196 PLACE AND FIELD NAMES OF THE PARISH OF STAVELEY. 



and Barn flat, which need no comment. Abbots flat has already 

 been mentioned. Pickleover flat dixiil Spital flat I am unable 

 to explain.* 



The Butts are the ends or small pieces of land which have 

 been severed from the larger fields ; thus we have Croivmere, and 

 a small adjoining piece called Crowmere butts. There are also 

 Harehill butts and Sour bu/ts, which latter is severed from a large 

 field by a tiny rivulet, and is an irregular shaped piece of marshy 

 land, producing only rank grass and herbage, which the farmers 

 still call sour, meaning coarse and unwholesome. 



Dam-tail '\5 a field adjoining the dam at Foxon wood. 



Several Pithills mark the site of ironstone mines of the kind 

 usually known as bell pits. It is certain that iron was extensively 

 worked here two hundred and thirty years ago, but probably 

 many of these pits date back much further than that. 



Windniill hills at Handley and at VVoodthorpe tell of windmills 

 that have long since ceased to exist ; while Dam field and Miller s 

 meadow mark the site of the Woodthorpe dam and water mill. 



The Anglo-Saxon sich was a furrow, gutter, or watercourse. It 

 is also spelt sic, and syke, and indicates generally a little stream 

 or brook. From this we get Alder sick, the brook of the alders. 

 In this case there are but few alders left, and during part of the 

 year the stream is dry. Wellsick close is so-called from a little 

 stream issuing from a spring in the field. 



In the adjoining parish of Brimington there is InkerAck, some 

 land drained by a running stream, and I am indebted to the 

 Editor for the suggestion that Inker is a plural of ing — a meadow, 

 through the forms of ingre and inkre. If this is so, Inkersick is 

 the stream of the meadows. 



In like manner, Inkersall would be the house of the meadows, 

 sail being an Anglo-Saxon word for a stone house. 



A Ridding\\3iS a cleared space of sufficient size to be cultivated. 



* Pickle — obviously Pikel^s. little pike of land ; and ' over,' a ridge — from 

 ufa — liigh. 



Spital — a short form of hospital ; probably once connected with some old 

 endowment. — Eu. 



