Yorkshire Words Of The Week

When I was a child in Bramley, Leeds, “owpy gee” was used as the word for a horse. I have never heard of “poppo”, quoted as used in South Yorkshire.

From: Ted Connell, Bishop Gray Rise, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire.

Charles Taylor of Hemingfield asks if anyone recalls “poppo” for a horse. We moved to Nottingham in 1933 and I found that a horse was a “bobbo”.

My wife of more than 60 years is a York girl and in her grandfather’s house they only had gas light downstairs.

When going to bed, a candlelight was needed, which he called a “lillilow” – a word noted by Edward Baines in 1832.

From: Charles Taylor, Hemingfield Road, Hemingfield, Barnsley

I was delighted to learn from John Senior’s letter of 17th March that he was familiar with “poppo” for horse (especially among children) and it would seem from his Skelmanthorpe address still possible that it had its origins in the coal mining industry. “Cushy cow” was also commonly used round here as was the call “cush cush”.

Interestingly, there is a lovely tragic ballad written by Jean Ingelow called The High Tide on the coast of Lincolnshire 1571 in which the unfortunate milkmaid Elizabeth, before being drowned by a freak tide is heard:

By the reedy Lindis shore

“Cusha Cusha Cusha!” calling

Ere the early dews be falling

Perhaps this was the Lincolnshire varient?

Finally ‘band in’t nick’ also common round here, and as John Senior surmised, alluded to the driving belt of a machine running in a grooved pulley wheel – meaning a bit like “keeping t’cart on t’ wheels”!

From: Michael Brown, Beech Tree Court, Linton on Ouse, York.

Still on the “band” theme, we were always told if it was necessary to keep things running smoothly to “keep the band in the nick”.

This probably goes back to a previous readers entry on mill work.

My mother used to say of a bow legged person “he couldn’t stop a pig in a passage” and, for some one who was not always forthcoming ,she would say “he’s not at the back of the door when it comes to... (whatever the subject was).