What is now shown on the OS 1:25,000 map as Black Wood was the site of a coal mine operated by the Woodhall Coal Company.
The mine marker on the Railway Walk records the pit being sunk in 1852 and "not fully exploited" until 1904. It was abandoned in 1944. 193 men were employed in its last year of operation. Archive pictures show the buildings, sifting screens and head gear of the mine, all of which are now gone apart from occasional lumps of masonry between the trees. You can also find part of the wall of the mine’s railway platform at the edge of the mixed woodland that now occupies the site; and it is obvious that the contours of the woodland floor as you walk west are those of the mine bing.
The terrace of cottages along the road west out of Pencaitland is also a legacy from the days of mining. A record in the early 20th century describes these houses and other planned improvements:
The Woodhall Coal Company, Limited, operates on the minerals near the village of Pencaitland. The latest houses erected for the officials and miners, by Mr Reid of Tynholme, are of the three and four room type. The dwellings are as tidy as they are comfortable, and they are to be made even more comfortable by the introduction of bathrooms. Older properties in, the quaint village are also to be brought up to date; plans for an extensive reconstruction scheme have been approved.
Another “Mr Reid”, Thomas Rice Reid, was involved in an attempt to rob the Woodhall Coal Company in the 1920s. Reid was a not very successful criminal and spent most of his life from the age of 14 in jail. When “at work”, he operated by stealing dynamite from mines and using it to blow open safes – and then getting caught. Along with one Patrick Hyland, he was captured in the act of preparing to blow the Woodhall Coal Company’s office safe. Reid compounded the offence by shooting and wounding one of the policemen involved in the arrest. Unusually, despite being caught in the act, he received a formal verdict of “not guilty” in the High Court. He collapsed the day before his trial was due to open and was examined in Saughton Prison by doctors who certified that he had a fatal heart condition and would be likely to die if he appeared in court. He was released from custody for nature to take its course.
You can enter the wood from the Pencaitland Railway Walk on a small path. There is also a parking area and picnic tables in the wood which can be reached by tracks leading off the A6093 just after the point where the Railway Walk crosses the road.