1) The yard attached to a tannery, where the tan-pits were located. It was sometimes used of the tannery itself.
1673 In the Tan Yard, 39 uper leather hides, Selby
1709 also the New Erected building and the Tan Yard to the same belonging, Mirfield
1739 one tanyard on the premises and all the pyts and housing for tanning, Austonley
1754 the Tanyard with all my stock of leather in the Pitts and out of the Pitts, Kirkburton. In 1860, Thomas Walker leased property at Whitley near Mirfield to Hamoth Fell which included a Tan House, Tan Yard with 54 Pits, 5 Lime Pits, Water Dyke, 3 Bates, Sheds, Cottage, Warehouse. No earlier references have yet been noted and in Yorkshire its use in minor place-names is on record only from the nineteenth century.