Tony, there's no need to seek atonement, this is something which will be
nigh impossible to resolve with absolute certainty -- we are never going
to find a diary in which the writer records 'today I introduced the word
gangue (fill space as appropriate) into the English language'. I was
simply proposing an alternative model to the long established one that
you were using and pointing out some of the latter's weaknesses.
With a name like Gill, I'm not going to disagree that the Norsemen might
be a source -- they certainly left their mark in northern place names.
Thanks to Wallander (aka Inspector Morose), I see that the Swedish word
for lead is bly, as opposed to the German blei. Their word gaten for a
road is also familiar as gate (maingate or tailgate) to coal miners and
visitors to York/Jorvik or Leeds (Eastgate, Westgate and Briggate =
Bridge Road).
As Ian Spensley wrote, the term used in most of Yorkshire is rider (in
various spellings e.g. ryther) with qualifications that the vein is
quick (= alive, carries ore), kindly or dead. I suspect that gangue
became more common as geologists sought to regularise the many local
terms as the C19th progressed. They are still doing it!
Part of our problem when looking backwards is the precise/scientific way
in which we are encouraged to think. We are not necessarily seeing
things in ways which our forebears saw them. After all, they believed
that minerals regrew in the vein when a mine was closed up. Minerals
like gypsum probably encouraged such a belief.
Again, as Ian wrote, "I had the Old Gang down as meaning the old 'road' or 'way'" -- the ribbon of a road is probably the best analogy there was for a strong vein in the days before the hills had enclosure walls on them. It still fits with the Old Gang being a vein and suggests that it had already been worked when given that name -- which appears in the late C17th when it was being worked by some Derbyshire adventurers. BUT, before people say -- so_they_ brought Gang to the north -- there was a White Gang Mine in Arkengarthdale by 1657. As so it goes on.
Regards,
Mike
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