The Tranent Coal Wastes are/were a massive underground network of caverns created by 700yrs of coal mining. The folk of Tranent hid in the wastes in 1547 before the Battle of Pinkie and many houses had direct access down into the tunnels under their floors.
In 1710, Prestoungrange kirk partly fell into the wastes and people lifted the flagstones to go down into the them. Until 1884, some families even buried their dead in carved niches in the wastes using stairs under a false tombstone at Tranent Kirkyard.
Because of the wastes, Tranent famously never had water, as the wells got undermined.
“I can wash tripe with as little water as any woman in Tranent”
old Scots saying (A bad workman blames his tools).
This scarcity was *really* bad news when cholera would hit the town.
There are many stories about folk lost in the wastes or falling through the crust– I’m not sure how safe I’d feel in Tranent, but it does seem to genuinely have 700+ years of tunnels underneath it! Also, here’s my favourite epitaph from a Tranent headstone.
References
Alison, S.S. (1840) Report on the sanatory condition and general economy of the town of Tranent, and the neighbouring district in Haddingtonshire. W. Clowes, London. 40pp.
McNeill, P. (1884) Tranent and its surroundings: historical, ecclesiastical, & traditional. 2nd Ed. John Menzies & Co., Glasgow. 279pp.
Sands, J. (1881) Sketches of Tranent in the olden time. James Hogg, Edinburgh. 103pp.
