slack-trough

1) A northern word for the water trough in which a smith cooled or 'slaked' heated metal.

It can be compared with ‘coltrough’ which served the same purpose in the Sheffield area: 1445 unum stethy de ferro … unum slek trough, York

1613 two vices the great steedye and the croked steedy … sleck troughes and other, South Cave

1638 a stythie and a slecktrough and a nayle toole, Elmswell. Slacking trough is an occasional late alternative.

spellings slacking trough
dates 1445 1613 1638

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Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0