Folklore of Northamptonshire
Page 24
a wild flirty girl
guttling
a voracious eater
half and halfer
a gay person
jingle brains
a wild, noisy male
lown
peasant
Joan/John Blunt
one who freely speaks her/his mind
John George
a person with little knowledge of grammar
molly-cot
a man tied to his wife’s apron strings, especially in the kitchen
old-fashioned
a child quiet in manner
pigeon
young girl
raffling
wild, unsteady person
rattle cap or pate
a flirty, chatty girl
scribe
a skinny person
shackler
a dishonest or idle person
shiner
a clever person
splatherdab
a woman who goes from house to house spreading gossip
sprunny
lover, sweetheart
tool
a frail elderly person
trolley mog
a slovenly person
tyke (ON)
an annoying person
urk
small child or person
whopstraw
peasant (derogatory)
younker
youngster
General
One of several pumps that once served the villagers of Middleton and Cottingham.
A firehook for pulling burning thatch from cottage roofs; it is kept in the church of St John the Baptist, Harringworth.
appern
apron
ballet
ballad
barnacles
spectacles
bass
hassock (church)
beetle
heavy wooden mallet
berrin
funeral
besom
broom
bever
refreshment
bib
pinafore
bob
bunch
buffle greens
Brussels sprouts
bummer
foreman
budget
gossip, news
blunt
money
breeze
row, quarrel
butter pound
money
cabbage
leather offcuts
cag-mag
tough meat
chats
sticks to put on a fire
chump
a thick log for burning on the fire
cockers
gaiters, or legs of old stockings to keep snow out of shoes
colly
black soot from a pot
conger, congoes,
cucumber
conkers, cowcumber
cucumber
coshes, quashes
pea or bean pods
coverslut
a clean pinafore over a dirty dress
creeses
watercress
crinklin
small apple
dag
sudden sharp pain
delf
gravel or old stone pit
disabil
working clothes
doddle
cigarette end
eay
pond
fad
feast, gathering
fashion
health
feather legs
Brussels sprouts
fletches
pea or bean pods
gadabout
wild gossip
goat, gout
drain, ditch
gotty
wet, boggy field
gravel
ford
grammer
dirt, mire
grimmer south
large shallow pool
grip
narrow ditch
grouse
gravel
gudgell, pudgell
stagnant, muddy water
haulm
stubble for thatching
holt
field
house
the best room
hust (ON)
cough
ing
water meadow
jessup
juice, syrup
jitty
alleyway
jog
small load
jorum, crag, crog
a lot, great quantity
kelter
money
kids
pea or bean pods
lather
ladder
licker
puzzle, mystery
Lob’s pound
bridewell, gaol
lumping penn’orth
good bargain
masterpiece
wonder, marvel
muffle greens
Brussels sprouts
nappy
ale
onkers
knees
pad
path
pass
state, condition
pen and ink
sound of footsteps
penthouse
hen coop
piccolo
shotgun
pother
dust
pot house
low-class public house
pot wabbler
housekeeper
prong
table fork
pudge
puddle
rammel
building rubble
rig
joke, trick
rounds
rungs on a ladder
rout
hearty welcome
runnel
small stream, brook
scrat, scrawk
scratch, mark
shin timber
small piece of firewood
shiver (ON skive)
slice of bread or meat
spring
young tree
spud
weeding spade
sukey
tea kettle
take away
good appetite
tegs
teeth
tell post
fingerpost, waymarker
till
money
thrall
stand for a beer barrel
tizzy
sixpence
Tom Hackett
a beating
tot
half-pint mug
tray
wash tub
tree
spade handle
trucks
trousers
twang
(1) pungent taste
(2) acute toothache
yelk
egg yolk
yep
heap
The clapper bridge, a primitive way of crossing water using stone slabs resting on pillars, on the Wilbarston/Stoke Albany parish boundary, one of only three surviving in the county today.
Weather Lore
FROSTS
black frost
with no rime
sniveling frost, white frost
hoar frost
duck frost
slight frost at night, thawing in the morning – which ducks like
snow bones
remnants of snow after a frost
greasy
slippery after a slight frost
ICE
daggers
icicles
a snipe
a hanging icicle
cat ice
ice from which water has receded and which cannot support any weight
clock ice
ice which has cracked and formed various imaginative patterns, caused by pressure such as ice-skatin
g on the surface, or by the displacement of an area of water beneath the surface.
to fret, forgive
to thaw
RAIN
gaudy or glaudy day
showery with gleams of sunshine
a night for lost souls
howling wind and rain
water gall
a second rainbow, a sign of rainy weather to come.
watery sunshine
a halo around the sun – wet weather to come
to wet
to rain slightly
a payling
a driving heavy shower
falling in planets
rain falling heavily in a field while an adjoining one stays dry.
glut
a long continuous spell of wet weather
donk, donkey (ON)
wet, moist, damp
to rain heavens hard
to rain heavily
lambing storm
sudden squall of rain or snow around March and April, with bright sunshine afterwards
CLOUDS
Billy Mums
approaching dark clouds
woolpack clouds
a rack of high clouds
Noah’s Ark
a long dark cloud stretching across the sky, with a broad centre and tapering at each end, symbolising that a flood is on the way. However, if it extends in a south–north direction, good weather is assured. There was also a saying: ‘East and west the sign of a blaze, north and south the sign of drought’.
OTHER
hunch weather
damp, cold, foggy
rawk (north)
mist, fog (adj: rawky)
thony
moist, damp
creamy weather
when the sky is suffused with thick haziness (not cloudy)
sniving
raw and sleety
shuff
a sudden gust
shufty
changeable with a wind blowing strongly at times
whirlipuff
a sudden gust whipping up dust into an eddy
pothery
muggy
chaps, chops
cracks in the earth after a long period of hot, dry weather
Blindman’s holiday
when it is too dark to see or work properly
Calling animals
Various calls were used to attract or repulse certain animals when carrying out tasks around the farm or fields:
chook! chook!
for attracting hens
coop! coop!
calling up a horse from the fold or common
coop, wench!
calling cows for milking
cup, cup!
calling chickens together, getting a horse ready for mounting, or making a draught horse approach the driver
hoo’e, hoo’e, hoo’e!
driving away pigs
shoo! shoo!
scattering hens
soo, soo, soo, my wench!
soothing cows when milking
suss! suss!
calling pigs
tig! tig! tig!
calling pigs
Expressions
about October
pregnant
a bag of moonshine
nonsense
as dry as a lime burner’s hat
thirsty
I’ll pay you at Tibbs Eve
never
It’s Martin’s masterpiece
it’s a mystery
I’ve got a crow to pick with you
pick an argument
I was kept so long, I stood upon thorns
to become impatient
no pockets in shrouds
you can’t take it with you
old Bushy’s dead
old news
riding the pony
paying craftsmen for work not yet finished
the creaking gate hangs longer
an ailing person who outlives a healthier person.
them’s at brings’ll carry
used about gossips
to see a man, or my aunt, about a dog
to go to the toilet
to spin street webs
to walk around idly, gossiping house to house
when two Sundays meet
never (to express an impossibility)
FIELD NAMES
These are the original names that appear on maps and in deeds and records. Some of them still exist, though the vast majority have disappeared, many of the fields having been renamed or broken up during Parliamentary ‘Inclosure’. More common names, such as those indicating direction (e.g. North Field), position (e.g. Upper Leys), size (e.g. Great Folds), the name of an occupant/tenant, and those of obvious meaning (e.g. Horse Close, Foxholes, Home Close, Kiln Close) have been omitted. Many names are intriguing, while others are deceptive to modern eyes. A separate list is given for woodland names. All are, or were, within the boundaries of the county.
Shape/pattern/size
Brown Cow Common (Woodford) – strips of land, from the OE ‘brecchia’
Ell Edge (Lt Haughton) – L-shaped
Sauceridge (Little Houghton)
The Wrongs (Sibbertoft) – crooked
Spangle Row (Bozeat), Long Spong (Bradden), The Spung (Heyford) – a narrow strip of land
Damsel Meadow (Brixworth) – damask pattern (ridge and furrow)
Damask Gore (Woodford) – ‘gore’ means a triangular piece of land
Winkles (Litchborough) – many bends or angles, from the OE ‘vinkel’
Pingle (Boddington) – OE for ‘small enclosed piece of land’
Shakeldine (Little Oakley) – a wooded valley, from the OE ‘sceaga’
Trinder (Hannington) – circular hill, from the OE ‘trynde’
Cringleholme (The Bramptons) – circular meadow, from the ON ‘kringla’
Worley (Overstone) – winding
Wounds (Cransley) – enclosed meadow or ‘wong’
Starch Hill (Dallington) – tails of land, from the ME ‘stertes’
Wranglands (Fotheringhay) – twisted strips
Wofurlong (Weedon Lois) – crooked
Slench (Addington) – curved boundaries, from ‘sling’
Swing Slang (Grendon) – inverted ‘L’ shape
Poor fertility
Hell’s Kitchen (Earls Barton)
Purgatory (Braybrooke)
Clem Vengeance (Charwelton) – from the OE ‘clem’ meaning ‘to starve’
Scrawge or Scrooge Hill (Naseby)
Hunger Hill (Brigstock), Ungerull (Harpole), Hungry Hill Furlong (Deene), Hunger Hills (Weldon)
Devil’s Corner (Litchborough)
Pinchcut (Yardley Hastings)
Deadlands (Little Houghton)
Hard Hills (Guilsborough)
Sour Leys (Corby)
Sowrelands (Kingsthorpe)
Little Gains (near Grendon)
Belsen (Falcutt) – originally Long Meadow but later named after the Second World War concentration camp, as a place where cows did not thrive very well
Good fertility
Silver Hill (Brigstock)
Gold Diggings (Woodnewton)
Honey Dole (Kislingbury), Honey Hill (Elkington)
Blithe Meadow (Kislingbuury)
Prospect (Braybrooke)
Gadshill (Harpole) – ‘blessed by God’, the provider of daily bread
Paradise (Litchborough) – the name can also be used sarcastically for land which requires a lot of work!
Egglands (Brigstock)
Sweet Acre (Grendon)
Sunny Hill, Soilly Hill, Sweet Hill (Deenethorpe)
Martin’s Gold (Harpole)
Garden of Eden (Wellingborough)
Nature of surface/soil
Clay Close (Great Oakley)
Cat’s Brain (Little Houghton, Maidford) – mottled soil, rough clay with stones
Driffield (Cottingham) – dry field
Grimy (Harpole)
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Red Ground (Greatworth) – the colour is due to ironstone deposits
Blackleys (Harpole) – dark soil
Featherbed (Maidford) – soggy soil
Moss Hall (Cottesbrooke) – boggy land, from the ON ‘mos’
Rough Piece (Farthinghoe)
Smith Hill (Bozeat), Smith Meadow (Welton) – from ‘smooth’
Callowell (Harpole) – bare hill
Calvey Close (Apethorpe) – bare enclosure
Row Dykes (Harpole) – rough ditches
Dungee (Bozeat) – covered with manure
Shotty Meadow (Yarwell) – covered with manure