jan 1, 1657 - plat

Description:

A patch of flat land, usually quite small, akin to ‘plot’. 1562 <i>no green grass in the land ... onles it were in some places emongest the ling bent or brakens thereof that some little plattes of grene grasse grewed</i>, Rawdon (YRS114/103). A frequent minor place-name and by-name: <i>c</i>.1300 <i>Roger del Plat</i>, Saddleworth (GRDict). It is easily confused with ‘plat’ meaning footbridge, and I suspect that Smith’s explanation of White Gate in Cartworth may illustrate that point. For much of its history the name was White Plate and the modern form dates only from the seventeenth century: 1657 <i>Whitegate or Whiteplate, </i>Holmfirth (YRS1/169). With that as his only evidence Smith gave the meaning as ‘a footbridge; it is a road over the moors’ (PNWR2/238). However, references from the court rolls point to this as a patch of land in Cartworth where wheat was once grown: 1435 <i>Qwateplatefelde</i>; 1515 <i>Whateplates</i>; 1616 <i>Whiteplattes</i>; 1651 <i>Whytegate or Whiteplattes</i> (MD225).

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