1) This word had several closely related meanings which all refer to raised ways, either across low-lying land subject to flooding or at the side of tracks used by pedestrians and horses.
The causeys were in place in several towns and were an essential part of the network of highways and bridges, and the word is on record from the fourteenth century at least, sometimes as an element in minor place-names: 1387-8 Causebrigengh, Thimbleby
1467 le Causey, Barnsley
1475 the fotmans cawse be for William Chawe dore is defectyffe, Selby. Money was frequently left in wills towards their maintenance: 1500 I gyffe towards the mending of the causey of Ferrybrig a met of wheit, Sherburn
1515 and to Long Calsey mendyng vjs viijd, Ripon
1531 I gyff ... to the mendyng of the Caussay in the layn that goith to Fethirstone More vs. In the context of river crossings the causey might mean stepping stones but in Yorkshire it was more often the raised approaches to a bridge. In 1532 Agnes Hemsworth made a bequest of 20s unto the causye at [the] est end of Swyllyngton bryge and Camden used the word in this context. Later, a causey would be deemed to be part of the bridge when responsibility for its maintenance was in question. In fact, many bridges had causeys at both ends and their dimensions can be surprising. In 1682, the men working on Cottingley Bridge were to repaire and make good all that cawsey at both ends of the Bridge near unto an hundred yards as farr as the same is now Layd, and raise the same sufficientlie with good Gravel stones, sand, etc . At Eastburn, where the valley was quite wide and flat, the causeys were also of great length, with the result that the bridge was commonly called Eastburn Causey . The surveyors in 1687-8 were very explicit and they recommended causeys at each end: one cawsey att the westend … to extend 100 yards in length from the foot of the Bridge, to bee 1 yard and a half broad and a yard and a half high, one end with the other, with twoe sluces for the passage of the water to bee each 4 foot wide, the cawsey to be made with hewn stone on each side … with filling and paveing.Eastburn Bridge has been rebuilt since then but the sluices survive and preserve the former lines of the causeys. Away from the rivers there were rights of way which passed over marshy ground and they were paved with causey stones, sometimes especially for horse traffic, as in Sand Gate in Allerton near Bradford. It was being repaired in 1744 and the report stated that it consisted of a High Horse Causeway and a Low Way. It was judged that The expense ... of paving the whole Breadth of the way would be too great. Urban paving could also be referred as a causey: 1665 Wee present ... these persons underwritten for nott repaireing the Causy before their dores, Kirkgate, Wakefield. It was used occasionally as a verb: 1672 in Cawseying and repaireing of the said ways, Rothwell. The modern spelling ‘causeway’ no doubt developed via the association with ‘highway’: 1572 I gyve to the making and reparring of the causeway which ledeth from my house to the churches xs, Thornton le Street
1687 leading ... cause waie stones out of the highwaie, Flockton
1744 part of the said highway ... is a horse causeway, Allerton.