Edgar,
From 'Fife-The Mining Kingdom' by Guthrie Hutton-includes a drawing of
the Moat Pit at Culross,a shaft on an artificial island which allowed ships
to
draw alongside to load up.Developed by Sir George Bruce in 1590 and swamped
in a storm and abandoned in 1625.it was drained by buckets worked by a
horse gin.
From the same source comes Preston Island in the Firth of Forth.It was
developed by Sir Robert Preston to produce salt from a complex of salt pans.
Shafts were sunk into the outcropping coals to provide house coal and fuel
for the pans.There were three shafts on the small island and an explosion in
1811
in one working caused deaths and serious flooding.The lot had declined to
extinction by 1850 due largely to better Cheshire salt.
Andrew Santer
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