In his rush to be 'me first', Peter has me at the disadvantage of having my
book in front of him. I gave my only copy away last week!
Still, his eagle eyes did spot the typo's in a couple of photo captions -
hilarious, yes, and truly annoying, but when he starts publishing stuff
he'll no doubt have it too. And did he spot the helicopter?
The statement that the early miners 'smelted their ore at wind blown
furnaces, called bales, on the top of local hills', may be simplistic, but
it is correct. As for the rest, well "where's the archaeology, mate?"
Yes, I could have written more about pre-mediaeval and mediaeval mining, but
at this stage it would have been largely a work of, at best, supposition,
and at worst, fiction. The bellows blown bole from "a Derbyshire context -
PROBABLY depicts a furnace used to treat blackwork and ore not suitable for
the bole. It is certainly not a bole (or bale) hearth". A boled statement
if ever there was one.
As for winding Peter up, nothing was further from my mind, but it might
inspire him to get writing!
Mike
NAMHO Conference 2001-MINING HISTORY and BEYOND
http://www.mroe.freeserve.co.uk/nmrs/namho.htm
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