jan 1, 1591 - draw

Description:

A verb that was much in use in coal-mining from when shafts were first sunk. The analogy was with the bucket and rope of the ‘draw-well’, operated by a primitive windlass. In an early law-suit the word ‘to draw’ alternated with ‘to wind’: 1591 <i> make one pitte for the wyndinge and getting of coles at a place called Stump Crosse</i>, Northowram: in the same document it was claimed that <i>2,000 horse-loads of coals had been cunningly drawn up … at the said pit </i>(HAS31/75). The word was used whenever coal, rubbish, water, and the colliers themselves were brought to the surface. The banksman was initially the ‘drawer up’ of coals, until his job became more wide-ranging. See pull.

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