Was doing a lockdown tidy up with Mrs B yesterday and said to her that she " had more shoes than soft Mick" which puzzled her and made her laugh. The reason I mention it is it was something my mum used to say when I was a kid ( I am over 60) she was of Irish descent but I am sure it's local to Burnley. I was also a bit taken aback that I used it at all. It prompted a discussion and a few laughs. Don't really know it's origins tho.

I've just googled it.

The phrase probably originated from an Irish shoe pedlar in Accrington.

soft-mick. The phrase to have more<something> than Soft Mick means to possess an extravagant quantity of that thing. This phrase may originally have referred to an Irish shoe peddler working around Accrington, East Lancashire, in the early 1900s, from the phrase "More shoes than Soft Mick".

Grandma was fond of saying " followed a muck cart and thought it was a wedding " Still not entirely sure what she meant. Not a local one, but I remember the owner of a hoopla stall at a highland games when I was a kid on holiday saying " the man who ate the boiled ham raw" when a player lost. I assume it meant another sucker !

I used to ask my mother what was for tea round about 1962...."shite with sugar on" came the reply ,I dont think it's an old saying though we really were have shite with sugar on.

Thanks for info didn't think Google would have had that! Will have a look.

Dad always used to say ‘this is for who kisses Betty’ when playing a deciding game on table tennis, pool et al. Any ideas??

Don't forget " to put t'wood in't hole lad ".

Steve1956 wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 8:50 pm

I used to ask my mother what was for tea round about 1962...."shite with sugar on" came the reply ,I dont think it's an old saying though we really were have shite with sugar on.

and some might say you're still full of it.............

"Its a bit black over Bills Mothers" quite often heard on test match special regarding the weather..... don't think its owt to do with the north though....

Mum used to talk about me and my brother going off at t'boggart if we were arsing around...........a boggart was thought to be a demon that would drive horses crazy causing them to gallop off and cause general mayhem.
A proper NE Lancs term, apparently.

Brunlea wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 8:39 pm

Was doing a lockdown tidy up with Mrs B yesterday and said to her that she " had more shoes than soft Mick" which puzzled her and made her laugh. The reason I mention it is it was something my mum used to say when I was a kid ( I am over 60) she was of Irish descent but I am sure it's local to Burnley. I was also a bit taken aback that I used it at all. It prompted a discussion and a few laughs. Don't really know it's origins tho.

My Dad used to say the same thing....he had others too.
"i'll stand t' drop of York"
"You make my bloody feet ache".....& others i can't think of right now.

You hear the Bill's Mother's one a lot down here in the Midlands.

Ialways remember my Dad valiantly trying to stick one of those new-fangled plastic, self-adhesive rear window heating panels tio his new Moggy 1000, reg 9010 TF. The damn thing kept dropping off and even though I was supposed to be helping, I couldn't help but giggle.
He went bonkers, ripped the thing off the window and threw it down, snarling. "Gah, yon it !"
I'm assuming "yon" is short for yonder or something like that and the wonderful expression of sheer exasperation translates along the lines of "**** this for a game of soldiers."...........

I,m fair clemmed was one of my grannys, meaning hungry.
Strangely she said I,m starved, meaning cold.
Re boggarts, widely used in Nort East and Scottish borders.

When my brother and I were acting above our station, my mother used to say 'D'you think you're on yer father's yacht?'

here's one you don't hear anymore

"I wish we would beat Blackburn"

Vegas Claret wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 9:53 pm

here's one you don't hear anymore

"I wish we would beat Blackburn"

Blackburn who they?exactly

And another
..10 years ahead of Burnley

My mother also used the phrase "fair clemmed" to mean she was hungry. She also once used a phrase I will never forget: after having a chat with a man who had a wandering eye she said "he skenned like a basket o' whelks", which I found perfectly understandable.

Marney&Mee wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 9:00 pm

Dad always used to say ‘this is for who kisses Betty’ when playing a deciding game on table tennis, pool et al. Any ideas??

The winner gets to " kiss Betty ", comes from American GI's stationed over here in World War II, referring to their " Forces Sweetheart ", the Hollywood actress Betty Grable .....

Yes my mum used skenned etc for people who had bad eyesight but wouldn't wear glasses and screwed up their eyes.

As black as black pudding stalls towel. This was a ref to Burnley outdoor market black pudding stall that had a tea towel for people to wipe their hands on after eating their pud stood at stall.

He/She won't die wondering

My Grandma would have described Peter Crouch as "A yard o' pump watter".

Anyone suspected of cheating at cards was "a twister".

One of my Dad's favourites

"When will't young dog bring th'old dog a bone?"

" Built like a barge-woman " - a term for a woman with a " thicker set " figure, ( to be gentlemanly about it ) ... probably from the women who lived and worked on boats on the Leeds-Liverpool canal.

" You're up and down like a bride's nightie ! " - " you seem to be unable to sit still " !

" scriking " - crying

Weak tea was "like pis5 willy from York".

Can't say pi55? it's not even a swear word!

bodge wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 10:22 pm

My Grandma would have described Peter Crouch as "A yard o' pump watter". Anyone suspected of cheating at cards was "a twister".

I suspect " twister " is fairly universal, my Gran ( b.1907 ), and from Nottingham, would use this jokingly if we'd beaten her at cards !

My old boss used to come up with a few crackers. Referring to a customer who had one good eye and another which wandered around of its own free will - "Ive just seen - One eye on't pot and t'other up the chimbley". I'm just off to "manure mi cubicles".

Where’s thi gannin’ fu yu jollies? “Kerbstone Edge”.

Well I’ll go to our gate. I’ve also heard this as Haggate.

"By the left!" was a favourite of my gran's

Also from my mum: "Your dad'll play pop when he finds out" and "Yer as black as t'fire back!"

pots for rags, meaning thick person.

Bosscat

"Its a bit black over Bills Mothers" quite often heard on test match special regarding the weather..... don't think its owt to do with the north though....

I saw a piece with Athers and Bumble about that - can't remember the details - I think it originated in the home dressing room at Old Trafford relating to the direction most of the weather came from.

Gutta our house

beeholeclaret wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 10:36 pm

My old boss used to come up with a few crackers. Referring to a customer who had one good eye and another which wandered around of its own free will - "Ive just seen - One eye on't pot and t'other up the chimbley". I'm just off to "manure mi cubicles".

Try this ........
https://youtu.be/unea7034LuU

Three cheers and a table leg; always when something had gone correctly, used to be uttered by my Dad and Grandparents. The funny thing is that I now continue with this and before I retired from Royal Mail I had colleagues in Central Postal Control also saying it when we had sorted out a problem. Obviously a play on the way we used to pronounce a chair but funny hearing Londoners saying it.

Let dog see t’rabbit.

Point percy at the porcelain

A reference for a potential horticultural worker described him as " a pi55 int' firm's time mon"!

My grandad used to say "Gerrup wooden hill" when it was bedtime. An uncle also used to say "Yon tay's a bit fortneet" when someone gave him a cuppa that was "too weak"

"Big do's and little do's" Must be a Burnley thing, cos I'm now living in the land of Knob Enders, and when I say it, everyone looks at me as if I'm speaking Swahili.

Dun't need ta go down't mine, thiz plenty o' slack in thi kecks.
To someone who wore over sized trousers.

Thaz two a'peth short of a bob.
Not quite the brightest.

The one my Grandma said once to my mum was “Don’t spoil the ship for a happorth of tar”

My dad would say I will knock you ta middle of next week when I was misbehaving.

They haven't got two Ha'pennies to rub together.

Remark my mum would say when folk were very poor (usually with lots of kids).

Knock on t'thead (stop it).

Daft as a brush.

My grandma used to say, " Thuz nowt ner queerer tha folk - thuz only me and thee that's reet, an even
thars a bit queer at times".

Gi oer. (give over)

If you were in a spot of bother you were in Dicky's meadow,who the hell was he and where was/is it?

Fenwick wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 8:48 pm

Grandma was fond of saying " followed a muck cart and thought it was a wedding " Still not entirely sure what she meant. Not a local one, but I remember the owner of a hoopla stall at a highland games when I was a kid on holiday saying " the man who ate the boiled ham raw" when a player lost. I assume it meant another sucker !

The muckcart one is usually following the rhetorical question "You know what thought did?" (as an admonishment after somebody had said as maybe an excuse...,."I though...."). There are a couple of alternative answers I believe; only one I recall is along the lines of "planted a feather and thought a bird would grow". The muck cart one is the only one used around Burnley that I ever heard.

Along with "Dicky's meadow", "Soft mick" "Old Bill" etc; one fictitious person who sometimes cropped up in sayings around our family (and this isnt smutty-honest) was "Dicky pink". I think used when a person's name wasnt known/remembered as per Joe Bloggs.