At 11:24 13/07/2010, Mike Gill wrote:
>Further to yesterday's posting about the definition of minery, I've dug out
>the following examples of its use and post them with their immediately
>surrounding text to give context. This correspondence concerns a dispute
>over mining rights on a vein on Grassington Out Moor (Yorkshire) and has no
>relationship to dressing or smelting whatsoever. I am certain that I've
>seen a similar reference for Swaledale (also early C18th) which was in a
>similar context, but cannot lay my hands on it.
Mike has supplied some useful examples of the use of the word. To my
mind there are two forms there - 'minery' in the geographical sense,
referring to a mining field or liberty and encompassing all the
processes carried out there (as on Mendip), and the other as a skill,
as in having a knowledge of 'minery'. I suspect it was very much a
term of its time - the 17th/18th centuries.
Peter
Dr Peter Claughton,
Blaenpant Morfil, nr. Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. +44 (0)1437 532578; Fax. +44 (0)1437 532921; Mobile +44 (0)7831 427599
Hon. University Fellow - School of Humanities and Social Sciences
http://huss.exeter.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/claughton.shtml
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