DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Cathy]

Your foreigner term reminds me of what we would call 'a freebie', it could be something simple like photocopying personal things at work.

[Stanley]

Almost the same thing Cathy. There have been some interesting studies about this. I always quote the Bible, 'Never muzzle the ox' which referred to letting oxen treading grain to thresh it to eat what they wanted as they worked. In chocolate factories they found that people soon got sick of eating the goodies!

[Stanley]

'Spills'. The tin slivers of wood used to get a flame from the open fire. Universal? Or is this a Northern term?

[Wendyf]

Common in the Bradford area when I was a child.

[Marilyn]

I've always called those bits of wood " kindling", but my first hubby used to call them "deal".

[Wendyf]

Spills were very thin shavings of wood Maz, usually used for taking a light from the fire to a pipe or gas stove, whereas kindling was the wood used in the fire. We called those faggots when I was little.

[Cathy]

The only faggots I have heard of were (disgusting) meatballs that my ex husband used to think were wonderful.

[Marilyn]

Ah...have gone back and read post correctly now Wendy...and yes, I think they were called spills, though I wouldn't know what the modern day word for them is here. The only time we would need them/use them would be out camping nowadays I expect...with no other need to transfer a flame.
What is a "taper" then?
Is it the same thing, or a type of candle?

Faggots? Something I can die without ever tasting I reckon!

[Cathy]

I think a taper is a long piece of folded paper that you light and then from that light the fire.

[Stanley]

The 'taper' was as Cathy suggests, the name used for a rolled up piece of paper used like a spill. More often the name was used for a long thin wax candle that was used for the same purpose. When you blew them out after using them there was a cloud of smoke....
The 'night light' was another variant on the same theme. A very short fat candle with a small wick so they burned for a long time. Used as a comforter light in the old days in a child's bedroom but more usually nowadays for a heat source under portable hot plates in restaurants. O)n my travels looking for boilers for sale I once found what I believe was the last English night light maker in a small factory embedded in the centre of I think it was Otley.

[chinatyke]

On my travels looking for boilers for sale I once found what I believe was the last English night light maker in a small factory embedded in the centre of I think it was Otley.

Was that Fred Gibsons and Son? I went to their works in Otley once, and yes it was in the centre. They had a fire in the factory and a lot of wax ran into the sewers. Years later engineers reported there was still wax lining some of the sewers in Otley. Later they moved to Guiseley and I worked for them for about a year in 1985/1986. At that time they didn't make any candles, just wax lubricants mainly for textile use such as the wax discs used on winding frames for lubricating threads intended for knitting. These discs were very similar in appearance to night lights but no wick.

[Stanley]

When I went there they were still making night lights. I had to go through and arch or entry between shops to get to it. My memory says this was about 1993 but I could be wrong. I think the moulds were made of bronze....

[chinatyke]

When I went there they were still making night lights. I had to go through and arch or entry between shops to get to it. My memory says this was about 1993 but I could be wrong. I think the moulds were made of bronze....

Fred Gibsons used to be on the square in Otley but they moved to Guiseley. The Guiseley works could indeed be entered through an archway from the main road or from the car park in Station Road, and in 1993 they were definitely located in Guiseley. I'd hazard a guess that you saw Norman Crumbleholme. The wax rings were cast in multiple mould machines that were probably made of bronze or copper and these were cooled by chilled water from below. Some of the wax discs looked very much like night lights. I don't know if they went into making those with the demise of the textile industry but the machinery was easily adaptable to producing those. Small World isn't it?
I've just looked on Google Earth and the works appears to have been replaced by a supermarket and the lovely arch has gone.

[Marilyn]

( what a thoroughly excellent name...Norman Crumbleholm...now there is one name fit for a murder mystery)

Lost my previous post, but just wanted to say that the thing I love about this site is that someone always knows something about what you are talking about!

[Cathy]

Reminds me of a story my elder brother Graham told me recently, gosh I hope I get this right or almost right...
He was in Barlick with his wife, I think in the last couple/few years, (remember he has lived in Australia since 1964) they were parked in a carpark and it was a hot day, his wife wanted to change into cooler clothes, my brother positioned himself outside of the car and kept watch around him. An elderly lady came up to him and asked if he was Graham Moss, he said he was and they had a short conversation. Later that day when he got back to his b and b accommodation he found a note on his bed asking him that if he was Graham, could he meet ... Bowker in so and so field at 7pm. Graham knew who ... Bowker was, being an old school friend, and went ahead with the meeting. It happened that the lady in the carpark had told her cousin who knew a niece who knew the Bowker guy that Graham was back in Barlick. True. Small world.

[Stanley]

China, it was Guisley and yes, I think they were making night lights because their was a demand for them for the plate warmers. A lost trade I suppose now but are Price's still making candles?
Cathy, lovely story. Daughter Susan works a couple of days a week at Thornton Manor which is now a care home. She walked into a room the other day and got the shock of her life when she saw on old bloke who looked like Ted Waite who used to live in the orchard at Hey Farm and was a great friend to the kids, they used his caravan like a Wendy House! God knows what social workers would make of this nowadays!. It turned out that the man was John Waite, Ted's brother and he and Susan had a whale of a time talking about old times. She was a bit thrown at first when he kept referring to Knocker until she remembered this was the by name I picked up in the army and was known by for many years here in Barlick. Susan said it was lovely, she was so pleased and so was John....

[Wendyf]

"I'd hazard a guess that you saw Norman Crumbleholme."

Today I was looking at a copy of the Black Lane Ends School admission register. The name "Crumbleholme" jumped out at me from the first page...not one that's easy to forget!
Three children of William James Crumbleholme attended the school for a year in 1912/13 while they were living at a farm called Albion Plain.
I just had a look at the 1911 census when the family was down in Colne and there is a son called Norman born in 1910.....just a coincidence?

[chinatyke]

I just had a look at the 1911 census when the family was down in Colne and there is a son called Norman born in 1910.....just a coincidence?

Too old for the Norman Crumbleholme from F.Gibsons but may have been a relative of his. The other director was called Geoff Butterworth, also a lovely name. It always surprises me how localised some family names were, even in the 20th century, peculiar to a particular area.

[Stanley]

I used the word 'gnarled' yesterday and it struck me what a good word it is. It sounded old as well so I looked it up in Webster. It appears it's related to 'knurled' and is not given any specific root. Perhaps it's so old it doesn't need one!

[Stanley]

I found myself ;pondering another word I use frequently. 'Murky'. Now where did that one come from?

[Tizer]

Collins doesn't give a derivation for murky. When I left the north-west of England I had my leg pulled frequently for using the word murky. Nobody understood it. Collins doesn't explain `higgledy-piggledy' either, a phrase I once used when talking to a Spanish scientist who stayed at our house. It caused him some consternation!

[Wendyf]

Murk:-
"C13: probably from Old Norse myrkr darkness; compare Old English mirce dark"

[Stanley]

Webster gives murky and the alternative spelling mirky. Refers it to Middle English but I like Wendy's origin. It sounds like Old Norse....

[Stanley]

'Sinister' from the Latin for left. We are very suspicious of 'Lefties' still. Think of the number of euphemisms for them, 'South Paw', 'Kak handed', any more spring to mind?

[LizG]

My hubby's a leftie; he had his left hand tied to a chair at school to stop him writing with it. He still looks like a leftie writing with the wrong hand. He's confused with other things too; plays 2 handed sports Like cricket and golf, right handed and one handed sports like tennis with his left hand. Too much information?