Coal-mining. A roadway driven from the shaft across strata of rock, shale, or other ‘waste,’ to reach a seam of coal. Chiefly used in the Staffordshire coal-field.
1665. D. Dudley, Metallum Martis (1854), 27. The Colliers getting the nethermost part of the Coles first … when they have wrought the Crutes or Staules, (as some Colliers call them) as broad and as far in under the ground, as they think fit [etc.].
1884. Morning Post, 27 Aug., 3/7. The defendant was engaged with others in the driving of what is technically known as the ‘crut,’ and was seen to take off the top of his safety lamp and light his pipe.
