This monument stands close to the site of the Valleyfield Pit, which opened in 1908 and closed in 1978.
"The total number of fatalities at Valleyfield Colliery during its working life was 83; 1 woman and 82 men; this latter figure including 35 miners killed in the 1939 disaster. Pithead girls "at least a dozen" were employed on the picking belts 'tables' and tiplers and it was on one of these devices that Annie Kelly, the only female fatality, was killed in 1919. Her father had lost his life at the pit in 1914."
Every time I read something like that I become grateful for the Health and Safety Executive. The report of the 1939 disaster, which can be viewed on the Fife Mining Resource web pages makes sobering reading. Look under Western Fife and "V" for Valleyfield.
Valleyfield Colliery Monument