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Old Sheffield Sayings


hilldweller

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He'd follow a Muck Cart and think it was a Wedding.

He doesn't know if he's on this Earth or Fuller's.

Where's tha bin, hast ta been round the back o' Fosters ?

Discuss

HD

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I can remember my Mother commenting on certain people who lived on the Manor who's homes were not to clean or tidy, her comment was " Her house is a right pleck" on remembering this "Pleck" word only recently, I researched it and it's the name of a small field, could it have been a dumping area for unused farming or household goods. My father also shouted out when my sisters were having a difference of opinion " Put a sock in it" referring to the old gramophones with the large horn for the sound which a very rough loud sound emitted from it, so a piece of material or a SOCK was put inside the the megaphone shaped horn, this cut down the tinny sound and gave it a bit of tone. 

 

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'tanner short of a shilling' for someone a bit slow. 

Oh and 'if she fell in a bucket of s**t she'd come out smelling o' roses'

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'tanner short of a shilling' for someone a bit slow. 

Oh and 'if she fell in a bucket of s**t she'd come out smelling o' roses'

"tanner short of a shilling'"

Or in other words 'Not a full shilling", or, 'eleven pence ha'penny'.

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" Get thi rags on"

Meaning "put on the clothes you will need to go out".  I think it comes from the steelworks where they'd wrap damp rags round their legs before pouring steel.

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'As daft as a brush', how can a brush be daft? Wonder how that saying came about?

It seems to be unknown, but there are several explanations. The most common being from boys who went up chimneys, falls might cause head injurious and of course Chimney Sweeps used brushes. That's my favourite anyway.  

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'As daft as a brush', how can a brush be daft? Wonder how that saying came about?

I've always thought the correct saying was as "as soft as a brush"

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I've always thought the correct saying was as "as soft as a brush"

That would be a variant of it rather than a correct saying. It would also fit in better with one of the suggested origins of the saying. Which is that it comes from the Fox's tail. As in Basil Brush!!! hee hee!!!

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'As daft as a brush', how can a brush be daft? Wonder how that saying came about?

I often wondered about this one and asked the same question.

Looks like thas lost a bob and found a tanner. 

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My father also shouted out when my sisters were having a difference of opinion " Put a sock in it" referring to the old gramophones with the large horn for the sound which a very rough loud sound emitted from it, so a piece of material or a SOCK was put inside the the megaphone shaped horn, this cut down the tinny sound and gave it a bit of tone. 

 

More than fifty years ago I was "volunteered" to join the school brass band. Because of my problems with my "embouchure" ( I've waited years to use that word again  ), I was given the e flat bass to play (tuba). (Big mouthpiece to suit a big mouth ! ).

Every Friday afternoon I was seen making a nuisance of myself dragging the damn thing onto the number 14 bus to Malin Bridge and in the reverse direction on Monday Morning.

I was banished to my attic bedroom to practice. I didn't put a sock in it, but a pair of flannel pyjamas and a woollen dressing gown.

The neighbours still complained though, not so much at my playing but more about the limited repertoire of things that can be played on a solo tuba. "Midnight in Moscow anyone".

HD

 

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Where's tha bin, hast ta been round the back o' Fosters ?

Discuss

HD

"I've been round the back of Fosters" was the universal reply in our family to a young Hilldweller's questions about an older persons recent whereabouts.

Some years ago the late historian J. Edward Vickers told a meeting I attended, that the "back of Fosters" refered to the less than solubrious stables and outbuildings behind the original Fosters store before it's reconstruction with the rebuilding of High Street / Fargate.

According to him it's where "ladies of the night" used to take their clients.

I don't think that's what my answerers had in mind though, at least I hope not..

HD

 

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My wife, who came originally from the Derbyshire Dales, but has lived in Sheffield for sixty years, is fond of quoting life improving little rhymes from her childhood.

Her favourite is " Where there is work for me to do, sooner started sooner through "

Of course when she quotes this I counter it with my version.    " Where there is work for me to do, I'm off to the pub for a pint or two ".

Not keen on humour, my wife !

HD

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Guest Barbara M

" Ooo waree  we , waree we is sen ? " was a favorite enquiry of my grandmothers when I told her I had seen an old friend of hers .....unsure of the spelling !!!

 

Barbara

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