1) Early alternative spellings of ‘quarry’, a place where stone is excavated.
c.1290 ‘torfgravyng, qwarel with opening up the land’, Ilkley
1316 ‘3 selions under le Aldequarel’, Richmond
1379 Thomas de Wharell, Sherburn in Elmet
1422 the wherelle of Sedbury ... or ... any other qwerelle, Catterick
1425 pro xij carect. petrarum a le quarel, Ripon
1500 North Hall wharellys, Leeds.
1581 payd to John Shotley for gettinge slayt at Carlton Quarrell, Stockeld. This word, along with a local variant spelling, occurs in the masons’ contract for the rebuilding of Catterick Bridge in 1422: one of the clauses granted the masons free entre and issue … to the qwerelle of Rysedale berkes, and then, using the alternative regional form, to the wherelle of Sedbury . The two spelling were used in minor place-names such as Quarry Hill, Almondbury: 1634 Wharrel alias Querrellhill and Quarry Gap near Bradford: 1693 Quarrell gapp. When Mr Armytage was building or repairing Kirklees Hall, in 1609, he wrote to Mr Beaumont of Whitley Hall saying that he was destitute of much stone and desired such like as your quarrell affordeth. ‘Quarrel’ survived as a dialect word but it is interesting to note that in 1672 a Quarter Sessions clerk crossed out the final ‘ll’ in the words John Blackburn’s quarrell and substituted the letter ‘y’. The diarist Abraham Shackleton of Keighley wrote in 1794 that he helped to delve at the wharls - a spelling almost identical with one in Westmorland in the EDD where a reference to a quarry was qualified with the words ‘or wharle as we call it’.
2) A square or diamond-shaped piece of glass, of the kind used in lattice windows.
1575-6 two pannes in the new house, 20d ... for xx quarrels, 3s 4d, York
1577 to uphoulde and manteyne the glase windowe quarelles in theme, Birstall.