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A frame set over a tomb, designed to carry numerous candles or tapers and usually of metal.
dates 1393 1436 1485 1547

The fireplace in a smith’s forge.
dates 1171-1181 1547 1558 1611 1657

A iron bar or poker used at the smithy hearth.
places Sheffield
dates 1547

This was a tax designed to raise revenue for the government in the period 1662-88.
places Hallamshire
dates 1672

A lath made from the wood at the centre or heart of the tree, hardened by age.
dates 1441-1442 1463 1521 1610 1733

Any heating device but particularly a piece of iron which is made hot and placed in a box iron or smoothing iron.
dates 1642 1658 1708

The usual word formerly for what we now call heather.
dates 1525 1562 1579 1612

Although ‘hebble’ had two related meanings it was most frequently used for a narrow, wooden bridge – a definition found in the Almondbury burial register in 1559.
dates 1379 1456 1553 1559 1594 1642 1688 1722


As a verb, to dress flax or hemp with a heckle, that is an implement used for combing the fibres.
dates 1485 1554 1593 1617 1682

A shelf, probably linked with heck in the sense of rack.
places Knaresborough
dates 1596 1716

A dresser of flax or hemp.
dates 1297 1689 1745

A place for a heck.
places Gargrave
dates 1584

spellings headge bote
An alternative of hayboot.
dates 1313 1652 1763

The offence of stealing wood from hedges was commonly dealt with at the manor court.
dates 1352 1483 1519 1548 1601 1602 1609 1614 1756

May have had a distinct meaning from 'hedge', based on the trees being placed an intervals.
dates 1540 1546 1568 1619 1672

Gloves used by workmen when hedging, probably of leather.
dates 1445-1446 1558 1578 1656

spellings hefter
These local spellings of ‘haft’ and ‘hafter’ relate to the practice of putting hafts or handles on knives, and they were usual in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
places Sheffield
dates 1565

An item which under a will or other conveyance remains attached to the household.
dates 1434 1500 1534 1560


Possibly similar to 'church-ale', a social occasion to raise funds for the needy.
dates 1433 1491 1593

spellings hemp garth
The plant was grown for its valuable fibre, used for ropes and stout fabric. It was formerly in widespread cultivation, apparently in small enclosures near the house.
dates 1544 1558 1579 1582 1659

spellings hemp pit
A small pond or pool in which green hemp could be steeped or rated.
places Malham Hanlith
dates 1600 1673

spellings hempter
Best quality hemp (OED), used for sheets, smocks, shirts, etc.
dates 1523 1532 1558 1667

A coop or hutch for fattening hens.
dates 1618 1658 1728

Often this was a reference to the growth suitable for grazing.
dates 1507 1539

spellings hird
A herdsman, usually a shepherd.
dates 1308-1309 1379 1518

spellings harriott
Originally a feudal obligation, whereby weapons, a horse, etc, restored to a lord on the death of a tenant. In many cases this was commuted later for a fixed money payment.
dates 1593 1617

A heron. It derives from a French word which was a diminutive of heron and referred originally to an immature bird.
dates 1457-1458 1484

These were buildings in coastal towns and riverside locations where herring catches were stored, possibly for transport or distribution, by the panniermen.
dates 1332 1357 1416-1417 1429 1540-1547

spellings hasp
A regional spelling of hasp, that is a hank of yarn, the fourth part of a spindle (OED).
dates 1554 1620 1658 1717

A contrivance for fastening a door or gate, used in combination with a staple.
places York Doncaster
dates 1360 1404 1528-1529 1696

From Old Norse hestr, a horse or stallion, noted in a by-name.
places Tholthorpe
dates 1259

A hawker or itinerant salesman, one who bargained or haggled.
dates 1756 1762 1786

A regional alternative to highway, that is a principal road between two important places.
dates 1482 1532

A word used locally for the material with which charcoal-burners covered the cordwood in a charcoal pit. It had to make the mound airtight so that combustion did not take place.
dates 1527 1595

A bed cover or quilt.
places Fixby Lepton
dates 1567 1644

spellings hine
A servant, a male farm worker.
dates 1316 1508 1523 1539 1586

A house for a workman or servant.
places Bolton Priory
dates 1296-1297 1314-1315

A pan which could hang from a hook, against the wall.
places Halifax
dates 1551

hip

A term noted in a seventeenth-century building contract.
places Knaresborough
dates 1682

spellings hipping-stones hopping stones
A northern dialect word for stepping-stones, by means of which one ‘hips’ or ‘hops’ across a river.
dates 1219 1300-1399 1301 1609 1657 1676

spellings ypocras
A sweet wine flavoured with spices.
places York
dates 1433 1683

A term used in coal-mining for a slight fault in the strata, one that changed the level in gates along which the corves were moved. It made it more difficult for the barrow-men or hurries.
places Tong
dates 1760

A bee-hive.
dates 1556 1558-1559 1562 1673

An ancient stone, grey with lichen, a word which occurs frequently in boundary descriptions from the Old English period.
dates 1165-1177 1214-1258 1590 1664

hob

The shoe or metal runner of a sledge.
places Almondbury
dates 1747

Probably a diminutive of Robert via the pet forms Rob, Hob, but used of a middle-sized horse.
dates 1257 1420 1487 1568 1619

hod

Probably a container used to carry goods; of uncertain origin.
places Hull
dates 1453

In Yorkshire records this was usually a yearling sheep, from weaning until the first shearing.
dates 1297 1455 1457 1502-1503 1513 1559 1571

A swine.
dates 1577 1589 1605 1638

spellings hogget
Usually young sheep, but could refer to pigs too.
dates 1297 1303-1304 1371 1426 1459

A large cask for liquids.
dates 1453 1456 1472 1544 1642 1694

For ‘held’, an obsolete form of the past participle.
places Lepton
dates 1512

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0