Yorkshire Words Of The Week

During the war years in Bradford when things were often in short supply and had to be made to last, it was often said about a damaged object or mis-sized garment that “it will be all right with a bit of callifudging” meaning cobbling it together.

People were also told to “frame thisen” meaning to pull oneself together and get on with things.

When I moved to a village east of York in the mid-1960s, I came across a whole new set of expressions such as “leading” for the movement of agricultural produce.

This is still widely in use today and I suspect dates from the time when produce was literally led by a farmworker in front of a horse and cart.

I also heard the adjective, “fond”, used to describe someone rather slow on the uptake or a rather exasperating object.

But the thing which caused most amusement was when an elderly farmer stood up at the parish meeting and accused the council of neglecting the verges, saying, “They’re all full of umlocks and baldocks!”

I took this to mean wild hemlock and burdock, a type of thistle.

From: Judith Hodge, Glen Avenue, Batley.

If my mother, a native of Horbury, thought someone was talking nonsense, she would say “that’s all my eye and Betty (or Peggy) Martin”.

Who was Betty, or Peggy, Martin?

When we went to the fish and chip shop we asked for “a mixed” – a fish and a portion of chips. When I married and moved to Morley, six miles away, I was astonished to find they had no idea what I was asking for.

A friend who moved from the Midlands to Birstall was asked by a builder doing some work for her, “Hasta got a buffet, luv?”

She looked around in desperation and finally replied, “Can you see one anywhere?”

She didn’t know he was asking for a stool.

From: Keith Murray, Wharfedale Rise, Tingley.

When I was a young man I worked down the pit.

When we were in the pithead baths, changing into our underground working clothes, Tony, one of my workmates, would remark that we were getting “donned” (getting dressed).

If any other of our workmates arrived in the baths wearing any type of trilby hat, he would  say the workmate was wearing his “mussel shooting hat”.

I have never heard that saying used since.