MineArchiveHade
| Also known as | Hading |
|---|---|
| Category | Mine Workings & Access |
The angle at which a vein, lode or fault leans away from the vertical. It is the complement of the dip, which is measured from the horizontal: a vein dipping at 70 degrees has a hade of 20 degrees. Used as a verb, a vein is said to 'hade' towards the side it leans to.
Historical usage
A standard word in British vein mining and in the Geological Survey's descriptions of metal mines. The Survey's 1919 account of Nab Gill in Eskdale, for example, says the haematite vein 'hades to the north-east at angles varying from 25° to 10° from the vertical'. Coal-mining glossaries give it for the lean of a fault.
How it worked
Because most mineral veins stand close to upright, miners measured their lean from the vertical rather than the horizontal, which gave small, easily compared figures. The hade told them which way to follow the vein as they sank or drove deeper, and how far a level lower down would have to be offset to meet it.
Why it was used
For a steeply inclined vein the hade is a more natural figure than the dip: it states directly how far the vein moves sideways for each unit of depth, which is what a miner laying out shafts and levels needed to know.
Risks & limitations
The convention can mislead. Glossaries warn that a fault whose angle from the vertical approaches 90 degrees, so lying nearly flat, is paradoxically said to have a 'low hade'. A vein's hade also changes along its length and with depth, so one figure describes only the part that was measured.
Regional variation
An old Bristol coalfield word, 'hang' or 'hing', is given for the lie or hade of a fault.
Related terminology
Mines associated with this term
5 examples chosen from 8 linked records — the term page is not an index.
- Barrow Mine — Cumbria (well documented example)
Named in this record’s geology: “…fill the workings within minutes, and the main eastern branch, which hades slightly east and was much more solid. The ore was argentiferous…” - Faucet Rake — Derbyshire (well documented example)
Named in this record’s history: “…a distinctive line of spaced shaft mounds following the inclined ('hading') lead vein, part of a wider mining group that also included the…” - Greenhow Mines — North Yorkshire (well documented example)
Named in this record’s geology: “…discarded as gangue. The Waterhole Vein, the main run at Gillfield, hades between 10 and 20 degrees to the north at adit level, where a horse…” - Hartsop Hall Mine — Cumbria (well documented example)
Named in this record’s geology: “The Hartsop Hall Vein runs north-east to south-west and hades west at about one fathom in three. It was generally about three feet…” - Meall Luaidhe Mines — Perthshire (well documented example)
Named twice in this record, first in the history: “…Three veins were worked, trending 50 degrees east of north and hading south-east at angles of 70 to 75 degrees, hosted in country rock of…”
Sources
- (primary) The Geological Survey on Eskdale's iron ore (Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain, vol. VIII: Iron Ores — Haematites of West Cumberland, Lancashire and the Lake District, Bernard Smith, HMSO 1919, with 1924 amendments) — Memoirs of the Geological Survey, transcribed by Past Presented
- (secondary) Glossary of mining terms (H) — North Staffordshire Miners’ Group, Apedale
- (secondary) hade, in A Dictionary of Earth Sciences — Oxford University Press, via Encyclopedia.com
Record created: 18 September 2026 · Last researched: 18 September 2026