The recent discussion of gangue was rather dominated by comparatively
modern miners, but I fancy that the word has evolved over the centuries.
The word appears as Gang, apparently meaning vein, in Old Gang (= Old
Rake in Swaledale) and several examples in Derbyshire. It later appears
to relate to the vein minerals (which is almost the same thing) and
follows the German 'Gangmineral'. Later miners, with their access to
(and requirements of) mechanisation and greater milling capacity,
apparently include some country rock with the term. Presumably rock from
crosscuts is kept separate, or does it all go in the one bunker before
being skip wound?
Like other mining terms, such words are presumably survivals from our
Anglo-Saxon ancestors' Germanic tongue. Some of them live on (just
about) in northern English dialects. The Germans at Keswick used Hinget
and Ligget (spelling from memory) for hanging wall and foot (laying)
wall and that latter still survives in the West Riding as in 'Johnnie
lig-a-bed', which is used to describe the people currently in Chancellor
Osborne cum Cable's sights.
Mike
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