1) An opening left in a wall so that sheep might pass from one field to another; probably a short form of cripple-gap or cripple-hole, words noted much later by Halliwell.
1648 he opened a cripple and putt his sheepe on to the Newfield, Thurlstone. Smith has several minor place-names which have ‘cripple’ as the first element, including. Cripple Hole Hill in Lothersdale and Cripple Hole in Hepworth, but the evidence is late.
2) Considered to be a truncated cruck (HH7), on record in the sixteenth century.
1501-2 j payr forkes and ij creples, Pickering
1537 ij payr of forks bought ivs ... j payr of crypple forks xxd, Bridlington
1586 two pairs of upright syles and one pair of creple syles, Borrowby.