Re: Roger's comment about "wheal" below:  I may be going off on a tangent here,
but Peter mentioned that one of the Welsh words for work is gorchwyl, the last
element of which, "-wyl" seems to be related to the Cornish "wheal" or "huel".
Unfortunately, Gareth Morgan, our local University's specialist in early Welsh,
died some years ago, and I don't have ready access to good Welsh dictionaries,
but my (Collins-Spurrell) dictionary gives "employ(ment), task" as meanings for
"gorchwyl".  The first element seems to imply mastery, dominance, and suchlike,
occurring in the words for conqueror, excellence.  I am not expert enough to
determine the meaning of the second element, but it seems to have something to
do with watchfulness or caution, among other things.  Taking a long leap, which
Peter or a philologist at U of W/PCG might be able to check, the thought
expressed in the Welsh word seems to be something like " a task in which one
exercises prudent mastery", or what we today would call a "project".   Perhaps
the Cornish word, though it lacks the first element, also originally meant
something like "a project", and in Cornwall that would soon have come to mean a
"mining project".

Incidentally, "bal" is pretty clearly cognate with the Welsh "pwll", pit (mine),
pool or pond. So, "Pwllheli" = brine pit or pond, where the "heli" is cognate
with German "Hall-", as in Halle, Hallstein, and most other places connected
with salt mining or brine production in Germany.

I cannot find the antecedents of  "set" or "sett" in this sense, but the word is
obviously English in origin and the usage is related to the way we speak of
"setting" the terms of a contract, or "setting out" a boundary, and "setting" a
monument.  The spelling with two t's is preferred in the more technical uses of
the word, according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary.   In the back of my mind I
have an idea that US property surveyors use it in some very similar ways to
Roger's examples, as a collective noun for the "metes and bounds" defining a
property, and their monuments, but I can't bring to mind an example.

I apologize: I can get very wrapped up in word origins,

John

John Berry Assocs - Remote Sensing Services
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----- Original Message -----
From: Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]>
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Sent: Wednesday, 08 May, 2002 7:28 PM
Subject: mining-history Digest - 7 May 2002 to 8 May 2002 (#2002-119)


> There are 2 messages totalling 83 lines in this issue.
>
> Topics of the day:
>
>   1. 'Wheal', 'Bal' & 'Set'
>   2. Fwd: Re: 'Wheal', 'Bal' & 'Set'
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date:    Wed, 8 May 2002 19:21:21 +0100
> From:    roger gosling <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: 'Wheal', 'Bal' & 'Set'
>
> Just a few more definitions of these words.
>
> From A glossary of mining terms by WG Orchard (1991 - published in Cornwall)
>
> Bal - the miners' term for a mine; a very old term
>
> Sett - A lease stating the boundaries and terms of the mining ground taken
> by the adventurers
>
> Wheal - A corruption of the word 'Huel' which means hole, or mine pit. A
> prefix to the names of most mines
> (COMMENT: note this doesn't say cornish for work - is this refering to
> another meaning or derivation perhaps?)
>
> ----------------
>
> And just for a different perspective, from the Derbyshire Lead Mining
> Glossary by Nellie Kirkham (April 1949):
>
> Bal  - not defined
>
> Set (note only one t) - A lease of land for mining
> Setters-on - The boys who collected the ore-whiskets from the miners
> underground
> Setting a mine - The customary occupation of land for mining purpose
>
> Wheal - Cornish word for mine (name of a mine near Sheldon)
> (COMMENT: was Wheal originally from a specific mine as the Derbs miners seem
> to think?
>
> Another definition from same book:
>
> Whisket A basket used underground and above ground in which ore was
> collected (the same as SPEL-BASKET)
>
> ----------------
>
> Roger
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Wed, 8 May 2002 20:41:55 +0100
> From:    John Colby <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Fwd: Re: 'Wheal', 'Bal' & 'Set'
>
> Forwarded as i only sent this to Roger when it should have gone to the list
>
> >Date: Wed, 08 May 2002 19:31:48 +0100
> >To: roger gosling <[log in to unmask]>
> >From: John Colby <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: Re: 'Wheal', 'Bal' & 'Set'
> >
> >According to The New Standard Cornish Dictionary, a hole is toll, a hole
> >in the ground is godenow. Work is hwel, mine is bal and there is no entry
> >for sett.
> >
> >However there are three(?) competing forms of modern Cornish, so exact
> >spellings may differ.
> >
> >Regards
> >
> >John
> >
> >John and Sandy Colby
> >http://www.colbyweb.co.uk
> >Geevor Mine http://www.geevor.com
>
>
> John and Sandy Colby
> http://www.colbyweb.co.uk
> Geevor Mine http://www.geevor.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of mining-history Digest - 7 May 2002 to 8 May 2002 (#2002-119)
> *******************************************************************