1 : The Blue Yonder
There must be two further (specialised) vocabularies,
each probably extensive, to describe :-
(a) the sea itself,
in all its states and moods; tides, sandbanks etc.
(b) types of seagoing-craft,
their rigging and other technical features.
Dear Reader,
you will find little enough of either here . . .
While I possess, within my person, the pre-requisite
of a traditional Norfolk Mariner (i.e. I cannot swim
a stroke), the water and myself are sworn enemies.
My ignorance of all matters nautical is but one of my
many spheres of ignorance, but one of which I am
actually rather proud. (At any rate, one where
ignorance IS bliss!)
However, should the raging sea become calm,
it is said to smoul(t).
As children we found it safer (and warmer) to bathe
in the hollows between sandbanks, rather than in the
open sea. These pools were termed lows.
2 : The Coast
This is quite different.
Part of the (usually) dry land,
with which we feel comfortable.
Norfolk has more than its share of sand-hills
(standard name dunes) acting as barriers to the sea;
their innate frailties bolstered by the roots of the
only grass which will colonise them i.e. marram grass. Marrams (pl.) is an alternate name for dunes, often
meaning the artificial sandbanks, specially constructed
and planted with marram grass. The Norfolk version
of dunes is denes,
describing sandy tracts of all shapes and sizes.
A ga(t) (N.German or Danish for way)
is a gap or channel for passing to the sea.
Alternate names for sandy uplands (which may, in fact,
lie inland) are : meals (dunes) and merrimills (hills).
Scores (see scars) are narrow tracks, down cliffs and
hills, leading to the beach. A landing stage is a staithe.
3 : The Wildlife
Few new names, I fear, but the ubiquitous
sea-gulls are cobs
(like inland horses!).The famous Cromer Crabs need no further mention.
(Keep mum about the samphire!).
Porpoises, if ever spotted, are called bo(tt)le-noose :
accurate, if not very flattering?
Beachcombing has always been one way of
"living off the land", and has the same
name as its inland version i.e. pawkin'.
Catching winkles can be a profitable undertaking,
but in Norfolk they are called pinpaunches :
the pin being the means of consumption!.
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4 : The Fishing
Many a folk-song (rather than a sea-shanty) testifies
to the fear of the elements, as well as the hardness
of the work, in relation to fishermen.
A Norfolk person, told something which amazes them,
will often say (instead of "Well, I'm blowed") -
Well, I'll go to sea.
This figure of speech is,
of course, the very opposite of any wish or intention.
The task of shaking herring (if any!) out of the nets
is called scuddin' (scud the herrin'!)
Herring are (were) familiarly known as
"silver darlings", with a popularity the
inverse of that of the squid i.e. squi(t).
In the form of kippers, after being dyed, but before
smoking, they were known as "Painted Ladies" -
pairn(t)d lairdies.
5 : The Harvest
As we all know (?) quantities of catch were measured
in crans (e.g. 30); but kept singular, say tha(tt)y cran,
in Norfolk.
This was before the Common Fisheries Policy
and metrication.
Goodness knows how much a cran really was . . .
A basket containing 500 herrings
(foive hundre(t) herrin')
was called a swill; probably a receptacle similar to
a skep (of wickerwork construction).
Precisely 132 herrings comprised a long hundred
(very long!) and tenfold that amount was termed a last.
The generic term for a single fish basket
(for standard measurement) is a ki(t).
6 : Support Services
Fishing-nets (lin(t)s) need maintenance :
a never-ending chore.
To bea(t) a net was to mend it, hence
a skilled worker was called a bea(t)ster.
Net-making, on the other hand, had the
familiar name of braidin(g).
Taking fish to and from market, in a fish basket,
has the same name for the basket as with inland use :
namely a ped.
The difficult and dangerous work (usually entrusted
to the Scots fisherwomen) of gutting the herring,
made use of shallow troughs, known as farlans
(possibly Scottish in origin).
Shotten or inferior herring were termed mairzy (mazy).
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