Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Sakelton(e)stal 13 YDxiii,66 1286 WCR

• Schakeltunestall 1219 Ass10d

• Schakeltonstal(l) 1274 WCR

• Shalketonestal 1276 RH

• Shakilton, Shakelton 1329 WCR 1558 DodsN 1564 FGr 1591 FF

• Schakelton 1379 PT

• Shakleton 1558 DodsN 1587 WillY 1709 WMB

• Shackleton 1577 Taylor 1653 PRHept

Etymology

Cf. also Sakeldene 1286 WCR, Skakelden 1513 FF, Shackl (e )den (e )1608, 1631FGr 22–3, Shakelden 1627 HAS 31, 140, Shakledenbroke 1579 ib 4, 85, and Schakelhull 1219Ass , both in the vicinity of Shackleton.

The el. shackle is found also in certain other YW f.ns., Sakelwellbanke ii, 162 (from 1410), Shacklecroft ii, 233 and Shackleton iii, 13supra , and other examples of its use are discussed s.v. sceacol in EPN ii, 98–9. There seem to be in these and other p.ns. two different words involved. One is OE  sceacol 'shackle, something by which people or animals can be tied up' (which is certainly the sense demanded by such p.ns. as Shallcross, Shacklecross, Db 99, 489 'cross with a shackle-ring', or Snook Bank Nb (Schackelʒerdesnoke 'yard where animals could be tied up')); cf. also ON  skǫkull 'pole of a cart', Icel  skökull 'horse-yard'; this sense is also possible in other p.ns. The second sense, which is of different origin (connected with OE  sceacan 'to shake'), is represented by dial. shackle , used from 1800 of 'stubble' and from 1824 in Scotland in the compound silvershackle 'a quaking-grass'; cf. also the obsolete shackle 'to lay standing corn' (from 1670), and to send hogs a shackling 'to send hogs to feed on the stubble' (from 1790); some such sense as 'stubble' or 'quaking grass' could also occur in most other p.ns. It is likely in Shackleton (as well as the lost Shackleden and Schakelhull ), since tūn-stall is combined several times in YW with tree- or plant-names (cf. Saltonstall 125supra ). There is a certain ambivalence in the interpretation, but the first meaning of 'shackle' is the one with the best philological and historical support. Hence 'farmstead where animals could be tied up' (from sceacol ), or 'stubble farmstead' (from an OE  *sceacel ). v. tūn-stall. Shackleden and Schakelhull may be named directly from Shackleton (in an elliptical form Shackle -) or they may contain the same theme if that is shackle 'stubble, quaking grass'; Shackleden (v. denu 'valley' as in Scackleton YN 51–2) doubtless denoted the middle section of Hebden Dale, and Schakelhull (v. hyll ) is now represented by Shackleton Knoll (infra ).