Forms: 1 staðol, -ul, steaðel, 1–3 staðel, 6 stathell(e, stadell, 7 staddel(l, 6, 8–9 stadle, 8–9 stathel, 9 stathle, steddle, stadel, staidel, etc. (for other dial. forms see Eng. Dial. Dict.), 6– staddle. Also 8 stavel (whence STAFFOLD). [OE. staðol masc., foundation, base, support, trunk of a tree, also fixed position or state, corresponds formally to OFris. -stathul masc. foundation (WFris. steal, NFris. stāl), OS. slađal standing (MLG. stadel), OHG. stadal barn (MHG., mod.G. dial. vstadel barn, storehouse, ON. stǫðull masc., milking-place (Norw. støl):—OTeut. *staþlo-z:—pre-Teut. *statlo-s f. sta- to STAND + -tlo- instrumental suffix.]
† 1. A foundation. lit. and fig. Obs.
Very common in OE.: see examples in Bosworth-Toller.
a. 900. trans. Bæda’s Eccl. Hist., III. xxiii. (E.E.T.S.), 230. Se Drihtnes wer … in þære stowe þa staðolas setta þæs mynstres.
a. 1000. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 247/1. Fundamentum uel fundamen, s. dictum quod fundus sit domui, staþol.
a. 1225. Juliana, 72. & buldeð ower boldes uppon treowe staðele.
2. A young tree left standing when others are cut down. Also dial. the root or stump of a tree that has been felled.
1559. Boke Presidentes, 56. He … shal leaue standyng in and vpon the foresaid landes … competent and sufficient stathelles and storers.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 105. Leaue growing for stadles the likest and best.
1574. in Lipscomb, Hist. Bucks (1847), III. 206. [Q. Elizabeth devised to Paul Wentworth] parcel of the monastery of Burnham except the great trees and staddells sufficient in every acre.
1577. Harrison, England, II. xvi. 91 b. Those yong staddles which we leaue standing.
1612. Bacon, Ess., Greatness Kingdoms (Arb.), 476. Like as it is in copices, where if you leaue your staddels too thick, you shal neuer haue cleane vnderwood, but shrubbes and bushes.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., 276. Staddles,… Trees reserved at the Felling of Woods, for growth of Timber.
1733. Lease, in N. W. Linc. Gloss. (1877), s.v. Steddle, Reserving all timber trees … and also sufficient staddles in every acre of the said woodlands.
a. 1763. in Century Mag. (1884), Jan., 448/1. To stubb all staddles.
1766. Complete Farmer, s.v., Stadle,… also signifies a tree suffered to grow for coarse and common uses, as posts or rails.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, II. v. At the edge of the woods, a rude structure had been thrown up, or staddles interlaced with boughs.
1863. Trans. Essex Archæol. Soc., II. 187. Staddle, the stump left by the wood cutters for the next crop of underwood to grow from.
appos. 1548. Merton Coll. Rec., No. 1071, All suche standers or stathell okes.
† b. ? A tree-trunk, ? a staff. Obs. rare–1.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vi. 14. His weake steps gouerning, And aged limbs on Cypresse stadle stout.
† c. fig.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xx. § 66. Concerning his courses holden with his wiues kindred, (the laterall issues and staddles of the Plantagenets) it fell out thus.
3. a. The lower part of a stack of corn, hay, etc.
[Cf. STALL sb.3; also the following passage, where the word means the underside of a turf:—
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 398. Ʒenim feower tyrf … Nim ele … and drype on ðone staðol ðara turfa.]
1581. Durham Wills (Surtees), II. 28. A stadle of ottes … covered with peease 24s.
1613. Markham, Eng. Husbandman, II. II. vii. (1635), 73. The best [manure] is the rotten staddell of bottomes or Haystacks. Ibid. (1623), Eng. Housew., V. [II. vii.] 216. Some being old Corne, some new Corne, some of the heart of the stacke, and some of the stadle.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 35. One goinge afore with a forke and makinge the staddle, and the other comming behinde with a rake.
1828. [Carr], Craven Gloss., Staddle, the bottom of a stack.
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., Steadle, Steidel, Styeddle, a portion of a stack begun and left unfinished on account of wet or other causes; or the part left standing after a portion has been carried into the barn.
b. A platform of timber, stone, etc., on which a stack or rick is placed. Also, in some districts, one of the stones with tapering tops and round flat under-surfaces, a number of which are placed on posts beneath ricks and granaries to raise them from the earth and keep rats out; also called staddle-stones or rick-staddles.
1729. P. Walkden, Diary (1866), 30. I sodded the turf stack top, and dressed the mull from beside it, and from the staddle of our old one.
1735. Somerville, Chase, II. 56. His Barns are stor’d, And groaning Staddles bend beneath their Load.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 52. The farmers have their stacks built upon stathels laid on pillars of stone or wood.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 67. It will be necessary to have proper stands or staddles provided for securing the corn.
1809. Kendall, Trav., II. 177. To protect the [hay] stacks, they are either built upon high ground, or, if in the marshes, upon stadles or piles.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1149. Two open lodges … with stack staddles over their flat stone roofs.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 155. Stack-stools, or stathels, or staddles, as they are variously called, are sometimes made of cast-iron.
1848. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. I. ix. 112. Lonesome ez steddles on a mash without no hay-ricks on.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. II. 392. Few of the Lincolnshire ricks are built upon frames—a layer of straw being the usual ‘steddle’ or foundation. Ibid. (1862), XXIII. 215. Prepare your staddles (or stathels or brandreths, brandreys, or by whatever name the place for the stack is called) in the field.
1874. Hardy, Far fr. Mad. Crowd, vi. The corn stood on stone staddles.
c. gen. A supporting framework.
a. 1800. Pegge, Suppl. Grose, Staddle, anything that supports another is a staddle.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Staddle, what any thing stands on … the horse for casks, etc.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 234. Staddle, the foundation of a pack in iron-stone workings.
d. Agric. (see quots.) dial.
1749–50. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm. (E.D.D.), We put it [the grass] into staddles, load it and carry it away into a barn.
1798. J. Middleton, View Agric. Middlesex, 239. The grass-cocks are to be well shaken out into staddles (or separate plats) of five or six yards diameter.
1881. Leicestersh. Words, s.v., When hay-cocks are spread out and turned, the hay is said to be thrown into staddle.
† 4. An upright timber, a post. Obs.
1633. T. James, Voy., 66. The Carpenter had set vp 17. ground timbers: and 34. Staddles.
† 5. ‘A building of timber standing on legs or steddles, to raise it out of the mud’ (Kent. Gloss., 1887). Obs.
c. 1563. in Archæol. Cant. (1874), IX. 115. De viginti sex domibus que vulgariter vocantur the old staddeles or six and twentie houses.
6. dial. (See quots.)
1691. Ray, N. C. Words, 68. A Staddle; a mark or impression made on any thing by somewhat lying upon it. So scars or marks of the Small-Pox are called Staddles.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Staddle,… a mark left in the grass by the long continuance of the hay in bad weather.
1828. [Carr], Craven Gloss., Staddle,… the marks or scars left by the small-pox.
1847. Halliwell, Staddle, the stain left on metal after the rust is removed. West.
1856. P. Thompson, Hist. Boston, 725. The mark of anything remaining after the thing itself has been removed, is called its steddle.
† 7. ‘A place marked out on the surface of a field by a groove or course of sods’ (Eng. Dial. Dict.). Obs.
1770–1803. A. Hunter, Georg. Ess., I. 385. Mark out a staddle, in proportion to the quantity of mud taken out.
8. attrib. and Comb., as † staddle barn, granary, a barn supported on staddles; staddle-burnt, -mark, -roof, -row, -stand (see quots.); staddle-stead, † (a) the place where a stack or shock has stood; (b) dial. a mark, stain or blemish; staddle-stones, the stones on which a staddle or stack-frame is supported.
1794. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts, 96. A *‘stavel barn’ for wheat, built on stone pillars, to keep out rats and mice.
1889. N. W. Linc. Gloss., *Steddle-burnt, said of the seat of a haycock which has remained so long covered that the grass has dried or become bleached.
1816. Ann. Reg., Chron., 165/1. The lioness … on hearing the voice of the keeper retired underneath a *staddle granary.
1876. Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Staddle, an impression left on a surface by any object,… the print being often called a *staddlemark.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Staddle roof, a protection for a stack.
1847. Halliwell *Staddle-row, a large row of dried grass ready for quiling or carrying. Derby.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Staddle-stand, a stack stand.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 51. They … gather togeather … that which is lefte in the *staddle-stead wheare the stooke stoode.
1868. Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Staddlestead.
1785. Jackson’s Oxf. Jrnl., 5 Feb., 3/4. A Stump of Hay, Sets of *Staddle Stones … and sundry other Articles.
1881. Leicestersh. Words.
