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The OED lists ‘creel’ from c.1425 in the sense of a large wicker basket, of a type that might be used in pairs across the backs of horses.
places West Burton York
dates 1399 1575

Used in general of wooden frames which were different in kind and served different purposes. It might be a kind of shelf.
dates 1585 1619 1682

spellings creelman
A carrier or porter. The terms have been noted only in Beverley.
dates 1367 1381 1409 1628

A small iron ‘dog’, placed on the hearth between the andirons, often in pairs (OED).
dates 1559 1565 1620

A net or caul for women’s hair, of gold or silver thread, silk lace, evidently a fashionable item.
places Knaresborough
dates 1558

A vessel made to hold combustible material. In many contexts it was clearly a household object but it could also be a fire basket.
dates 1370 1392 1485 1559 1613 1636

Evidently a kind of ridged shoe, since the example quoted is from undated ordinances of the York cordwainers.
places York
dates 1424

A thin worsted yarn of two threads, used for tapestry and embroidery.
dates 1453 1559 1568 1588 1617 1682

A barred receptacle for fodder in a cow stall, a manger.

A low wooden stool, a foot stool (OED).
dates 1559 1656 1673

Probably wrinkled, or crinkled when used of material.
places Healaugh
dates 1568

It derives from Old Norse kringla which had the meaning ‘circle’ and the suggestion is that it referred to the circular sweep of a river, a round hill, or any topographic feature of circular shape (EPNE2/7).
dates 1212 1229-1234 1290 1316 1407 1443 1507 1538-1539 1613 1653 1663

An opening left in a wall so that sheep might pass from one field to another; probably a short form of cripple-gap or cripple-hole, words noted much later by Halliwell.
places Thurlstone
dates 1648

Considered to be a truncated cruck (HH7), on record in the sixteenth century.
dates 1501-1502 1537 1586

A delicate material, used especially by women for a head-covering.
dates 1346 1390 1397

In the Fountains Abbey records ‘crochon’ is one spelling of a word that occurs numerous times in the ‘Expenses of the master of the cattle’, often alongside ‘drape’.
dates 1456-1457 1496 1537

Possibly an ingle-nook bench, since Halliwell noted that ‘crock’ in Westmorland was the back of the chimney.
places Scotton
dates 1675

A small, decorative piece of stonework, used in Gothic architecture on the inclines or angles of pinnacles and spires.

The crocus may have a much longer history as a cloth dye than has been suspected, possibly using flowers grown in Holderness.
dates 1257 1341 1395-1396 1467

In general this was a small piece of enclosed land but in Yorkshire such enclosures usually adjoined a dwelling house, a point clearly made in a tithe dispute.
places Wetwang
dates 1554

spellings cromb
A hook, especially one with a handle, used in this case in the kitchen to deal with meat.
places Muncaster
dates 1533


A hooked implement.
dates 1251 1615 1634 1642 1671

An anvil that was not straight, although the significance is not clear.
dates 1543 1597 1613

A nickname in the civil war period for ‘roundheads’, descriptive of their cropped hair.
dates 1650

The tanned skin of a squirrel or marten.
dates 1415 1429 1436 1451-1452

The crown or top branches of a tree.
places Beverley
dates 1446-1447

The skilled workman who ‘cropped’ or sheared the nap from woollen cloth with shears.
dates 1711 1762 1807

In an ecclesiastical context this might be a cloth hanging before the rood but it was more commonly a piece of linen worn across the forehead by women.
dates 1592 1619 1640

spellings cross-way
A way, lane or footpath crossing from one location to another.
places Tong
dates 1625 1640

An iron bar with one end bent and sharpened to a beak, used as a lever. Later, crow-bar was more common.
dates 1559 1599 1678

spellings crow coal
The name given in the north-east to a seam about a foot thick which was not considered worth getting.
places Farnley Tong
dates 1690 1708 1761 1767

A spelling of coroner.
places Almondbury
dates 1594

spellings Crown Lands crum crumb
Linked to open fields, probably referring to strips which had a pronounced bend or traversed a hummock.
dates 1200-1399 1219 1236 1346 1538 1549 1584 1607

A spelling of ‘curb’ which is the frame round the top of a brewer’s copper.
places Selby
dates 1657

A curved piece of timber, one of a roughly matched pair, or two sawn from one tree.
dates 1352 1380 1454 1509 1573

An alternative spelling of ‘crouch’ in the sense of cross.
places Wykeham
dates 1433

spellings crumble headed
Linked with ‘crumb’ in the sense of crooked, almost certainly a reference to the in-turned or ‘curly’ horns of a cow, as in ‘the cow with the crumpled horn’ in the nursery rhyme.
dates 1547 1578

A cup or drinking vessel.
places Lead Clint Grinton
dates 1547 1564 1566

A plank.
places Holmfirth
dates 1702

spellings cruckpanel
Used of a saddle this was formerly the raised parts at the front and back.
dates 1689 1731

A cross in Middle English, an alternative spelling of crouch used in that sense.
dates 1524

cry

To proclaim a matter publicly, especially in market places.
dates 1615 1685

A spelling of Christian.
places Topcliffe
dates 1546

A verb meaning to be ducked in the cuckstool or cucking-stool, probably a back formation from one of these.
dates 1638 1688

An instrument of punishment, formerly in use for scolds, disorderly or shrewish women.
dates 1579 1634 1686

A common alternative of cucking stool.
dates 1200-1215 1594 1617 1655

An early Beverley place-name which has not survived, the hollow in which the cuckstool was placed.
places Beverley
dates 1381 1392 1429

To occupy obstructively (OED), found in an amusing early by-name.
dates 1333 1386 1662

Skilled, knowledgeable or experienced, not a pejorative adjective in early contexts.
places York
dates 1449 1505

Originally a board or table on which cups and other kitchen items were placed. However, it came eventually to be used of a piece of furniture for holding crockery, a sideboard, and the association with 'cup' was soon lost.
dates 1423 1434 1485 1502 1552 1568 1579 1614 1619

Probably a maker of earthenware cups.
places Wakefield
dates 1556 1557

A type of dried fruit produced in the Levant, originally called ‘raisins of Corinth’ from the place of that name in Greece.
places Whitby Hull
dates 1395 1464-1465 1465

spellings currier craft
The currier was the tradesman who dressed leather after it had been tanned.
places York Slaidburn
dates 1293 1425 1481 1503 1719

spellings currick
A cairn or heap of stones.
dates 1705-1708 1741

For curtailed, descriptive of a horse that has had its tail docked.
dates 1543 1558 1616

An unusual spelling of Christian, via the metathesized pronunciation ‘cirsten’.
places Huddersfield
sources Probate
dates 1526

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0