dial. [app. a deriv. of TIND v. to kindle; akin to TANDLE and TENDLE, or a var. of the latter.] In pl., A name given locally to small fires lighted out of doors at the beginning of May and November. (Cf. TANDLE.)
See fuller quot. in E.D.D., and references to N. & Q. and Glossaries there given.
1784. Gentl. Mag., Nov., 836/2. At … Findern, in Derbyshire,… the boys and girls … in the evening of the second of November … light up a number of small fires amongst the furze … and call them … Tindles.
1872. Hardwick, Trad. Lancs., 30. In Derbyshire these fires [on 1st May] were called Tindles.
