spout

1392-3 Et in salario Ricardi de Bettes facientis guturas cum spowtis super quondam novam cameram, Ripon. Similar spouts drained excess water from bridges, and in 1683 the tenancy of Wakefield bridge-house carried with it the obligation to scour the Water course, on both Sides of the said bridg, And keep open all and every of the Spouts thereunto belonging . Evidence for ‘spouts’ on vessels used to hold water dates from the fifteenth century: 1444 lego eidem j laver cum ij spowtes deaurat., Beverley. The earliest evidence for spout meaning a spring of water is in minor place-names, as in an undated thirteenth-century Bradfield document: ‘the brook called le Sputesyke. This was possibly the source of the place-name Spout House: 1316 ‘all that messuage ... at le Spouthous ... in Bradfeld’, although Smith noted three places so called in the township which could not ‘be distinguished’. ‘Spout’ was actually a very common element in the Pennines, with numerous Spout Houses and minor names such as Spout Field, Spout Hole, Spout Ing. More directly linked to the meaning suggested is the Cumbrian Sputekelde of c.1200. The springs from which people formerly fetched water were certainly called spouts, and yet references are scarce: 1775 neither will fetch the Spoutwater of John Armytage without leave, Lindley. More specific is an entry in the court roll of Heptonstall which links the vocabulary item to a particular name: 1577 ‘a croft called Wellcroft ... from the spowte called the Middle Spowte’. See HPN32 for Bradley Spout.