Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group / Word Lists / Spennymoor 1940s

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SPENNYMOOR WORDS - 1940s

The following list was taken down by Jean Crocker "in conversation with a lady from Spennymoor concerning words which related to household objects...used normally in her young days," and published in Accent on the North East: Dialect jottings (Darlington, 1983)

back ower bob - a person who never does things in the correct order
bath brick - used to clean and polish steel fenders, and cutlery
blacken - instead of 'clean', for shoes
bleezer - a square of metal big enough to cover the fire place, used to create a draught when starting the fire
braddish - wooden door screen or curtain
brazen ched - a cheeky child
brent or brant stairs - steep stairs

canny gannen - not bad (re a miner's shift)
chewed to death - harassed
clouts - clothes, rags or a good smack
cree - shed, usually for pigeons

dess bed - a large cupboard bed
dolly muck - a very fine coal dust used to bank up fires overnight
to be dowly - to be lonely

habit shirt - piece of cloth with a hole in the centre for head, fastened at sides with tapes. Used for extra warmth
hemmels - the outbuildings of a farm

kist - tool chest [sic] which, when cleaned and polished, was turned into a linen chest

likeness - a photograph
losing out time - when a pit is closed because of a death in the pit, through accident

neuled down - weighed down

old besom - bad tempered woman

plush cloth - used to cover table
pug a nest - to destroy or spoil a [bird's] nest

scoury stone - a product used to whiten the doorstep
set pot - a large iron bowl incased in brick, with a fire underneath, used for boiling
sneck in snout - expression meaning a spanner in the works
sup up, the dog's won - everything is fine today

vine - pencil