Frances Pit

Frances Colliery worked undersea coals from its cliff-top location. It was known locally as 'The Dubbie' because of wet undergound conditions, and was taken over by the Fife Coal Company in 1923 and subsequently equipped with its own washery, built by Simon Carves in 1925. Further redevelopment occurred in the 1930s, and in the 1940s, new headgear and a ground-mounted Robey & Metro Vickers electric 1,600hp winding engine were installed with minimum disruption to production. Fires caused by spontaneous combustion broke out during the 1984 strike. Retained on care and maintenance basis after 1985, but planned 'Frances Project' of 1990 never materialised, and the surface buildings were subsequently demolished with the exception of the headframe which survives as a monument to the Fife coal industry. The shaft is now used to pump water into an adjacent minewater treatment plant.