pitheadn.
/ˈpɪthɛd/, U.S. /ˈpɪtˌ(h)ɛd/ Mining.† 1. Probably: an underground passage, gallery, or level in a coal mine. Cf. heading n. 13. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > workplace > places where raw materials are extracted > mine > [noun] > passage > for conveying coal, etc.
pithead1662
wagon-way1727
wagon-gallery1839
jig1866
up-brow1867
jig-brow1877
jinny-road1877
plane1877
chain road1883
loader gate1964
1662 Dr. Power in T. Birch Hist. Royal Soc. (1756) I. 136 These walls or pillars of coal are always left ungotten, and to support the roof [?of] the pit-heads, to hinder it from falling.
2. The top of a mine shaft; the area or buildings immediately surrounding this.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > workplace > places where raw materials are extracted > mine > [noun] > mouth or top of mine or shaft
adit1602
bank head1645
mouth1702
bank1708
sough1747
pithead1839
brace1881
mouthing1883
1749 Monthly Intelligencer 18 141 The workmen at the shaft or pithead, in the neighbouring mines.
1794 Statist. Acct. Scotl. X. 281 The annual produce..may be stated at 30,000 tons, valued, at the pit-head, between 6000 l. and 7000 l.
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 983 With small coals..the pit head is raised 8 or 9 feet above the common level of the ground.
1863 D. Wingate Poems & Songs (ed. 1) 58 (note) It was then customary for colliers to wear pieces of old cloth rolled round their feet instead of shoes. These ‘cloots’ were generally tied on at the pit-head.
1936 Fortune Oct. 159/2 As long as Big Steel is free to tack up a sign at a single pit head announcing a wage cut, the United Mine Workers of America is in danger of becoming again a mere ‘rear guard of labor's retreat to cooliedom’.
1996 M. Syal Anita & Me (1997) i. 13 I got distracted, noticing a kestrel hovering behind the old pithead of the mine.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
ΚΠ
1769 J. Watt Let. 28 Apr. in J. P. Muirhead Origin & Progress Mech. Inventions J. Watt (1854) I. 53 I draw the pithead-frame tomorrow.
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 991 The ponderous pulley-wheels are blown from the pit-head frame.
a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 686/2 Pit Head Gear, the winding and emptying apparatus and framing for the transportation cars at the mouth of a mining or coal shaft.
1915 Polit. Q. May 117 A maximum pit-head price might leave much of the home market in the same condition.
1937 ‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier iii. 37 At some of the larger and better appointed collieries there are pithead baths.
1976 Evening Post (Nottingham) 15 Dec. 1/2 In the pithead ballot, 78 per cent of miners who voted turned down the Coal Board's offer.
2004 S. Wales Evening Post (Nexis) 11 May 12 The major items were removed last year from the old centre which was based at the former pithead baths in the centre of the village.
C2.
pitheadman n. (also pitheadsman) a person who works at the pithead, spec. one responsible for the unloading of the cages and the weighing of the coal.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > miner > [noun] > coal-miner > working in specific part
pitheadman1848
buttocker1882
pit-bottomer1887
1848 Edinb. Evening Courant 7 Oct. 4/3 William Young, pit headsman at Knowehead, eldest brother of the deceased.
1887 Times 8 June 12/5 John Short, pitheadman,..aged 47, widower, killed.
1999 A. Findlay Shale Voices 55 It was maybe up to the gaffer, or manager,..to tell the pitheadman..to watch what they were sending up.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1662