Yorkshireisms

It’s only as I’ve got older and seen the uncomprehending looks on my friends faces that I've realised how local some of the sayings were that we used at home. Yorkshire sayings, like Yorkshire people tend to be very apt, blunt and with a dry sense of humour. Here’s a selection. I can’t guarantee these are the exclusive preserve of Yorkshire and a few may have crept in via my relatives from ‘t’other side o’ t’hill’!

Health

Not surprisingly I can't think of any euphemisms for 'absolutely smashing, thank you' but quite a few expressing the reverse! A suitably non-commital reply to enquiries would be 'Fair to middlin''. ‘'Ee looks lahk death warmed up’  would suggest something a little worse, whilst ‘Ee’s popped ‘is clogs’ means that he’s died. Apparently expression comes from when a mill-workers wife would pawn his clogs after his death.

Intellect
Yorkshiremen are not know for being over-generous with complements and you are more likely to find sayings concerning the want of brains rather than the reverse.
 

Thick as two short planks	Very stupid
Daft as a brush	Ditto
He’s so sharp, he’ll cut ‘imself	He’s being a clever-dick
Listen who’s  been in t’knife-box!	Put down to a clever-dick
Not ser green as cabbage-lookin’	She has more brains than would be suggested by appearances

 

Money

Money is a matter reputed to be very close to a Yorkshireman's heart, so not surprisingly there are a lot of witty sayings to do with money. The most famous is the ditty 'Hear all, see all, say nowt; Eat all, drink all, pay nowt; And if tha does owt for nowt, do it for thisen.'

Others include:

She’s got money to cobble dogs	She’s very rich (can afford to throw money at dogs)
You’re cheaper to keep for a week than a fortnight!	To someone who eats a lot/has expensive tastes
They haven’t got tuppence to rub together	They are very poor
More brass than brains	More money than sense
She looks like she’s lost a pound and found a shillin’	She doesn’t know whether to be happy or sad
Where there’s muck there’s brass

Food

We like to eat well in Yorkshire, so lets have none of that minuscule, pretentious, art-on-a plate nonsense!

‘All clout and no dinner’	From the era when working men took a meal wrapped in a cloth to work. An expression for a disappointing item which is all packaging and nothing inside
Yer could put it in yer eye corner and see no worse!	Derogatory remark about the size of the item
It’s like feeding elephants comfits	Something which comes in stupidly small pieces
Neither nowt ner summat	Mediocre
Hard as the old lad	Very hard
Burnt to snicksnarls	Done to a cinder

                                                       

East Riding place names

Although most Welsh and Gaelic place names are still comprehensible to speakers of those languages,  the meanings of Yorkshire place names are obscure to modern English speakers. But Yorkshire place names have a fascinating story to tell - indeed, they chart the history of the whole of England between prehistoric times and the Middle Ages.

The oldest names are Celtic, for this area was once occupied by Briton tribes like the Brigantes and the Parisi who were first dominated by the Romans and then gradually pushed back into Cumbria and Wales by the Anglo-Saxons, but not without leaving behind a few place-names, especially the names of rivers. Local examples inlcude Roos (Welsh rhos: a moor), Leven (Welsh llyfn: smooth), and the rivers Derwent (‘oak river’), Ouse,  Hull and Humber.  The Romans also left behind a few placenames, primarily military in nature, like Doncaster and Tadcaster

Next came the Angles who vied for domination with the Danes. As the latter eventually gained the upper hand and established their capital in York, Danish (and to a lesser extent Norse) place names predominate in North East Yorkshire.  There are still a good many Anglo-Saxon place names in the area, such as Goodmanham (‘Godmund’s home’, the site of the most important pagan shrine in the Kingdom of Deira), Bridlington (‘Beohrtel’s farm’) and Pocklington (Poca’s people’s farm). Saxon place names can often be identified from elements such as –ham, -ton, - ing, -ley  and –field, and Viking place names by elements such as –by, -thorpe, -dale etc but caution is needed as many mixed place names exist (e.g. Grimston) and because a lot of words were similar in the two languages (e.g. holm which can be a Saxon or Norse element). One important illustration of this is the word ‘wold’ which is an Anglo-Saxon word (c.f the Kent Weald) but the local use of it is probably Norse, as the meaning of the related Norse word vall (rolling upland pasture) better describes the landscape than the meaning of Old English ‘wold’ which means forested uplands.

Common Viking place names elements include -by (village e.g. Willerby, Anlaby, Skidby), thorpe (farm e.g. Fridaythorpe – possibly Freya’s Thorpe, Everthorpe, Foggathorpe. Tibthorpe) and –kirk (church, as in Kirkella, Kirkby Underdale). Ferriby is a particularly interesting example, as our word ferry comes from Norse ferja- meaning to carry across water. This suggests that Ferriby has been a crossing on the Humber since a very early date. Watery place name elements in the SE of the area demonstrate the former topography of the area e.g.  holme (a water meadow,as in Wilfholme), carr (marshy woodland)  and keld (a spring, as in Keldmarsh, Cawkeld and Dunkeld which are all wet places in the Hull valley). A toft was a homestead, as in Langtoft. A burgh was a fort or stronghold, as in Flamborough – Flam’s stronghold. Use of dale rather than valley or vale in the Wolds is Norse (e.g. Thixendale) as it is in Dales and Hebridean placenames. Sea, in the names Hornsea and Skipsea means a lake, as does mere. The common use of beck for a stream in the East Riding is also Viking in origin. another expression which has Norse origin is the use of ‘bottoms/botton’ to refer to a valley bottom (as in Melton Bottoms) and is also found in Dales place names (c.f. Starbotton). Where ‘wick’ occurs inland it is Anglo-Saxon in origin, meaning a field, but on the coast it originates from the Norse vik  meaning bay (e.g. Thornwick) which also occurs frequently in Hebridean placenames as –vaig.

Finally the Normans arrived in 1066 and a number of  French or ‘Normanised’ place names can be seen in the area e.g. Meaux, Wharram le Street, Thorpe le Street, Kirkby Malzeard. 

Monastic houses in mediaeval Beverley

Monastic Houses of Mediaeval Beverley

Beverley had a number of religious houses in mediaeval period. The most important of these was obviously Beverley Minster  A monastery (possibly a minster) called Inderawuda, was recorded as early as 685 and was also mentioned by Bede who explainsthat the name meant ‘In the wood of the Deirans’. The present Minster was a collegiate church of canons built in 1225 on the site of the Early Mediaeval minster. Until its suppression in 1548, the church served as a college for canons, its status then changing to parish church.

Probably the next most significant was Preceptory of the Holy Trinity of the Knights Hospitallers, remains of which have been found under the car park onTrinity Lane, the station yard and other sites around the station. It was founded soon after 1201, when Sybil de Valloines gave the Order the manor of the Holy Trinity. It became one of wealthiest houses of the Order in England. The preceptory site has been fairly well mapped out. It included residential and service buildings, a church and a burial ground, enclosed by a deep moat and entered by a formal gateway. The moat still existed when the railway was built but was filled in to create sidings. On maps from 1893 part of the moat is still marked on the east side of the station, roughly parallel with the track, and the area around the station is named as Outer and Inner Trinities. Archaeological investigations of the extent of silt in the ditches that the site was probably abandoned following the Dissolution.

Both the Franciscans and Dominicans had a presence in the town; Greyfriars (Franciscan) was probably founded pre-1267 at a site within the town boundaries, but moved to land granted to the friars around the chapel of St Elena on the Westwood in 1297. It probably stood somewhere near Albert Terrace, where remains relating to the Friary, including burials, have been found during development work. Remains including over 300 inhumations and associated mediaeval objects were also found on the Westwood in the 19^th Century and were thought to be associated with the Franciscan friary. Greyfriars is not to be confused with the Dominican Friary, simply referred to as ‘The Friary’ today and now a YHA hostel. ‘Blackfriars’ was founded before 1240 and dissolved in 1539. Near to it was located the mediaeval St Nicholas hospital for the poor, which may have been somewhere between the Friary and the mediaeval St Nicholas church. 

Beverley also had several monastic hospitals. The oldest was the Augustinian St Giles Hospital which was located outside Newbigin Bar around where Minster School stands today, its existence commemorate in the street name St Giles’ Croft. In the Victorian period the fields in this area were marked on maps as ‘St Giles Crofts’ It was a pre-Conquest foundation by someone called Wuse. In 1277 it was in a delapidated state and was united with Warter Priory for priests and `conversi' to be in the hospital. It was disolved in 1538.  A leper house originally stood well away from the town on Humbergate (now Queen’s gate) but was replaced by St Mary’s Hospital in 1402 which was in North Bar Without (possibly somewhere around beginning of New Walk).  Two late mediaeval additions were the Trinity Hospital and Hospital of St John the Baptist. Trinity Hospital was founded in 1397 and had a chapel on the Cross Bridge (see map in the previous post). It became the Corporation Almshouse after the dissolution and was later used as the town gaol until it was demolished in 1805. The Hospital of St John the Baptist (c1444 – 1547) was on the west side of Lairgate to the south end.  It was suppressed in 1547 but continued as a maison dieu into Elizabeth's reign.  It had a chapel and associated chantry.)

Street map of mediaeval Beverley

Molescroft's Moated Manors

In the Mediaeval period, there were scores of moated manor houses across the East Riding. (In the Hull Valley alone, there were Storkhill, Pighill, Barf Hill,Skerne, Scorborough, Leconfield, Grovehill, Little Kelk, Hall Garth, Cranswick, Heigholme Hall, Parkhouse, Cranswick, Meaux, Leconfield and Woodall) Partly this was probably a feature of the marshy land, and partly for defensive purposes. Of those around Beverley, only Leconfield, which belonged to the powerful Percy family, could really be described as a castle and most were manor houses.

Molescroft (Anglian ‘Mul’s Croft’) consisted of just two households at the time of the Domesday Book and the overlords were the Archibishop of York and the canons of Beverley Minster. By the late Middle Ages, the village had grown up around the cross roads which became the Malton Road roundabout, and there were four moated manors in the area. None of these survive today but a small distance away there are remains of two moated enclosures at Parkhouse Farm between Molescroft and neighbouring Cherry Burton.

There is some debate about the exact location of the first two Molescroft manors. Woodhall Manor was probably the site which lay roughly opposite the end of Gallows Lane where the cemetery now stands. It belonged to the Woodhall family from the 13^th century, who took their name from the manor. The 14^th Century Pighill Manor initially belonged to the Roos family and then to a Royalist commander named Marmaduke Langdale. It subsequently passed to owners named Tadman, Nornabell, Marchant, Rigby and Wise who are all commemorated in local street names. Pighill Manor or Hall lay to the east of the road at the point where Manor Road now becomes Woodhall Way and the site has been lost under housing. Today this point marks the official boundary between Beverley and Molescroft, and an old hedge still crosses the road here that once marked the limit of the old Inclosure. A third manor was called Estcroft and was the home in 1448 of a John Bedford but had once been part of the Woodhall estate. Estcroft was partially excavated in the 1960s revealing fishponds, a barn and remains of the house which had stood on a series of stone plinths. Estcroft stood roughly where the recreation ground is now on what was formerly Pighill Lane. (Woodhall Way was formed in the 1940s from Pighill Lane and Mill Sykes Lane/Low Field Road). A fourth manor, Scrubs Manor, was on Scrubwood Lane and the site is now bisected by the railway line and buried beneath housing. It was the house of a Roger Scoter.

Estcroft and Woodhall manors were abandoned by the 1600s; Pighill was demolished in 1759 although the moat was still visible when the estate was built. By the post-mediaeval period, England was a safer place and those with wealth no longer felt the need to live in defensive dwellings and began to build country houses instead. All trace of these sites was swept away in the 20^th century expansion of Beverley and no sign of the manors now remains, nor of those who lived in them except in local street names.

 

Westwood Windmills

The Beverley landscape in the 19^th Century was dominated by several windmills. The open, low lying land was an ideal location for wind power and windmills had been constructed in the town from the 14^th century. Not only were windmills used to grind corn but they also provided the power for other local industries like whiting production and grinding bark for the tanning process (Catterson’s Mill on Hellgarth Lane) It has been said that in the 1850s there were 9 flower mills. As other forms of power took over, only Crathorne’s Mill was still functional by the 1880s.

Black Mill (copyright Paul Glazzard, licensed for use
under Creative Commons Licence)

The biggest concentration of mills was on the Westwood. The Corporation had a mill on the Westwood from as early as 1577. Subsequently there were at least 5 tower mills built in addition to several earlier post mills.

The only mill that still stands to its full height is Black Mill (also known as Far Mill or Bateson’s mill) built in 1803. It stood on the site of the earlier New Mill. It closed in 1868 after the sails were blown off. The cap of the windmill and the machinery were removed, but the tower was repaired and is now a listed building. The tower is 5 storeys high. Originally the miller’s house stood beside the mill but this has been demolished. A pavilion for the golf club was built near the mill before it moved to its current location; pictures also exists of a cricket field laid out at Black Mill.

Union Mill, now Beverley Golf Club (copyright Peter Church,
used under Creative Commons Licence)
 

Victoria Mill, built 1837, was used to grind to whiting and the stump still stands at the whiting works. The only other surviving mill is Union Mill, also called Anti-Mill, of which a remnant of the tower persists as part of the Golf Club. It was run by the Union Mill Society from 1799 util the late 19^th century.

The site of Lowson’s Mill, another tower mill, can still be seen on the edge of the Westwood near Cartwright Lane. Crathorne’s  Mill was a flour mill with five sails built around 1830. This drawing  in the East Riding Museums Collection is labelled as Crathorne’s mill. Crathornes moved to a mechanised mill at Grovehill which burnt down in 1907.

The presence of mills on the Westwood, constructed and operated by the Corporation, were contentious with freemen of the town, who believed they infringed their pasture rights. Fishwick’s mill was a flour mill that stood near the Leases. It replaced Butt Close Mill, a post mill burned in 1861 down by the freemen who believed it infringed their pasture rights. Wilson’s mill on Walkington Road, belonging to Harry Wilson, was demolished by the Pasturemasters at the expiry of its lease.   This picture in the East Riding Museums Collection showing Wilson’s and Fishwick’s mills appears to indicate that Fishwick’s was a six sailed mill but another contemporary picture depicts a four-sailed mill post mill labelled as Fishwick’s.

A series of mills were described as Hither Mill (also called First or Low Mill). One of the earliest mills,  a post mill was first built in 1656, a short distance from where Black Mill was later built. Two post mills at the site were followed by a tower mill. Hither Mill blew down in a storm in 1715. It was rebuilt in 1742, but by the mid 19^th century was ruinous and the machinery was sold off.  

Duck decoys

Recently, I passed a sign to ‘Decoy’ near Watton which caught my attention as I had only discovered what a decoy was last year when holidaying in East Anglia. Essentially a duck decoy was an idea imported from the Netherlands and was a place where ducks could be caught for food. The name derives from Dutch meaning ‘duck cage’, and consisted of a central pool with several ‘pipes’ radiating from it where the ducks could be funnelled into the enclosed pond. Duck decoys were used locally from Tudor times.

There are several examples in the Hull valley, including the one at Watton. Others include one at Meaux (420 yds south west of Meaux Decoy Farm) which shows up clearly on Google Earth images.  A third is located at Scorborough, where the names Decoy Wood and Decoy Farm give a clue to its location. The Watton and Meaux decoys are very similar in plan. They all ceased to function in the late 18^th century for the same reason – the drainage of the adjacent carrs (wetlands) where the ducks resided. The Beverley and Barmston Drainage Act was passed in 1798. All three decoys are all now located amidst acres of arable fields, but as noted in the previous post, the surrounding areas would have been marshy at the time of the decoys. The Watton decoy was reported to produce as many as 400 ducks a day from 1000 acres of surrounding marshland – almost entirely gone today. In the late 19^th century it was still frequented by rare species of duck, garganeys, gadwalls and other birds like ruffs, which today are characteristic only of isolated wetland areas of the Hull valley like Tophill Low and Swinemoor.

The existence of these decoys is another reminder of the past landscape of the Hull valley but also of the strong influence the Netherlands has always had on this area. From Holland a wide variety of processes were imported into the East Riding, including land drainage techniques, brickmaking – and also the construction of duck decoys.

Beavers - in Beverley?!

Two alternatives have been proposed for the origins of the name Beverley . The commonly-quoted explanation is that it meant ‘beaver stream/lake’ but other experts have suggested it might derive from a word for pagan shrines which were once found in the area in pre-Christian times. The modern observer, examining the area around Beverley, could be forgiven for being more than a little sceptical about the beaver explanation. I must confess that I was myself

We need to understand, however, the way that the landscape around Beverley has changed since the Middle Ages. The arable farmland which characterises the Hull Valley today only exists because of the construction of the drains that crisscross the area. Many of these drains were constructed in the Mediaeval period, often by monastic houses such as Meaux Abbey and Watton Priory (such as the Monk Dyke nr Leven). Before drainage, most of the low lying ground in the Hull Valley was very wet. A look at a modern map shows that word ‘Carr’ occurs frequently in the Hull Valley, but rarely on the Wolds (e.g. Weel Carr, Tickton Carr, Molescroft Carr, North Carr at Thearne, Lockington Carr, Watton Carr, Hotham Carr and North Frodingham Carrs). These are areas of well-drained arable fields today but the word ‘carr’ denotes an area of wet woodland and shows that these places were once much wetter and extensively wooded. There were also extensive marshes and several large meres in the East Riding which have vanished (such as Wallingfen near North Cave and Oxmarrdyke near Gilberdyke, for example). Botanical evidence is still to be found today in small pockets of wet ground (Pulfin Bog at Eske, for example) and along the margins of the drains, where a wetland flora occurs akin to that of the Fens in East Anglia.

This would have been exactly the sort of territory beavers like. Beavers live exclusively in a wet habitat, modifying or expanding areas of standing water and water channels in order to store food, build their homes  and travel about their territory whilst trees are essential for food, and for dam and lodge construction.  

So when you put together the historical accounts, local placenames and botanical evidence along with the lifestyle of the beaver, the more fitting its place seems on our town’s coat of arms.

Beverley street names

The street names of Beverley have much to tell about its history. Many have passed to us unchanged from the early Middle Ages. Many contain elements of Scandinavian origin, imported by the Danes who took the area from the Angles in the 9th century. One example is use of the word ‘gate’ to mean a road or lane, which can be seen in street names of other former Danelaw towns e.g. Kirkgate (church gate) in Leeds. Highgate, Keldgate,  Lairgate, Hengate, Eastgate and Flemingate are some of the oldest streets in Beverley. Other examples include Keld (a spring, as in Keldgate, Keldmarsh), Begin (a building, as in Newbegin), Moor (as in Minster Moorgate) and some lost examples such as Briddal Midding Lane (midden=Danish for rubbish heap), Holmkyrk Lane (Kirk = church, old name for Holme Church Lane) and Colmankeld Lane

In the Middle Ages, tradesmen grouped together by trade and gave their name to the street. For example, in the area around Saturday Market were Walkergate, Tenter Lane, Mercer Row and Dyer Lane – all occupations connected with the production of woollen cloth. As most of these processes needed water, they were clustered around the Walker Beck. Other examples were Butcher Row, Bredrow or Baker Lane, and Glover Row. Landress Lane, however, is misleading as it is thought to be a corruption of a family name.

Other names give a clue to lost landmarks; Cross Street is near the site of the mediaeval cross which stood at Cross Bridge (roughly at the junction between Walkergate and Butcher Row). The bridge took the High Street (now Toll Gavel) over the Walker Beck, which had not been culverted in the early Middle Ages and divided the town into two. Trinity Lane is on the site of the mediaveal Preceptory of the Holy Trinity. St Giles Croft is near the site of the mediaeval St Giles Hospital. Holme Church Lane led to the mediaeval St Nicholas Church and Mill Lane led to a mill roughly where Norwood Methodist Church now stands. Tiger Lane, formerly called Cuckstool Lane, led to the Cuckstool or ducking stool on the Westwood. Gallows Lane is of similar origin. Woodlands, also called Union Road, led to the workhouse of the Beverley Poor Law Union.

An excellent glossary of Beverley street names can be found at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=36438 .

Mediaeval Grovehill

Grovehill might seem an insignificant backwater today but its present day appearance belies its past significance to the development of Beverley. In Mediaeval times Grovehill was the wealthy wool town's link to the world beyond via the watery motorway that was the River Hull. The name of the hamlet was apparently first mentioned in 1156 as Gruvale, a name which possibly meant a settlement in a nook in a stream. This stream was the Groval Dyke or Aldbeck. As well as being the location of the main staithe on the River Hull for loading and unloading wares from vessels, Grovehill’s main industry in mediaeval times was pottery and tile/brick-making.  The banks of the Groval beck were rich in clay deposits and in the 14th century it is recorded that the Guild of St John held rights to extract clay from the banks of the Groval Dyke for this purpose. The potteries were well located as production generated offensive fumes and the hamlet was well away from the main town.  What is now Grovehill Road is of very ancient origins and in mediaeval times included what is now Trinity Lane, continuing as the Groval lane from the Fishmarket (Wednesday Market) right down to the staithe on the River Hull. The alternative name for the road was Pottergate or Potterlane in reference to the potteries found there. Presumably fish was landed at the staith and transported into the town for sale in the fishmarket, and wool and other goods where loaded onto barges for export elsewhere in Yorkshire and to the Continent.  Archaeological excavations around the southern Grovehill area (Annie Reed Road, etc) have yielded extensive evidence of pottery, tile and brick making, including remains of kilns, wooden workshops and clay pits. Misshapen and discarded brick and tile remains have been found on the surface of nearby fields and fragments of distinctive Beverley type pottery for domestic purposes has also been been discovered. In the area around the old council depot, evidence of Romano-British occupation has also been found in the form of pottery and tiles suggesting the Romans may also have known about and exploited the same clay deposits. 

Beside the river somewhere near the hamlet, the Gruval manor stood in late mediaeval times. Apparently there is still evidence of the moated manor in fields by the River Hull - looking at images on Google Earth, it seems this may be in the field just to the south of the bridge, behind Post Office depot.