staddle stone

noun

noun

One of the mushroom-shaped stones used as a support (a staddle) for a barn or granary. The shape prevents rats from climbing up to the barn.

[I]solate the body of the building from the ground […] embodied in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century granaries, built on staddle stones, which still survive in many English farmyards.1983, Barry Cunliffe, chapter 6, in Danebury Hillfort, Stroud: Tempus:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.