A sough (pronounced /saʊ/ or /sʌf/) is an underground channel for draining water out of a mine. Ideally the bottom of the mine would be higher than the outlet, but where the mine

sump A sump is a low space that collects often undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers. Sump can also refer to an area in a cave ...

is lower, water must be pumped up to the sough.

Derbyshire lead mining

The term is closely associated with the

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

mining areas of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

(see

Derbyshire lead mining history This article details some of the history of lead mining in Derbyshire, England. Background It has been claimed that Odin Mine, near Castleton, one of the oldest lead mines in England, may have been worked in the tenth century or even as earl ...

). Early Derbyshire lead mines were fairly shallow, since methods to remove water were inefficient and miners had to stop when they reached the

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

. By digging soughs, miners found they could lower the water table and allow mines to be worked deeper. Soughs were typically dug from their open end near a stream or river back into the hillside beneath the mine to be drained. One sough would often drain more than one mine, since these were often very close, working the same vein of lead. This also helped spread the cost of digging the sough. Some soughs include branches to facilitate further drainage. Many soughs were dug throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The falling price of lead brought the decline of the Derbyshire lead mining industry towards the end of the 19th century. Some soughs were very extensive.

Meerbrook sough St Matthew's Church, Meerbrook Meerbrook () is a small village in North Staffordshire, on the River Churnet at the edge of the Peak District National Park. It is situated four miles north of the town of Leek, in the parish of Leekfrith. The Roac ...

is over four miles in length. Digging such long tunnels took a long time.

Vermuyden sough Sir Cornelius Vermuyden ( Sint-Maartensdijk, 1595 – London, 11 October 1677) was a Dutch engineer who introduced Dutch land reclamation methods to England. Vermuyden was commissioned by the Crown to drain Hatfield Chase in the Isle of Axholm ...

, named after the Dutch engineer,

Cornelius Vermuyden Sir Cornelius Vermuyden ( Sint-Maartensdijk, 1595 – London, 11 October 1677) was a Dutch engineer who introduced Dutch land reclamation methods to England. Vermuyden was commissioned by the Crown to drain Hatfield Chase in the Isle of Axholm ...

, who planned it, took 20 years to dig. The Cromford sough, which

Sir Richard Arkwright Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as t ...

subsequently used to power his mill at

Cromford Cromford is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, in the valley of the River Derwent between Wirksworth and Matlock. It is north of Derby, south of Matlock and south of Matlock Bath. It is first mentioned in the 11th-century Do ...

, took 30 years to dig. It was still being extended a century after construction began. Some soughs are still in use. According to the British Geological Survey, the Meerbrook sough, started in 1772, still provides {{convert, 3.75, e6L a day for the public water supply.Water Wars: Meerbrook Sough
British Geological Survey, accessed 30 October 2012

Elsewhere

The coal mining industry depended on using soughs until the mines became too deep to be drained by this means. With the advent of the steam engine, which could pump out water, soughs became less necessary for de-watering mines.J. Hatcher, ''History of the British Coal Industry: Before 1700: Towards the Age of Coal'' (Oxford 1993)

References

External links

Water Wars: Meerbrook Sough
British Geological Survey

Derbyshire lead mining

Elsewhere

See also

References

External links

Further reading