Friday Fun 17

I thought we'd have a few more sayings and phrases this week just to keep your 'ear' in so to speak.

More Black Country sayings -
In a Tiswas - In a state of confusion.
This has a historic explanation. A way to prevent an attack by mounted soldiers was to scatter special nails called Caltraps, Crows foot or Tiswas in the road.
This was a four-legged nail device made in such a way that however they were thrown down, one spike was always pointing upwards. The idea was to lame the approaching horses. A bit like the stinger device the police use today to stop cars.
I suppose the saying originated from this time with the horses and riders not knowing which way to turn to get away from the spikes.
Now you'll hear people say 'I was all of a tiswas.'

I culd ave drapped cork-legged - I could have dropped down dead with surprise.

A blind mon on a gallopin' oss culd a sid it - How could you not notice that you fool?

He's about as gain as a glass eye - He looks good but he's useless.

Friday Fun 14

The Black Country is renowned for the inhabitants sense of humour and love of 'saftness' in the form of practical jokes. Many of the jokes are told in the names of two Black Country characters Aynuk and Ayli.
Here's a typical joke from The Book of the Black Country by Jon Raven

Ayli was late for work and the gaffer asked him where he had been.

Ayli said : "I've been to 'av me 'air cut."

Gaffer : "In the firm's time ?"

Ayli : "Well it grows in the firm's time, doh it ?"

Gaffer : "It doh all grow in the firm's time !"

Ayli : "I day 'av it all cut off !"

and another

Aynuk was walking along the canal one day when he heard a cry for help coming from the water. Aynuk looked down and spotted a bloke drowning. Instead of helping him out Aynuk ran along the canal bank, up a road and through a factory gate. He rushed up to the foreman and said :
"I've just seen Jack Edwards drownin' in the cut. Can I 'ave 'is job ?"
"Sorry Aynuk," said the foreman, "I've just gid it the bloke wot pushed 'im in."

Friday Fun 13

The Black Country is famous for it's canals or 'cuts' as they are known. As in'weer ave yow bin?'
'I've bin fishin fer Jack Bannocks in the cut.'
Translated as 'Where have you been?'
'I've been fishing for small fish in the canal.'
Canals were a vital transport system when the Black Country got it's name. They were used for shifting coal, iron, clay, bricks and any other number of goods around the area. Birmingham has more canals than Venice.
The Black Country is very hilly and many great engineering projects were built so that the narrowboats (barges) with their cargoes could move around.
This involved the building of the locks. Locks are used almost like rooms to adjust the levels of the water so the boat can move from one part of the canal to another. The picture is of the Nine locks, which isn't far from me.

Friday Fun 11

Photo courtesy of Carl Higgs

This is a view of Askew bridge, not far from my home. The bridge itself is not as a skew as it used to be. In the olde coaching days this was the turnpike road and you can just see the toll house in the photograph (now a private home) This section of the road is reputed to be haunted and many motorists have reported seeing a dark figure in a black cloak running across in front of them. Mr Nell and my eldest belle have also seen this.

Friday Fun 8

This is a picture of the world famous Dudley Bug. It's a Trilobite, which lived 417 million years ago when Dudley was a seaside. The Wrens Nest, known locally as The Wrenner, is a famous fossil hunting site where you can see a prehistoric seashore and pick up fossils of long ago corals and shells. (Hammers are banned) so you may not find a bug but you can find loads of other things.

Friday Fun 7

Today's story is a modern one. I dare say you're all squinting at the picture and wondering what on earth it is. Well, from the back of my house I have a good view of Barrow Hill, this is a large mound thought to have been created in the volcanic eruptions in the last iceage. The Barrow overlooks Pensnett - known locally as God's country due to many residents habit of frequently invoking the Lord's name. In the shadow of the barrow is St Mark's church - the Black Country cathedral and on top of the Barrow is a cross.
The cross can be seen from all over the immediate area and is a powerful symbol for it's residents. I love to look out and see it on the hill.
Unfortunately, as with any structure placed on high ground it got struck by lightning. The residents immediately demanded a replacement. Nothing fancy, just the same as they'd always had, a simple cross.
The council decided to commission an artist and he designed the three crosses you see in the photo. As you can imagine there was uproar. No one was going to put those totem poles on their hill. The council were very embarressed and this was made worse when the srtist sadly died before the commission could be installed. They then felt they had to put them up as it was his last commissioned work.
After much negotiation and with great pomp and ceremony the crosses were put up but not on top of the barrow. Instead they stand at the base near St Marks.
The top of the hill has it's cross. Just what the people wanted in the first place. A simple cross.

Friday Fun 6 (late)

I'm home and here's Friday's post - a bit late. I'll blog about the holiday in the week once we've uploaded some pictures for you all to see. In the meantime I thought I'd talk about the food in the Black Country.
The picture above is faggots and peas. Not the nasty meatballs that the manufacturors make but real faggots made with onions, bread, liver, kidneys and bound together with kell. The peas have to be mushy.
Other well known dishes are gray -paes and bacon. (grey peas and ham)and chawl (potted pigs head)I've helped my grandmother make faggots and chawl many times. Other famous dishes are grorty pudding and bread pudding. I make a mean bread pudding even though I say so myself.
So here are some food words for you
Paes - peas
Taeters - Potatoes
Hummock - a slice as in a hummock of bread.
currans - currants
Mate - meat
suck - sweets

Friday Fun 5

My village of Gornal is famous for two main things. The villages are Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal and Gornal Wood. Gornal men used to be highly sought after by architects as they were skilled bricklayers and the area locally is the home to several brickmakers. The ground around here is very rich in clay and evidence of quarrying can still be readily seen today.
For todays class I thought I'd teach you all a saying or two.

E gid him a right cog-haiver - He hit him with a good punch.
Yow'm like a bibble in a can. - You never shut up.
That wo get the babby a new bonnet - You're not earning enough.

PS The first person to post in the comments the second thing that Gornal is famous for gets a prize!

Friday Fun 4

Dudley Castle was founded in 1071 and overlooks the town known as the capital of the Black Country. It's haunted by the ghost of the Grey Lady and there are rumours of a secret tunnel leading from the castle to the ruins of the Priory which stands below the hill.
The castle and the towns Station Hotel were investigated by The Most Haunted team.
Today, as the castle is set within the grounds of the zoo, and as Kate Hardy talked in the previous post about some of her local dialects insect names, guess what the topic is?

A black bat is not the flying kind. Here, a black bat is a big beetle.
A doorbug is a woodlouse, possibly because of their habit of creeping under doors.
A Bobhowler is a moth.
Chookie is a chicken - like the Australian chooks.
Flen - is a flea
Oss or Hoss is a horse
A tunky is a fat pig. You might hear - Er's a big as a tunky pig.

Friday Fun 3

Now most of you know about my passion for old buildings. This one is a tithe barn with roosts. It is just across the road from me and is part of a farm that's a listed building. The site on which the farm stands is an ancient heritage site as there has been a manor there since the Norman times. You can still see the medieval field layouts in the ground markings. We suspect our evening pipistrelle bats roost in or near the barn.
So, on todays lesson lol
This involves the words bist and bay. You can clearly see the link with old german. Bist is usually used as meaning are you as in Bist thee gooin ter town? ie are you going to town? How bist thee ma mon? How are you my good man?
Bay is nothing to do with horses. It usually means aren't you or isn't it. eg Yow bay gooin theer am yow? You aren't going there are you?
A classic Black Country statement using this is shown below
That bay a bay bin it?
That's not a bay window is it?
Now you have bin, bay and bist you can start to practice. I'll leave you with another word or werd - bostin' A term of high praise!
More next Friday.

Friday Fun 2

I'm off to the conference later but I thought I'd leave you with some more lessons in 'spaking Black Country' while I was gone. The picture is of the famous Crooked House pub which is five minutes walk from my house. The pub defies the laws of gravity in that you can seemingly watch a penny roll uphill along the bar.

I thought you might like some descriptive phrases.

He's a right lummock - He's a big blundering man.
Stop yer mitherin - Stop worrying.
Goo an wash yer donny's - Go and wash your hands.
He's as jed as a nit - He's as dead as a headlouse.
Put t'wud in the hole - shut the door.
Her culdn't stop a pig in an entry - That woman has bow legs.

There'll be some more next Friday!

Friday Fun

Okay, since a few of you wanted to know what yampy meant I think the next few Fridays will be devoted to teaching you all Black Country.
The Black Country dialect is one of the oldest in Europe, it is very similar to old german and the english that was spoken in the middle ages. Many scholars have said that if Chaucer were alive today he would have no trouble communicating in the Black Country. The dialect varies a little from village to village with Darby End and my village of Gornal having the strongest dialects.
Many words still end in -en as in gooen meaning going. The A sound is often pronounced as an O. Man becomes Mon for example. So here are some words and phrases to start you off.
Bin - this is not a receptacle for rubbish but instead means been. So you may be asked 'Where have yow bin?' which means 'Where have you been?'
An answer might be 'Ah've bin ter Brummagem' This means 'I've been to Birmingham.'
A good example of old english words that are still used would be the words Midden or miskin. In anglo saxon it meant a dung heap but was often used to mean rubbish heap. Today it means the outside bin or rubbish as in 'Ah threw it on the midden,'
Next Friday I'll post some more about the Black Country and our dialect with some pictures.