In message <[log in to unmask]>,
Mark Langenfeld <[log in to unmask]> writes
>On Mon, 22 Jan 2001 [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>> ...and add SOUGH to the list..... a drainage level, often asscociated with
>> Derbyshire metal mines
>>
>> MARK
>>
>
>Pronounced "soo," "sow," "suff?"
>
>Another MARK
But a sough doesn't necessarily have to be anything whatever to do with
a mine. A field drain, of the cut and cover variety, is also a sough (at
least in N. Derbyshire).
Just to throw some complications into the ring, Jim Rieuwerts, THE
expert on soughs, defines five different sorts of soughs in his book
"Glossary of Derbyshire Lead Mining Terms". He gives
1. Cross measure drifts, often of considerable length. These were
the principal type of major sough level in Derbyshire serving a complex
or group of mines.
2. Vein soughs, driven immediately parallel to, or along the sole
of a vein and thus providing only localised drainage relief to one or
two mines. Nevertheless, some such as Mandale Sough were major levels of
considerable length.
3. Shale gate soughs, usually driven at a too high contour to
intersect the vein but often utilised to locate its range buried in the
limestones beneath. Used afterwards to take off pump water and water
issuing from the upper measures. The soughs serving the Eyam Edge mines,
and the sough at the western end of Iden Vein in Peak Forest Liberty,
are the best examples.
4. Exploration gates; they were no doubt intended to drain water in
the event of ore being found below the soles of contemporary waterlogged
workings. Many, such as those in the Via Gellia, were referred to as
soughs in Barmaster's entries and other documents.
5. Swallow drifts and working levels were modified into drainage
levels, so too were natural cave passages.
As for other entries in his book, he gives alternatives for the word
Adit as Carrying Gate, Cross Measure Drift, Drift, Level, Levy, Sough
and Watergate
--
Dave Williams - [log in to unmask]
Visit the Mining History Network at
http://info.exeter.ac.uk/~RBurt/MinHistNet
for information on PDMHS Ltd., the active Mining History Society.
|