Paul Thrush's Dictionary of Mining, Mineral and Related Terms (US
Bureau of Mines 1968) is a very large compendium of terms from other
glossaries. It doesn't mention "headstone", but has an entire column
of meanings for "head" in mining, including: "development openings in
a coal seam", "an advance main roadway driven in solid coal", "the
top portion of a seam in the coal face", "any road, level or other
subterraneous passage driven or formed in the solid coal, etc, for
the purpose of proving and working the mine" and "any length of
working faces". I can see how these ideas could relate to stone
falling on a miner, but not how he could be standing on it and fall
down a shaft. Thrush also gives a series of terms like headframe,
headgear, headhouse, headsticks, headstocks, headtree, headwork etc,
which all relate to surface hoisting arrangements.
Peter Bell
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Jon
> Mein
> Sent: 13 June 2009 14:03
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MINING-HISTORY] Headstones
>
> Hello
>
> I am working on a social history of coalmining in parts of
> Pembrokeshire
> in the 18th century. One of the sources I have been using is the
> coroners'
> reports held at the National Library of Wales.
>
> I have come across the expression "headstone" used in 11 reports
> for pits
> in parishes around Saundersfoot from the 1790s until around 1820
> (when the
> reports dry up as a source). Either a miner died because the
> headstone fell
> on him or the headstone gave way causing the miner who was
> standing on it
> to fall to the bottom of the shaft.
>
> What was a headstone? Is it just a local expression or more widely
> used?
>
> Thanks
>
> Jon
>
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