1) A patch of flat land, usually quite small, a word akin to ‘plot’.
1562 no green grass in the land ... onles it were in some places emongest the ling bent or brakens thereof that some little plattes of grene grasse grewed, Rawdon. A frequent minor place-name and by-name: c.1300 Roger del Plat, Saddleworth. It is easily confused with ‘plat’ meaning footbridge, and I suspect that Smith’s explanation of White Gate in Cartworth may illustrate that point. For much of its history the name was White Plate and the modern form dates only from the seventeenth century: 1657 Whitegate or Whiteplate, Holmfirth. With that as his only evidence Smith gave the meaning as ‘a footbridge
it is a road over the moors’. However, references from the court rolls point to this as a patch of land in Cartworth where wheat was once grown: 1435 Qwateplatefelde
1515 Whateplates
1616 Whiteplattes
1651 Whytegate or Whiteplattes.