Miner's pick (1)

Pick used at Fauldhead Colliery until it closed in 1968.  Fauldhead was developed by J I McConnel.  It opened in 1896 and was the first local pit to have mechanised haulage and coal cutting.   James Irving McConnel of Eliock became the lessee of the Sanquhar coalfield in 1886 at the age of 24. He developed the local collieries extensively which were the largest privately worked coalfield in Scotland. In 1903 his business became a limited company, the Sanquhar and Kirkconnel Collieries Ltd. He retired in 1925 when the company was sold to William Baird and Co Ltd (Bairds and Dalmellington).