Janet I cannot tell you anything about the HUNTER family except it was a fairly common name in the Arniston /Newtongrange area but I do have some information on the Emily pit which was what the original Arniston Colliery shaft was called. It does not say when the shaft was sunk but it was already working for a while in 1860 when it was sunk to 960 feet making it the deepest pit in the east of Scotland. The Emily and the Gore pit continued working until they were closed in1962. I remember it well as I was working at a nearby pit at that time and had to go there for electrical spares for our pit (Lingerwood Colliery). The information on the arniston colliery is from an excellent book that I picked up in Edinburgh on a trip there last year. It is called 'Mining the Lothians' by Guthrie Hutton. It is published by Stenlake Publishing in association with the Scottish Mining Museum at Lady Victoria Colliery, Newtongrange. It has lots of historical information and pictures of almost all collieries (both coal and shale oil) Regards Ron Soutar Perth W. Australia Janet White wrote: > My great great grandfather, William Hunter, was the mining oversman for at > least 20 years at the Arniston Colliery (owned by Robert Dundas) in 1842 > (per testimony given before the mining commission). His wife was Elspet > Thomson. I would be interested in anyone with information on this family > and/or the Arniston Colliery. > > Janet White > > ==== SCOTTISH-MINING Mailing List ==== > Visit the GENUKI Fife website > http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/FIF/ > <================================================> > > ============================== > Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: > Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. > http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com