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A sough (pronounced /saʊ/ or /sʌf/) is an underground channel for draining water.
It can be for draining Mining; where the mine sump is lower than the outlet, water must be pumped up to the sough.
It can also drain sloping farmland: these are to be found (at least) around the Pennine areas of East Lancashire to carry water from higher up, down through the clay based fields to reduce flooding and soft ground.
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 is over four miles in length. Digging such long tunnels took a long time. Vermuyden sough, named after the Dutch engineer, Cornelius Vermuyden, who planned it, took 20 years to dig. The Cromford sough, which Sir Richard Arkwright subsequently used to power his mill at Cromford, 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 a day for the public water supply. Water Wars: Meerbrook Sough, British Geological Survey, accessed 30 October 2012
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