Dear List,
In 1532, a royal edict was passed, requiring tinners in South West England to dispose of their waste more responsibly, to cut down the amount of silting in the tidal estuaries of the area. Instead of dumping it in the rivers and streams, they were required to dispose of it in "old works, tipittes and miry places" (H. Finberg, Tavistock Abbey - and other sources).
What is a 'tipitte'? The word appears locally in West Devon as a surname (Tippett) and there is a Tippett's Beam on Morwell Down in the later C17. This could of course be the beamwork belonging to or worked by a man called Tippett, but the similarity interests me.
Does anyone know the answer?
Robert Waterhouse
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