sough pit

1) Probably a sump where waste water was stored before being disposed of.

In Mr John Stanhope’s Coal Book are entries in 1728 for sinking a Water Pit and for sinking a Sough Pit. The precise meaning of these terms is not absolutely certain but they seem likely to refer to sumps where waste water was stored before being disposed of. The Compleat Collier has the following interesting piece: ‘if we meet with a great Feeder of Water in Sinking a Pit in a Working Colliery … which Water … is by a drift or Watercourse from the old Pits, set away to the place where your Collery Water is all drawn’.

dates 1728

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