Hi List,
Coming from one of the country's most land locked counties i.e. Derbyshire, it's interesting to note that lead miners there also measured the depths of their mines and shafts in fathoms. I know that it must have come about because of the constant migration of miners between Derbyshire and Cornwall, and visa versa (also other mining areas of the UK as many mining words are common throughout), but I've often wondered when this measurement was first used in Derbyshire. Jim Rieuwerts in his "Glossary of Derbyshire Lead Mining Terms" says that "shaft depths were usually quoted in fathoms from the surface, not as in Cornwall, from the horizon of the adit". Nellie Kirkham in her "Derbyshire Lead Mining Glossary" CRG 1949, gives an alterative word of Faddom for a Fathom. Has anyone the answer?
Margaret Howard
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