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the recent tendency is to build workers' houses away from
the pits, workers are taken to and fro by bus. Canteen services
are provided and are taken advantage of by about 60 per
cent. of the employees. A Welfare Institute stands a little
east of the colliery and facilities for recreation are being
developed.
Alongside Prestongrange Colliery there are the Brick and
Fireclay Works, which have been in existence for over 100
years. The raw material is produced at the colliery and
is of high grade quality, suitable for the manufacture of
building brick, firebrick, sewage pipes, and chimney cans.
About 120 work- people are employed, and, although the principal
products are made by machines, many articles are hand-moulded
and this calls for skill that is gained only by experience.
The works are modern and equipped with the latest machinery.
The products are sold in the home market, but prior to 1939
a large export trade was carried on with Denmark, Holland,
Germany, and other European countries. Morrison's Haven
Harbour was used both by the colliery and the brickworks
until about 1914, but now the coal and bricks are sent away
by rail and road.
Prestonlinks Colliery employs about 800 men who come from
Prestonpans, Cockenzie, Tranent, and Musselburgh. This is
a modern and up-to-date colliery with workings which extend
for some two miles under the Firth of Forth. There are very
fine pithead baths and an excellent canteen. In 1917 the
colliery had about noo employees. Modern machinery is used
extensively and a visit to the pit, especially to the underground
workings, makes one realise the great advances made in the
industry in recent years. Mechanical cutters and conveyor
belts, with well-built and well-lighted roadways and railways,
contrast with the evil conditions in the mines of which
we used to hear stories, but even these cannot . make a
visitor think that a miner's life is anything but an arduous
one.
The development of the collieries marked a great change
in the history of Prestonpans. Many immigrants entered the
parish, especially from the West of Scotland, and many new
names appeared among the old. As this change commenced about
the same time as the extension of various
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