READERS LETTERS & ADDITIONS

If you have any favourite 'LANKY' sayings, words or anecdotes please share them with other readers of this page

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TROUBLE at' MILL GUIDE TO LANKY SPEAK.<<<Back to dictionary

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Dear Graham

What a joy to discover this web-site!  I have some very enjoyable times reminiscing these old dialect words with friends.

I can't find 'chimbley' in your list of words and how about - livin o'er t' brush and livin tally - both decidedly non-pc but no worse for that.

Has anyone yet come up with an answer to the question you will probably have been asked previously what are 'layoes for meddlars' or 'lay'orses for meddlars'?  This was a phrase used by mothers when you were having a root in a drawer and asking too many questions.

Si thi agin

Bernice Livesey

I was born in Eldon Street, Preston. In 1926. I have a 75 year brother who worked in the mines and lives in Wigan. I spent some years in Kenya and Panama, and now live in NorthDevon.

It should be remembered that what is regarded as Dialect falls into two Distinct fields. 1. The terms we understood seventy five years ago. The farming area north of Preston, round Beacon Fell 

Pulled up by his Bootlaces or Boot strings – Gained a qualification at Night School

Coker – A clog iron, (one on each sole, one on each heel), they were 3/8 inch wide ¼. Inch thick and had a groove along the middle, which as in a horse shoe, protected the nail heads from wear. As the iron wore down, the heads of the nails wore away, and the Coker fell off.

Dot and carry one – the sound on the road with a clog with a missing clog iron

The Wigan Miners spoke of Rubber irons – rubber replacement for clog irons, quieter than iron Coker’s on the ‘Granite Set’s’ of the Streets

Doctor or Doc – The birth of the seventh son of a seventh son was greeted with “Well, He is the Doctor”. It often stuck as a nickname, In the late 1930’s TheClogger at Inglewhite was known as Doc Parker, I knew him for years, but never learned his real name.

Preston - Home laundry equipment.

Dolly tub, poser, and mangle. Dolly tub a ribbed galvanised iron barrel of about 16 gallons capacity half filled with the hot washing water.

Poser a small wooden stool on a long handle, with a cross-bar, to agitate the clothes in the water in the Dolly tub.

Mangle Designed to squeeze most of the water from the clothes. Having a cast iron frame with two parallel horizontal wooden rollers, the top one spring loaded,and wooden trays each side to hold the clothes

Trivet – A cast iron plate, that could be swung in front of the fire of the coal fired cooking stove, usually to keep a kettle warm, or for an earthenware bowl in which toast tasty Lancashire cheese whilst the bread was toasting on a toasting fork in front of the fire.

2, The tendency to run two or more words together, and stress the conjoined syllables, in unexpected places. We called it ‘Slang’ and at the time it was frownedupon. Now that it’s called Lanci I find it easy tounderstand

In fairness, when I was lecturing, I used to adopt a “Lancashire Burr” in my speech, to stop ‘Students Nodding off’

Spunn up an stuk fer bobbins –A Spinning mill on short time (no work as the mill was waiting for bobbins on which to wind the thread).

stuk fer bobbins Used in the ‘Parsonage’ Colliery at Leigh when they ran out of Tub’s in which to put the Coal underground.

Ston agate t’ginul - Stand beside the allyway Muk t’ollans – From 1940, Spread manure on the corn stubble. (large scale cereal cultivation techniques were taught by a War Executive Committee Member who came from the Holland Division of Lincolnshire, hence ‘ollans’).

Ta am’ nay strkt. “Thanks, I will have that drink”, nay strikt literally “Not a Strict Tea Totaler”. Derivation ,It was a local man who, when asked to “sign the pledge” against drinking, stammered and stuttered “I’m tttte ttottel”. From this incident the term “Strict Tea Totaler” was adopted. This answer was common in the 1940’s.

That enough of that!, ”I am for up the wooden hill”, Going up stairs to bed, you put it into ‘Lanci. if you want, What if I tell you I now live in a bungalow.

My email must have been one “Wast down T’ suf “Lets have another shot. I see you have a letter from T’delfy.in Preston I was born 77years ago round the corner in Loundes Street.

I had no difficulty in understanding the ‘Lanci’ in your vocabulary. At school in Broughton, some 70 years ago. All the scholars were Bi-lingual. The Headmaster, George Smithies was to us,a man from another planet , having played first team football for P.N.E (Preston North End).

There was a line of demarcation between playground and Class room (the school door). Outside we spoke with a Broad Lancashire accent and used words that came naturally

Asked if we had seen Bob Robinson one would answser “E’s agate t’ginel’ (standing beside the alley between two school buildings) That answer came naturally to us, however in the Classroom we would switch to “He went to the sports field, I saw him at the entrance to the passage by the workshop”. (in those days there was a real incentive to speak “Proper English” ). The School had a very high “Scholarship” results both at 11+ and 13+. Exams. If you Passed a Scholarship you could stay on at school till you were SIXTEEN, instead of having to start work at FOURTEEN. You still understood Broad Lancashire, but dare not use it except at home. Many terms passed from industry to industry. In Barnoldswick (Barlic) when a spinning mill was on short time, waiting for ‘Cops’ to spin onto they were said to be “Spun up and stuck for bobbins”. At Parsonage Colliery, Leigh, when they were waiting for “Tubbs” underground., as work stopped they were said they were “Stuck for Bobbins”.

‘Dooin T’weshing’ on Monday required a ‘Dolly Tub, (galvanised ribbed steel barrel), a Hard scrubbing brush, and a Bar of ‘Sunlight Soap (posh people used ‘Persil’ powder), a wooden posser to stir up the water, and a mangle with wooden rolls to remove some of the rinse water before hanging the washing out to dry. We were told “Ne’r cast a clout till T’may is out” i.e keep wearing winter weight vest & long john’s. (Fowks were brighter in those days, its not the Month of May they were referring to but the may(flower. Which flowers as tsoon as he weather gets warmer.)

A dishcloth was always referred to as a Dish clout, a Sink as a Slopstone, the Canal t’cut, a bridge t’brig. Engineering ‘prentice’s were sent to the stores to get a Long Stand, or a bucket of steam, or even a Left hand Screwdriver.

'I was born in Leygh, and I can remember that my father always gave his roses a good deggin (watering). Perhaps this could be added to the dictionary.

Hello from a Lancashire Lass born and bred, I hail from Tottington,Bury. Totty to the natives! Can anyone out there tell me if they have ever heard the term 'Degging Can'? My Granddad always said he was going to use the degging can(watering can)to water the plants, or he was going to deg theplants meaning the same thing. Is it a Lancashire term or just something peculiar to our family?!

hello my name is amanda Stuart,i lived in blackburn lancsuntill the ripe age of 23 and it was great to see this sight as i have lived in london for 14 yrs and many of my little lancy phrases i dont use anymore ,hoeever i do remeber a few we used as kids and what my parents used these may or maynot be of use to you......conk,or konk not sure of spelling meaning nose eg ive hurt my conk,...bog as in toilet eg im burstin to go tat bog,...st vitaces dance as in some one who cant keep still for long you have got st vitases dance....playing hamlet ,to get shouted at be in trouble,eg your mother will play hamlet at you,..brew,cup of tea, these are probably not as old as the dilect you already have but these terms were widley used as i was growing up also brew can also mean hill eg its at the top of the brew oh and ecky peck as in flippin hell usually used when id done something wrong,hope these help they may not be of any use im sure these phrases variate in the diffrent towns i leave you with a lancashire poem i think i remeber it all here goes..........see all, hear all, and say nowt,and if tha ever does owt for nowt,do it for thi sen........yours amanda

We had great fun reading your web site and have thought of a few more our
mum and dad used to say - hope you like these -
denk- just right demick - scrap slippy-curry(Oldham)Ice-slide
cloggy bogging- sticking snow to the irons of the clogs like platform soles
"barra-offchilt" very rich person (Baron Rothschild)
brew - hill
taterash - meat and potato stew barm cake -bread roll
brew up - make a pot of tea ecky thump - ouch!
plod - tartan,plaid coyl-oyl - manhole for coal
gerrit-ett - eat it up(my school dinner lady's threat)
welly-ole - very deep pit "al purr thi wi mi clog" - I will hit you
lob-colly - lob sided dolly-tub - wash tub (goes with posser,used to
stir washing) AND FINALLY,my dad's Shape yersen - (pull yourself together)

Hope you like these. Best wishes,from Mr.& Mrs.Wright in Gloucestershire.

Great site. I finally understand what nme dear old Mum is saying.. only took me 35 years...
A couple of her frequent gems:-
"He's a bit of a Mary Ellen" - he is gay
When asked what's for tea,
"Wigwams for lame ducks" - never you mind
When required to go to bed,
"Get up the Dancers" (dancers = Ginger Rodgers & Fred Astaire's = stairs?)
After waiting around at length for someone to turn up,
"stood around like cheese at fourpence"
or
"sat here like piffy on a toadstool"
keep up the good work

Martin
Blackpool

Another two just came to me,
when asked to close the door behind you as you come into a room,
"Put wood in T'hole lad"
and the old proverb,
"Nae cast a clowt til May is owt" - Keep wrapped up - I seem to recall 
hearing 'May' referred to May Blossoms and not the month..

Can't help it now, old phrases keep popping into my head.
Obvious one I forgot earlier
Sandgrownans - people born in Blackpool

Dear Graham,

I came across your Web site and was pleasantly surprised to see the language of my childhood alive and well on the Internet.

I was born in Preston in 1948, went down to London when I was 19 and moved to New Zealand in 1974. I live in Christchurch. I have been back for a visit a couple of times and did notice that while the accent was still strong in Preston the dialect seemed to have disappeared. At least no one I met used any of it.

Both my mother and father were born in Preston and lived all their lives there, as did all my grandparents so far as I am aware.

Ours was a working class home; as Dad used to say: “am an afe (half) inch bloody labrur” (labourer). Consequently, a lot of dialect was used, both by parents and children.  Though I have lived in NZ for twenty eight years the sounds of the words of my childhood are as clear in my head as if it were yesterday. I can still speak fluent dialect in my head.

Anyway, Graham, I have some words for you which are not on your list:

Badly = ill or poorly

Dancers = stairs, often used to a child, as in "gerrup them dancers" ie go to bed

coddy muck = horse shit

jew = cheat out of money as, for example, getting the wrong change in a shop, "yon bugger's jewed ma." It's a lovely dialect word but not a very politically correct one these days. I assume it came from the word Jew

obstrocolus = difficult when describing a person. Means the same as obstreperous

sidecawser = pavement

slutch (adjective is slutchy) = mud. Not lots of mud as in a ploughed field but the sort of mud you get on your shoes from playin int gutter

pinklewatter = weak tea. Pinkle is from the German I think, originally. Literally means piss water. Occasionally used directly for weak tea, but mostly in the expression "this tae's like pinklewatter."

suff = the drain outside the house that the kitchen sink pipe goes into

Sken as you point out in your dictionary often refers to being cross eyed. The expression frequently used in Preston was " 'er skens like a Ribble fluke." I saw lots of minnows in the Ribble but I can't say I ever saw a fluke.

Why don't you have "chippy" for Fish and Chip shop? Is it commonly used in England or something.

I will send you more words as I remember them, and expressions, too, which I am sure are still in my head. One curious expression used to describe a long passage of time, usually though not always when something unpleasant is happening, is: " from arse 'ole ta brekfast time." For example, a woman complaining that her husband has been arguing with her all day might say: "  'is bin at mi frae arse 'ole ta brekfast time."

Good luck with your project. I will email you again as words come to me.

Kind regards,

Alan Scott

or tatta (same as tarra but said to young children; I assume you're young at heart)

Alan Scott 

I was brought up in Chorley and now I work as a teacher in Manchester.  When I speak to them in the way that I speak to my mother, the way in which I was brought up,  I expect my students to find it mildly amusing. 

What shocked me was that not only did they find it funny, but they did not actually understand what I was saying.  The words were so alien to them as to be not just old fashioned but actually a different language and one of which they had no knowledge.  (I am speaking of a sentence as obvious and common as "Aahm frozzen t' dee-ath". 

They did not understand the words, "clemt"  "gradely" - they did not know what a "pow" was.  When I said that I would "fettle" summat, they did not understand.  My parting call of "Si thi mon" they did not understand at all.

How sad that such basic elements of our native language are doomed to disappear unless we take strenuous measures to halt the decline.

Lawrence Yates

http://lawrenceyates.co.uk

stale.......... meaning a broom handle.
I only realised that this was a dialect word when we came to Godzone in 1970. I went into a hardware shop and asked for a stale. The looks I got ,indicated that here was another looney pom. My parents( born in the late 1800s ) both used this term.It never occured to me that this was not 'standard' English.

I have come across many other examples , no doubt they will come to me and I might send them to you. Does anyone know the etymology of this use of the word stale ?

Stan & Marie Nield (N.Z.)

Mary Sayers

My late father-in-law, who came from Preston, "T'Delphi" (Adelphi Street) used to exclaim "Ee erry" usually as a rather sarcastic version of "Good heavens".  The "ee" bit was not a straight sound but sort of a long "eay".

He called children "childer" and apples "apper".

I grew up in Liverpool where we used to recite "Ee by gum brown cow".  Only when I met grandad did I understand it is "Ee ba gum bu'r'am caud (cold)" and continues "Ah ant bin wahrm sin a left mi bed; am gunna get raht up t' fire, as clawse as ivver ah can, an ah'll be craidly wahrm agin, ee ba gum bu'r'am caud."

What is Lanky for "maider"?  My mum said "myder" but I know some people say "mayther" or "myther".  "Stop myderin me!"  Anyone who tries to get anything done with a small child helping will find this word useful.  

In Southport no-one knows "jib", (mouth or chin); or "mush", (ditto).

I have heard that an old Banks farmer spoke thus: "Ef thee plantum craaaaaidly on that slawp, thee'll be fust en Bonks": i.e. If you plant them nicely on that slope, they'll be the first lettuce in Banks (evidently fierce competition existed for the first lettuce to market, gaining the high early season prices).  Also "deggin" for "watering".  Banks seems to have its own unique version of the dialect.
Lorna

Hi,

I was born and raised in Howfen.....one of my Grannie's came from Burnley and she would remark (after I came in the house from the garden) that "I was as black as UP LUVVER"   She meant that I was as black as if I had been up the chimney (louvre)

There is also a farm house in Westhoughton (Dicconson Lane) called the Three Lovers.....it has three chimneys!

kind regards

Pam Clarke

Hi Graham: I found your page and found it quite
illustrating. Last November I was in Lancashire
visiting my grandparents' town, Bolton. It was a real
surprise to hear certain pronunciations I had only
heard at home and nowhere else, as I was born in
Argentina and live here. Naturally my education was in
Standard English and Lanky pronunciation faded out
from my mind. But when I was in Lancashire, it was
like listening to my granpas jargon again. So I
decided to plunge into Lanky and learn more about it.
I was having a look at the dictionary you wrote and I
am having certain problems to figure out certain
pronunciations, such as the one which replaces the
sound "ow" as in "cow", I don't seem to understand
what  that "eaw" sounds like, or what it rhymes like
in the following words:  Abeawt, Areawnd, Beawt,
Beawn, Beawnt, Ceawer, Ceawncil, Ceawnted, Ceawnty,
Dreawn, Eawt, Eawtside, eawr,  etc.
I wonder if you could help me out.
On the other hand, at home my granpas used to pronunce
"vawse" for "vase". And they used to speak that way
when they were alone. When someone else was around,
they automatically switched to Standard English.
I appreciate very much your efforts to help Lanky be
known.
Cheers,
Luis Stuart-Pennington

After I had sent in my question (which is why I looked for a website dealing
with Lancashire dialect) I looked up a couple of words and found that you
didn't have them.

A word that was still in common use about 60 years ago (when I were nobbut a
lad), was "lake" = "play". "Stop laking about"

Another pair that also figured in an old joke involving t'Rovers and
allegedly dates from the replay at Ewood on February 26, 1925 (I was born
halfway through the second half in Mill Hill, much to the annoyance of Dr
Kirkness and my father) were "welly" and "au bod":

The Rovers put in a shot that just went over the bar. A Rovers supporter
said: "E! That were welly a goal". His neighbour from Tottenham (in those
days you didn't need to ghetto the supporters) asked "What's 'welly' mean?"
To which the Lancashire lad replied "It's same as 'au bod'".

John McLeod

e-mail: mcleods@home.com
John.McLeod@usask.ca
fax: +1 (306) 374 9898
phone: +1 (306) 374 8077 and +1 (306) 374 9898 (Home)
+1 (306) 492 2185 (most weekends)
s-mail: 2325 Taylor Street East, Saskatoon SK, Canada  S7H 1W8

After eating well, and coming to eat left-overs or some more modest fare, I
find myself echoing my mother's phrase "Well, back to scauden meyt (rhymes
with "eight")".

What is "scauden"?  I looked up in the old edition of the complete Oxford
Dictionary, and found "scaud", meaning to scald. Could it be that "scauden"
is the past participle of "scaud"?  If so, why and how did people scald
meat? Was it to freshen up leftovers?

John McLeod

e-mail: mcleods@home.com
John.McLeod@usask.ca
fax: +1 (306) 374 9898
phone: +1 (306) 374 8077 and +1 (306) 374 9898 (Home)
+1 (306) 492 2185 (most weekends)
s-mail: 2325 Taylor Street East, Saskatoon SK, Canada  S7H 1W8

P.S. Originally frae Blegburn

Graham. I enjoyed your page. You have gone to great length to make it interesting. I noticed though that in your dictionary you called the natives of Oswaldtwistle 'Gobbiners'. Being from Accy myself, I should point out that this should be 'Gobbinlanders'.

You might be interested in knowing too that this term only refers to those residents of Oswaldtwistle who live 'above t' lamp'. The lamp being a street light beyond which the part of Ozzy known as Gobbinland begins.

Did you know that the term Gobbinland originated from the slag, known in that part of Lanks as Gobbin, from the open pit mines over which that part of town is built?

There is an excellent book about the area by an Accy native, Bob Dobson, called An Accrington Mixture. If you have not read it, I'm sure you would find some interesting material for your web-page.
I'll be checking back to your page. Thanks and good luck from Ontario Canada.

Al & Helen Jones

THE NEXT LETTER CONTRADICTS AL & HELENS THEORY (NO FEIGHTIN PLEASE)
We read a letter from a chap who lived in Ontario who said that people who lived above the lamp are known as gobbiners. This is not true.
Only people who were born above the lamp can be called Gobbiners. The lamp is the one which is situated in the grounds of the library on Union road.
Everyone else are called Gobbinlanders.
Yours Estranged Gobbinlanders in Cornwall Jason Kayley and Michelle Walsh Books by Benita Moore about ossy are good.

Graham, I have just continued to read through the rest of your website-pages and came across the letters. I am sorry to inform you but the "Estranged Gobbinlanders" are correct in the fact that you have to be born above the lamp in "Ozzy" to be classed as a "Gobbinlander" I actually have a Great Aunt who lives on Bury Street and Great Niece who lives on Trinity Street in the town and they can be classed as "Gobbinlanders". Without thinking about it I actually typed in another addition to your phrase book "Ozzy" - Oswaldtwistle. not Australia this time - but I wonder if they moved from "Oswaldtwistle" to "Australia" so they would feel at home, after all they are both refered to as "Ozzy"
Steve Driver

As an ex Lanacastrian (left UK in 1964 from Oldham) now living in Wellington New Zealand I would like to make the following additions if you want them.
My mother and father often said the following
"A've sin better 'air on bacon" - I don't like your hairstyle
"I thowt tha 'ad more oil in tha' can than that"- I thought you had more sense
"He's as thick as two short planks" - He is not very intelligent
"A were standing there like cheese at fourpence" I wasn't making much progress in getting things done
"A were mizzled" - I was misled
"World War I started over summat an nowt" Big arguments can start from relatively inconsequential sources
"There's now funnier ner folk" People can be strange, especially in Oldham.
"Ad supped su much last neet, a woke up like a boggart" - I have a hangover from drinking 15 pints of best bitter last evening
"He couldn't knock t'skin off a rice puddin" He is weak
"Aye, an woke up swettin"- He's exaggerting his physical prowess
"He couldn't neck a meat puddin" - His romantic skills are overated
"Be good, an if tha' can't be good be careful and if tha' can't be careful buy a pram" - Contraceptive advice c. 1958.
"Never run after a buzz or a lass, there'll be another one along in five minutes" - advice to the lovelorn c. 1963
"Oldham Athletic" - A contradiction in terms " (er...sorry about this one)
"Shit wi' sugar on"
- Dessert. Joke: Two old women in a graveyard inspecting tombstones. They see one that says "He were thin" . One says "Florrie, there's an 'e' missing off that bugger" The other one says "Aye Gladys tha's reet. It should say "Ee....., he were thin"
All the best Dave Smith

Dear Graham

What a joy to discover this web-site!  I have some very enjoyable times reminiscing these old dialect words with friends.

I can't find 'chimbley' in your list of words and how about - livin o'er t' brush and livin tally - both decidedly non-pc but no worse for that.

Has anyone yet come up with an answer to the question you will probably have been asked previously what are 'layoes for meddlars' or 'lay'orses for meddlars'?  This was a phrase used by mothers when you were having a root in a drawer and asking too many questions.

Si thi agin

Bernice Livesey

TROUBLE at' MILL GUIDE TO LANKY SPEAK.<<<Back to dictionary

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