Has anyone ever made a 'laughing stock' of you? I love noticing small details, bits of history that have been around for ever, half-forgotten. Village stocks are surprisingly prevalent still. A law was passed in 1350 called the Stature of Labourers to order that every village and town in England should have village stocks. The last recorded use was in Rugby in 1865. ​

They were used for minor miscreants, such as vagabonds who'd drunk too much. Victims were kept in the stocks for at least a few hours. Stocks were often on village greens in full view of passers-by, so part of the punishment was the humiliation as people made "laughing stocks" of them, sometimes even throwing rotten vegetables.

The basic construction of stocks was broadly similar - moveable planks with holes cut out for the legs, occasionally two tiers to include holes for the arms as well. A boulder or stool was sometimes added for the victim to sit on.

​When I was researching their history I discovered that their use has never been expressly abolished so in theory we could bring them back into use...

You can still see wooden stocks in several villages around the Yorkshire dales. I've spotted these in Bainbridge Kettlewell and Kirkby Malham. Being made of wood, some have long since rotted or been moved away from the village green to a less obvious spot. I like that each village had their own different style.

Was the tiny settlement of Kirkby Malham a particularly unruly place as their stocks seem to have space for 3 people?