When asked about drink, many of the Survey’s informants talked about home or locally brewed beer and cider. Cider or scrump is mentioned in many of the southern counties, including Devon, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Somerset. Some informants mentioned a costrel (Hereford) or castrel (Monmouthshire) – a small, wooden barrel used for carrying cider to work, or out into the field to refresh workers at snack time.

In Lyonshall, Herefordshire, fieldworker Peter Wright provided detailed drawings of a cider mill and cider press while an informant from Stogumber in Somerset described to fieldworker Stanley Ellis (1926–2009) the process of cider-making from vat to barrel, the price of apples, his orchard and making a cider cheese.

Handwritten notes in a SED response book

In Lyonshall, Herefordshire, fieldworker Peter Wright provided detailed drawings of a cider mill and cider press.
‘Cider Mill and Press in Lyonshall Response Book’ (LAVC/SED/2/2/15/7) by Peter Wright

Sound Recordings, Somerset and Gloucestershire

'Sound Recordings, Somerset and Gloucestershire’ (LAVC/SRE/A636r) by Stanley Ellis.
A transcription for this audio can be found (here)

Many informants recalled the presence of brewhouses and village breweries. In West Yorkshire, John talked about home brewing and homemade wine. He mentioned cowslip wine being used as a cure for measles, and recalled an occasion when he tried to pull up a broom tree to make wine. Wines made from elderberries (also known as bourtree-joan), coltsfoot, oak leaf and dandelion are also mentioned by informants. Haigh Howard, in Holme, West Yorkshire remembered drinking posset made from beer and milk on Christmas morning. Other Christmas tipples he remembered enjoying included whisky, rum and mulled ale. Another informant in Blackawton, Devon remembers a Christmas game of drinking rounds of beer at the same speed it took for the ties binding the faggots (sticks) in the fire to burn.

A range of terms were recorded that describe someone who has overdone it with the home brew, including fresh (Staffordshire), paralytic (Dorset), one over the eight (Berkshire), tight, market fresh and brassen (Yorkshire). If a nice restorative cup of tea is required the following day, the fieldworkers also gathered terms used for brewing tea, with northern counties using mask or mash, and southern counties wet or soak. 

 

A map

Some of the survey results were made into dialect word maps showing the spread of words across regions. This map shows the distribution of words meaning to brew tea. Depending on where you live, you may mash, mask, wet or soak your morning cuppa!

‘SED Word Map: To Brew Tea’ (LAVC/PHO/S006) by Harold Orton

What do you call?

 

What do you call the bits of fried batter that are left behind after the fish has been fried in a chip shop?

Fifty different terms were recorded by the fieldworkers for this, including cracklings, scraps, scratchings, crittens and flitters. Have a look at the map and see if your term features. 

A map


‘SED Word Map: Scraps’ (LAVC/PHO/S032)

A map

: "SED Word Map : Snack" (LAVC/PHO/SO49). Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, Leeds University Library under CC-BY-NC 4.0

 

If you stop for a snack between breakfast and lunch, what do you call this?

The 41 terms collected for ‘snack’ included elevenses, ten o clock, bait, crib, nuncheon, snap, sneck and forenoons. Is the term you use featured on the map? 

Two people standing in front of buildings

Have your say

Dialect is an important part of our culture and heritage. Whether you mash your tea for your elevenses or like scraps with your chips, or even if you don’t use any of these terms, the way we speak and the words we use reveal much about where we are from and where we have been. If you are feeling inspired by all these tasty treats and have a few words and dishes you would like to contribute, find out how you can share your dialect.

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Food for thought

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