Lowland Words & Phrases

[petal]

Lowland British Words and Phrases

The Celts were pushed into Cornwall or Wales by the invading Saxons,and research has shown that the Saxon invasion of Hengist and Horsa was about 200 men in 3 ships. Even the largest group of Cedric and Cynric was only 5 ships and 350 men. Compared to the 25000 men that Julius Caesar sent for the first Roman invasion, or the 100,000 men and cavalry of the Norman invasion, this is a tiny force, and it seems improbable that the Saxons ‘captured’ Britain. Elements of the Celtic language survived, therefore, across the land.
Among the Chiltern Hundred there was an ‘old fashioned way of speaking’, which used odd words and phrases. A farmer, for example, might have a lot of “diddies” working for him - real Romany gypsies who were expert field workers, who expected to be allowed ‘perks’ from the land, but would ‘guard the crop as if their own’. Their time on the farm was mutually beneficial. The word ‘diddies’ derived from the lowland British ‘diddithr’ - meaning a stranger. They were not to be confused with the ‘diddy-coy’, who were also ‘travellers’ or ‘tinkers’ but would steal, leave a trail of mess in their wake and quite a different sort of people. Their name derives from the British ‘diddim-kai’ - meaning ‘worthless dogs’.
In this region of the Thames Valley, the word ‘gypsy’ was also used for those families with specific skills. The name comes from ‘chy-ep-saeri -- “the house of the horse craftsman”.. Such people were skilled in the breeding, breaking and working of horses, on the land, for transport, or at war, and many were members of the ‘Secret Society of Horsemen’. They had their own primitive medicines, and could train a horse so it would not go with anyone apart from its ‘rightful owner’. Up till the 1930s, such people could still be found on the farms - and anywhere where horses might be found.
‘Ruddles pool’ in one area was known to local boatmen as ‘Buddles pool’. The Welsh drovers would get their cattle to swim across the river, to avoid paying the bridge taxes. The ford they used had been important from medieval times. Ruddles pool meant ‘field of the ford’ - but Buddlespool means ‘drowning ford pool. In those times, boats navigated the river by ‘flash locks’, which would be partly dismantled to let a boat down stream, with an enormous rush of water, after which other vessels could be hauled upstream. The rush over water would also cause the stones of the river bed to move, and over time built up the bed to create a ford. The lock keeper would blow a horn when the lock was about to be opened, to warn those on the ford of the impending rush of water - but ‘strangers’ would be unaware of what this meant’. - and might therefore be drowned on the ford. Farmers even kept pigs on the fields just below the ford, “to save the cost of a burial”. There is an example from one of the few written references to the lowland British language - a map of the fields around Eton College of 1797. There was a field called ‘cuckoo weir’. Cuckoos are not particularly common there, nor are they especially fond of weirs -- but ‘cuck ow’ is the Welsh for a sailing fishing boat - which is much more relevant to the location.
This language ‘escaped’ being recorded as it was used by people who did not normally write anything down. The yeoman farmer might understand what was said, but would not admit to it for fear of being thought ‘uneducated’ and the working men found it ‘useful’ to have a language that the squire, the parson or the beadle could not understand.

[Victoria]

hello Petal,
I don't know where you got your information from but the word "Diddicoy" with all its different spellings is a pure Roma word, probably derived from an Indian word. It means and is/was used by Romanies in a derogatory way, for a half breed, or someone who is not a true Roma. ie of mixed blood, a tinker, Irish or otherwise, common gypsy, itinerant traveller.

True Romanies were and are, as you say, not diddicoys, although the general public tends to misuse the word to cover all people who have no single place of abode, and it has done since the 16th century. In the Chilterns or anywhere else, I would challenge that the word "Diddies" was not used to cover all travellers who worked by the hour, day, month, for the new 17th century yeoman class.

Another word which has spread from Hampshire and the South to describe gypsy (not Romany) travellers is "Pikey".
Regards
Victoria

[petal]

Hello Victoria
The info was passed on to me from a colleague at the history society. Thankyou for the corrections. I'll make note and pass them on to him.
I've been looking into the history of towns and villages, rural language and it does seem to vary am awful lot.
Mary

[Victoria]

Hi Mary,
That is the beauty and wonder of the English language and the various dialects. It is forever growing and new words and expressions being introduced. I remember as a child moving from one place in Berkshire to another just 30 miles away, and had difficulty at first understanding what was being said to me, and vice versa. Similarly, later I learned that on the borders of Bucks and Oxon the dialects and words used are totally different within a couple of miles, and often reflect the history of the places. Long may it be so.
Regards
Victoria

[petal]

I do so agree. I've got books on Northamptonshire Dialect and last year put some on the Coffee Room Board to see if anyone could work it out ! I come from that area but even I have to read the books out loud to know what I'm talking about.............lol