1) A common element in place-names; a coppice wood or brushwood.
This occurs frequently as a minor place-name element from the thirteenth century, although many early examples are in undated charters: in Worsbrough, for example, Rokelaystubbing was an assart as was Hemmingstubbing in Ilkley: a grant of lands in Thorp Salvin mentions le Heyestubing, ‘Willstubbing’, and ‘Aldanstubbing’. In 1344, a plot of land called le Stubbing in Denby near Penistone contained fifteen acres. Such ‘stubbings’ referred to assarts where the ‘stubs’ had been removed so that crops might be grown there: n.d. in predicta cultura que vocatur Stubyngs post fena et blade asportata, Healaugh . Although the suffix was widely used in that period, its precise interpretation is not always certain. A dispute in Sowerby near Halifax, in 1275, had to do with ‘a bovate of land with a garden and a stubbing’, leased to William Brun. William then accused the owner of breaking their agreement by throwing down the stubbing and carrying it away: et dictum stubbing prostravit et asportavit. This was clearly not a direct reference to a clearance and in view of meanings discussed in woodland glossaries it should perhaps be interpreted as coppice wood or brushwood. It may be that in some early clearances the stubs were left standing for a number of years, serving as pollards or stovens.