Commonly used by dialect speakers in the phrase 'by the rack of the eye', that is estimating an angle or a distance without any rule or measurement. No early example has been found but 'rake' was formerly used in estimating distances.
A collective term for poles, rods, twigs, etc, possibly with regionally distinct meanings, referred to by historians as panels in a timber-framed wall (HH6).
These were ways or roads laid with rails which allowed heavily-laden wagons to move more freely, and in this sense the words are first on record in coal-mining districts.
A bar of wood, varying in size but usually between six and ten feet long, four inches broad and an inch or more thick. They were used in the construction of carts, fences, staircases, balconies, etc.
In the process of cloth-finishing the nap was formerly raised by teasels set in an implement referred to as ‘handles’, and this was possibly a similar implement.
It has a general meaning of ‘rubbish’ but in wood management the reference was to fallen branches or what was left over when the tanners and charcoal burners had used what they wanted, usually branches but sometimes whole trees. It could clearly be used in fencing.
In early references the meaning is not absolutely clear but this was evidently an iron fireplace of some kind, the fore-runner of the ranges used for cooking which were frequent from the nineteenth century.
The meaning is not absolutely clear, but it was evidently a weapon, perhaps similar to a pikestaff, with a short blade or rapier fastened into a wooden handle.
The regional spelling of ‘ret’, that is to soak in water or expose to moisture, used especially in the preparation of hemp and flax. The plants were placed in a pit or pool and as putrefaction occurred the fibres were separated or split from the stem.
‘Ratton Row’ is a minor place-name which occurs so frequently across the north of England that it is tempting to see it as a generic, applied to any row of houses or cottages which was rat infested or perhaps just run down.