1) A pile or heap, commonly of farm crops.
1658 a hay stacke in the hay stead & hay at home, Selby. References to stacking coal are late, probably because the use of land for that purpose was not readily granted: agriculture took precedence over coal-getting for centuries. The term ‘pit-hill’, which is dealt with separately, is evidence that coals might be laid or stacked on the ground surface, certainly from the seventeenth century, and leases confirm that: 1659 with free and sufficient grounde leave for the layeinge of all such coals as shall be … had or wrought, Wibsey
1699 liberty of getting coals, sinking pitts, laying, stacking, stadleing and carrying away coals, Goldthorpe
1729-31 for a man stacking of the coals, Swillington. In Lepton the right to stack was clearly linked with commercial interests: 1739 liberty … to get and Sell and Carry away … and Liberty to stack Coals
1792 liberty to open and sink pitshafts … and the coals gotten to draw out, sell and dispose of at their will and the same coals … to place, stack and continue upon the ground. However, the permission to stack was not indefinite, lasting only until the coals be conveniently sold and carried away with horses. The right to stack pit waste soon followed: 1813 liberty to … place and stack the Coals and Earth and Rubbish dug out of the pits on the Ground adjoining such Pits making reasonable satisfaction to the occupiers … for all Damages, Beeston. The following minor place-name may be a reference to charcoal but it points to coal-stack as a much earlier term: 1577 two acres of land at Colstackehill, Ripon.