1 : Dry Land
Not altogether, of course.
There are rivers, streams (becks), ponds etc.
But the really watery areas are the Norfolk Broads,
which deserve a chapter to themselves.
Equally, the open sea is quite unlike the Broads. We have described these three parts of the
Norfolk environment as the Holy Trinity!
Four subdivisions can be considered for all three parts :-
Elements, Wildlife, Crops, Trades.
- Elements : land, fields, trees, hedges etc.;
waterways, marshes -
Wildlife : from birds to rabbits/deer -
except "livestock" -
Crops : arable, but also the rearing of livestock;
and fishing -
Trades : farmworkers, boatmen and
"support services" - from blacksmiths
to sail-menders.
As I am completely out-of-my-depth in all these matters,
what follows is just a resume of indigenous Norfolk
terms, most of them nearly obsolete since "mechanisation" arrived.
2 : Horses
These are virtually extinct in the farming community.
They don't fit well into any of the above categories,
but can be considered as (old-time) "tools of the trade"
- like the plough or harvester they used to be attached-to!
Types of horse include : - cob (common or garden hoss!);
- hobby (a pony) : mostly used to pull a
trap (a small carriage);
- nobby is a young colt; and
- runcie is a cart-horse.
"Skewbald" horses (brown and white)
are shall [shell] horses.
A shaft-horse, in a team, is a filler (or thiller).
A teamer was defined as a team of five horses :
2 for morning work, 2 for afternoon, and one
resting (on a five-day cycle).
Predictably a team-man was put in charge. Confusingly, the horses' harness gear for attachment to
a cart, was thillers (plural) or - more generally - trairces.
Although the standard term yoke was also used,
the bridle or halter was known as a du(t)fin.
Whippletree or swingle-bar is the term for the draw-bar
(on a plough or harrow) to which the horses' harness
(trairces) [traces] were attached.
In turn, the fastenings between the whippletree
and the machine were called hostrees.
The word tree seems to refer back to the wooden bar (?)
The blaze on a horse's face,
so beloved of "townies" is a shim.
The ribbons and plaited straw, for decorating horses at
horse-fairs, are other examples of things tricolair(t)ed (up). Ancient commands given to horses,
at work in the field etc., include
keppier hol(t) (go left); cup (come up?) or cubbear
to do the same. To go right required weesh [or weesht].
Finally the hol(t) (halt) command, to stop, of course.
3 : Structures
Horses needed stables etc. and their
owners all manner of other buildings.
Many of these had the word house
included in the title, abbreviated to us :-
- Backus - back-house i.e. scullery or outhouse,
in which the backus-booy slaved away; -
Nea(t)us - a cattle-shed (why neat??); or ne(tt)us;
-
Travus - the trave-house; part of
the village "smithy" (the working yard); -
Washus - wash-house
(forerunner of the launderette!)
There were also barns and haystacks etc.,
but the names were those in common use.
The humble, but essential post
(any kind, except letters) is a stulp.
Prior to the combine-harvester and tractor
(and ignoring the plough), some larger
pieces of equipment in use were :-
- The sail-reaper (horse-drawn and capable of
cutting 10 acres of corn per day); - The seed-fiddle (scatterer) i.e. seed from a container
via a wheel turned by the action of a bow,
like that of a violin, with a leather thong; - The morphrey (convertible tumbril/wagon).
Derived from e.g. anthropomorphic (Gk.). - A specialised 4-wheel carriage for moving
tree-trunks is a drug (from drag?).
^Top^
4 : Elementary
The cultivated (or indeed virgin i.e. undeveloped)
land was not as devoid of trees, hedges and wildlife in
those past years - when intensive farming was unknown.
No doubt there were, indeed are, descriptions of
soil-types etc.; but cultivation used to be a family affair,
in stable (no pun!) communities, perhaps over centuries.
They knew the ground like the back-of-the-hand. Manuring (muckspreedin') involved natural materials.
A muckup was a manure-heap, not a bad mistake.
Chalk or chalky clay (marl) was used on some soils,
and dug from a marlpi(t) (a name attached to a
Norwich pub).
Working, especially ploughing, the land
(aside from horse-handling) had its own jargon :-
Topographical : - Balk (or baulk) - a ridge deliberately
left unploughed[1]; - Carnser - a raised road or causeway;
- Carr - a clump of trees (to be left alone!);
- Drift - a lane;
- Look [Loke] - also a lane or alley,
usually sheltered by hedges etc.; - Fowle(t)e - crossroads;
- Grundle - narrow, sunken trackway;
- Plantin' - plantation (young trees);
- Ringes - trees in lines or rows;
- Scald - the highest part of the field.
N.B. "proper" roads (of which Norfolk still has
few enow) are called turnpikes (taanpoikes),
to this very day.
Shades of the new road-pricing??[1] Usually marking the boundaries between
differently-"owned" plots.
Ploughing : - Backstroike - to plough the same area twice
(turning it back); - Cooms - ridges formed between horse-tracks
and wheel-ruts; - Hidlan(d)s - (headlands) not the highest part,
but the outside edges of the field;
- Ollan(d)s - old pastures, ploughed-up for crops;
- Ooverwar(t) - ploughing or harrowing across
(at right angles from before); - Pan - opposite to ploughing : crushing the earth
with heavy vehicles or much rain;
- Poigh(t)le - small field or enclosure;
- Riffle - lighter touch than ploughing, by
breaking-up for shallow cultivation; - Rigs - space between furrows (ridges?);
- Scu(t)es - difficult angular corners of an
oddly-shaped field.
^Top^
5 : Wet, Wet, Wet
Undoubtedly, the weather provided all the difficulty,
and worse, unpredictability that the farmers could wish
not to have.
Even in dry weather, however, some aspects of the
countryside always needed "working with water",
often anticipating the rains to come - with drainage provision.
Lowlands : - Brashy - overgrown with rushes;
- Pulk (pulk-hole) - a small pond or spring;
- Slad - flooded land or a hollow between two hills;
- Smeath - open area of low-lying land;
- Spong - narrow strip of marshy ground.
Contrary to the Dutch usage, a dam is
a large stretch of marshes.
Drains :
The term dyke was sometimes replaced by deke,
then sometimes used for the opposite (a bank!).
- Flee(t) - shallow and flee(t)en - to make shallow :
as in a dyke or pool; - Grip or gripple - small drain or watercourse;
- Grup - shallow trench (as grip) or a rut
(potentially water-filled!); - Holl - another word for ditch, dry ditch
or just a hole; - Lood [lode] - a man-made watercourse,
so rather the opposite of a drain!; - Pangle - a badly-drained field.
If, despite the above efforts, the ground remained wet,
it might be described as : Slop, or slub (mud) or dauby (muddy).
We already know that a stream is a beck.
A ligger is a plank placed over a ditch, as a bridge.
[lig = lie ?]
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6 : Management
Other than constructing drains.
When there were trees and hedges, they had to kept
in good order (hence their wholesale destruction) :-
- Buck(h)ead - to trim the overgrown top of a hedge;
- Brush - hedge-trimming, again;
the residue being brushin(g)s; - Doddle - a pollarded tree;
- Draw - to clean out a ditch (dyke);
- Flash - to cut a hedge (overall);
- Rodin(g) - more dyke clearing.
A divided plot, giving a small piece of land is a lond
(rather confusing?). Difficult areas of land include
untidy undergrowth called brumbles (from brambles).
A tuft of rough grass is a flag;
whilst marsh grass is fob or fog; and
twitch-grass is "early-peep" (arly-peep).
The term brush was equally used for cutting weeds,
with a scythe or such.
A genuine, and routine (rural) bonfire, consists of
clumps of grass as well as other vegetable matter
hacked-away earlier.
Hence the term flagfoire, instead of bonfire.
This kind of fire often involves damp or
"green" material, and burns slowly and fitfully :
tha(t) squinder.
Sneakily, under this heading, we will mention the
(once more) numerous rabbits (cooneys); which
were always a mixed blessing.
Management required the numbers be kept under
control - what better way than eating them? To skin a rabbit (once caught!) is to flair it
(fleer), derived from flay.
Rabbits are an example, along with poultry,
of hollow-meat (i.e. not disjointed, as when
obtained from a butcher).
To hulk is to skin and gut the rabbit.
Rabbits would have one leg passed through
the sinews of the other, to facilitate carrying.
Handy if more than one are caught . . .
this practise being to huddle the animal.
7 : On The Wild Side
Common lands (under threat through the centuries)
can, even now, provide food for animals plus
human "recreation".
A common right of pasture, over any land,
is called a going, but pronounced (as ever) gorn.
Birds are pretty and lovely to "townies"
and can do no wrong.
Perhaps you will think differen(t) the next time
a dow (wood-pigeon) attacks the vegetable-patch!. Farmers have always had bother with crows,
and may still use a scarecrow or mawkin.
Bird-scaring had the perverse name of "crow-keeping".
There is a separate listing of all the smaller birds,
which are (or were) very varied and large in
number of sub-species.
The smallest bird in a nest is the nest-gulp
(after the mother's sea(t), or sitting) We have mentioned the rabbit (coney), but
the hare seems to have the most nicknames :
Bandy (hind legs), Sally, Sarah, Sukey.
Other animals include :-
Badge(t) (badger); Biddles (young chickens);
Brawn (wild boar);
Minifer (stoat or weasel);
Moll (mole); Mouse-(h)unt (stoat, again);
Ranny (shrew-mouse). In watery locations one might find : - Mardlins (ducklings OR duckweed!);
- flapper, a young wild duck;
- bay-duck, a brightly-coloured shell-duck;
- ducklings called widdles instead.
When diving for food underwater
the ducks were said to bibble.
Gloat (pronounced gloo(t) or gla(t)) is the word for eel.
Tadpoles rejoiced in various names :
pollywiggle, pot-lairdle, poddle-lairdle [-ladle].
Also common were : stannickles (sticklebacks);
and swifts (newts).
A rough-coated (diseased ?) animal
e.g. a rabbit, is a shrog.
Rats are, as ever, a menace. If one is cornered, the
terrified noise it makes is called chi(tt)ering [chatter].
[Other common creatures, e.g. frogs & toads,
are mentioned elsewhere]
8 : Creepy Crawlies
We have mentioned common insects and other
small creatures : such as ants, wasps, ladybirds,
woodlice and snails, in the main text "Norfolk Talk".Other cases include : - Bandy-wicke(t) (cricket);
- Canker (caterpillar, also field poppy!);
- Choovy (beetle - e.g. the cockchafer);
- Erriwiggle (earwig);
- King George (peacock or similar butterfly);
- Ki(tt)ywitches (cockchafer again);
- Merrymay (mayfly or dragonfly);
- Miller (moth);
- Mingins (gnats and midges);
- Mitchamador (the ever-popular cockchafer!);
- Tom-breezer (dragonfly again).
^Top^
9 : The Seasons
Not the Vivaldi version!.
Seasons, not just the standard four, were pivotal in
the rural way of life - still are, except that (say) the
"Growmore far(t)iloizer season" might replace
muckspreedin' (autumnal application of animal manure).
Then there are regular sprayings of chemicals,
to replace continual backbending weeding . . .The harvest was described by that standard term
(although post-harvest is shack-toime); but many
dialect words were employed to describe the
end-products of harvesting and the methods involved
(see below). The Old English term sele (shortened to sel)
was used to unify the seasonal names :
- Barleysel (the time for sowing barley);
- Wheatsel (for sowing wheat);
- Haysel etc. etc.
Hence "I said Good Day" becomes -
Oi give 'im the sele-a the day [sele of].
Easter Day etc. and all religious holidays
(holy days) were observed, well, religiously.
Few other days were named, beyond Saints' days -
including St. Winwaloe, a local hero; on 3rd March.
His name was shortened to Winnol.
The old Michaelmas day was also known as
Packrag Day. It was a day when many
customarily changed employment.
It was a fortunate man or woman who had
a rise in wages, whether moving or not.
Hained is the local term for raised (costs, prices etc.)
Our bin hained!! (whoopee!!).
A Norfolk expression for the terms of employment
providing NO wages, but with board and lodging
instead, is mea(t) fer manners. See Truck.
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