.

Mapped by the Ordnance Survey of c.1899, centred on Raebog Colliery.

  • Rateable value by year
    • Date Rateable Value Owner Occupier Notes
      1866 £180 Raebog Oil Company Raebog Oil Company Partners: A & J McCallum, Robert Taylor
      1867 £120 Raebog Oil Company Raebog Oil Company
      1868-71 £80 Raebog Oil Company Raebog Oil Company
      1873 £80 Raebog Oil Company Raebog Oil Company Robert Fenton / J McCallum
      1874-75 £80 Raebog Oil Company Raebog Oil Company
      1876 £80 Raebog Oil Company Raebog Oil Company Empty
      1877-80 £80 Raebog Oil Company Raebog Oil Company
      NO FURTHER ENTRIES
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  • Newspaper references
    • AIRDRIE - Sudden death – On Sunday, a labourer named John Biggarstaff, while at work at Raebog Oil Works, complained of being unwell. As he seemed to be seriously ill, he was put into a cart to be conveyed to his home at Glenmavis, but on the way he died.

      Falkirk Herald , 28th November 1872

      .......

      THE RAEBOG OIL COMPANY, Paraffin Oil Manufacturers. Airdrie.

      Our works are situated on a tributary of the Colder. Employ eight hands. Rateable value of works, 745/. The bed of the stream is not silted up. Our works are not affected by floods. Obtain supply of water from gathering grounds, and from coal pits, but do not know the annual consumption at our works. Use bituminous shale 3,500 tons ; sulphuric acid, 6 tons. Produce crude oil, 145,000 gallons; sulphate of ammonia, 6 tons. Produce 30,000 gallons of water separated from crude oil, which is distilled, and sulphate of ammonia extracted there from. The ammoniacal liquor, after distillation, is conveyed into drains, and thence into the stream. Produce yearly 2,600 tons of spent shale, which is stored on adjacent ground. Consume yearly 1,200 tons of coal, the ashes from which are conveyed to the spent shale heap. The excrements of our workpeople are used for manure.

      From Report on the Pollution of Scotch Rivers to the Rivers Pollution Commissioners, 1873

      .......

      FOR SALE by Private Bargain, That OILWORK situated at RAEBOG, near AIRDRIE consisting of 24 Horizontal Retorts, with Mains, Valves, Mountings, and Connections complete and in good order; 2 large Tanks, 24 ft. x 6ft and 30ft x 6ft, a small boiler, 12 ft. x 5ft. Tanks lined with Lead, and Pumps. Will be Sold in One Lot, or in Lots to suit Purchasers. Apply to MARTYN BROTHERS, Chapelside Foundry, Airdrie.

      Scotsman, Monday 14th March 1881