Entertainment For Lively Minds
Professional northerner
Posted by Olthwaite on 29 May 2010 - 12:27pm.
Can anyone out-northern me today? I'm off to the West Riding Refreshment Rooms, in Dewsbury, to drink Yorkshire real ales. Then I'm hopping on an Arriva Northern train to Mount Pleasant, Batley, where the Batley Bulldogs rugby league team play their Challenge Cup quarter final. I'll probably have a pie as I watch the pre-match entertainment from a Lady GaGa tribute act - Barmy Lass (actually she's called Lady Is GaGa).
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'Appen,
lad. I'll sithee.
Aye.
Here we are...
right...
I can't beat you on the RL. That trumps everything. We're off to our hometown of Bury tomorrow. Dinner, not lunch, will be taken at a very nice pub in Hawkshaw (hills, oh the hills) which is sometimes frequented by that arch professional northerner, Peter Kay. My starter will be, as always, Bury Black Pudding. I will follow this with meat and potato pie and pickled red cabbage. Being northern I won't bother with a pudding. Unless rhubarb crumble is on. All washed down with a couple of pints of Flat Cap bitter. Or possibly Lancaster Bomber (is it appropriate to name a pint after a weapon of mass destruction? I don't care. My Dad flew one). On Monday, assuming its open on a Bank Holiday, we will repair to the local chippy for steak pudding, chips and pies. And it will, and this is why I referred to Peter Kay, be very moist. During our stay our vowels will have shortened and flattened, our spirits will be refreshed and we will have showered and drank soft water which does not come out the tap looking like milk of magnesia. Then we will reluctanctly head back in the most depressing direction known to man....south.
My old man was born in Bury
in 1921 and lived there with my grandparents until the war. Apparently they ran a tripe shop and lived in the flat above. I only have very sketchy details but your post has made me think I should try and find out some more about my parental home town, I was born way down south in West London but I do feel a connection with the north especially Bury.
As Stuart Maconie says
Northern is not about where you live, it's a cast of mind. Do it, You'll thank yersel'
[I'm writing this looking out onto a rainy North York Moors about 10 miles north of Whitby. Lovely.]
Tripe????
I've not actually lived there since 1975. Even lived in London for a while but still got relatives there. Its a nice place now. Much nicer than I remember as a kid. It was all cotton and paper making, the latter made the town smell of rotten eggs. And the river Irwell was a different colour every day.
One of my least fond memories is being sent to the market to buy tripe every bloody Saturday for my dad's tea. Revolting stuff...not that I ever ate it. There's still a tripe stall on the market if you feel tempted to give it a try. I'd give it a miss and head straight to the fish market and Katsouries delicattessen. French markets? rubbish. Not a patch on Bury market
'We will repair to the local chippy for steak pudding...'
What a lovely phrase - although I am slightly surprised you are not having fish and chips wi' bits and a barmcake!
There was a chippy in
Huddersfield called "Wi' Bits"
Don't know if it's still there, mind.
what's a barmcake?
in Bury they're called muffins. Nowt to do with those weird things Americans insist on putting chocolate chips and blueberries in. and strictly speaking its Babbie's yed wi' pea mixture. Might have a scallop or two as well. A proper scallop being, of course, two slices of potato deep fried in batter. Wonder if I could get away with that on Masterchef
Londoners dream of having a language as rich as ours
Barmcake/muffin/teacake/breadcake - so many words for a bread roll
Not forgetting
bap.
divvent forget
the stottie!
My whippet wears a flat cap
Yorkshire?! Lancashire??!!
...bloody effete Southerners.
There's a
North?
:-)
As I said to my pupils...
as they sat moaning and shivering in a cold classroom during the long winter: 'You're all soft southerners - this is sunbathing weather in Leeds!'
Bring yer wellies
Silly buggers pronounce my place of birth Kearsly as K-ear-sly when any fule know it's K-ur-sley.
I'm visiting the northern branch of the Drake clan
And I'm at the Saddleworth Round Table Beer Walk, which takes in villages such as Delph, Diggle & Dobcross. About 1000 northerners - many bare-chested or wearing bikinis for various fancy dress costumes - are walking 13 miles and visiting 13 pubs, all in the freezing cold and pouring rain. I have seen a man dressed as Elvis, being pulled along on a toilet.
But then again, I'm just watching, so I must be a poncey southerner...
I expect you saw my other half then
he was one of the Jackson Five - four white men in afro wigs carrying a gold coffin. The shame.
Yes, yes I did see t'Jackson lads!
I asked them why they were doing the beer walk, and they blamed it on the boogie.
That'll be the Whit Friday walks...
Through the villages mentioned above and more and through Tameside towns like Stalybridge, Ashton, Dukinfield and Mossley and including renditions from local brass bands. It's been going since 1870
Call yourself Northeners?
No mentions yet of flat caps. And surely a game of crown-green bowls should be in there somewhere?
Never
trust a crown-green bowler under thirty.
Alas my Northern credentials are slipping today...
Am currently sat on a line between Liverpool and Manchester that runs perilously close to the Runcorn/Widnes conurbation.
However I have just repaired to the study nursing a lightly chilled San Miguel, having slaved over a large pan of meat that will later form the basis of a fine lasagne.
Consequently I have mostly been finely chopping some tasty pancetta and fresh basil, simmering the meat in a smooth organic passata and debating whether the addition of some finely chopped sundried tomatoes might be a touch de trop.
I'll be sure to get some haslet and brawn in for me snap tomorrow though.
Happen.
I'll go t'foot
of our stairs
Stairs? STAIRS?!
You were lucky - we used t' dream of 'aving stairs in t' cardboard box all ten of us lived in...
Shared a flat
up in't Dundee wi Yorksheerm'n from 77 t'81, reet gradley flatmate but we never keep in touch, shame. I still pepper my speach and typing wi sum o'is sayins, it allas 'appens, n' can't 'elp it. He looked after us flat and got me through 4 traumatic years. Wherever you are (he's a lecturer at Leeds Uni) Howie, I wish thee well lad.
Spent my first 35 years
stubbornly living in Preston, reluctantly moved to Lancaster after pressure from my wife, (who had moved to Preston from Edinburgh and hated it). Still mutter about missing 'home'.
Common as muck
One is soo pleased to be able to attend the next Massive soiree in leafy Cheshire, away from the riff raff of "the north" with their whippets and sugar butties.
Actually Bury is a bloody great place to visit. Home of the Bury Black Pudding Company, currently producing 38 tonnes of the delicacy each week. One of the directors, now retired, still does talks on the subject, The Other Black Beauty, and all proceeds go to the charity I work for. Gradely.
Also
home town of the mighty Neviller :-)
Can we have a down arrow
for Gary? But not for Phil, he's alright.
I won't hear a word against them
a few years ago we were in a pub just outside Bury. The Black Bull in Greenmount. The entire Neville clan were in there - dad Neville (what were his parents thiking of), mum Jill, Gary, Phil and sister Tracey. As per usual in Bury they were being roundly ignored. My son decided he desperately needed the gents. So being 5 he legged it across the pub and collided with Phil who had just bought a round of drinks. My son barged into him and my first thought, as the drinks flew into the air, was "he went down easily". They were nice as pie about it and even bought my son and little girl an ice cream. Nice people. Mind you Phil was out injured for a few weeks.
Northern delights
I'm lucky enough to live in north Bury, very close to where Stuinwolves enjoyed his black pudding. Mrs Black and I have just been for a 7 mile tramp including a scrumptious sandwich at the Church Inn in Bircle. On the way back we descended into the depths of Bircle Dene, crossed the raging(ish) brook and trod the path past the site of the legenday (ish) Deeply Vale Free Festivals www.deeplyvale.com/memories.htm
It took us 2hrs 20 for the inward leg. For the first 2 hours of that time we walked on waymarked paths without seeing a solitary soul. Reflect on that, next time someone tells you this country is getting too crowded
Know it well
I've just got back from the Red Lion in Hawkshaw but know the Chuch Inn well. good curries. and biggest apple pie and custard in the western world.
Maybe we should start another thread - Memories of Deeply Vale. Steve Hillage, The Ruts, The Fall, Tractor and a girl called Marie from Bispham.
or maybe memories of Ashworth Valley Scout camp. Speaking of Mke Harding.......
Whooooahh!!!!
I am from 'leafy Cheshire' (Chester to be exact), and am very much a Northern lad.
Remains so to south of Crewe.
Bank holiday soul
Going to a Northern soul, mowton dj event at Cord in Manchester today. Should be good.
heck out this guys
Before I head out drnking a good stout in the sunshine before dancing away to some numbers, check out these boys.
There called kid british and do from what i can see they do a mixture of stuff involving mowtown, new form of ska reggae.
Lets us know what you think. Tracks called 'Winner'. It on a new fifa world cup game.
p.s also check out this new group called 'The Like' not really northrn soul but its got a good sixties vibe I like lol
Enjoy your weekend
Kid British, taught them everything they know
I taught three of Kid British journalism on their degree. Great lads all together. Adeo was the topper most lad and a great footballer too.
My Saturday:
I toddled off to Westfield shopping centre, purchased an iPad (it's grrrrreat), had a cappuccino, drove home in the Merc. Watched the Leeds / Wigan game on the TV. Took the dogs for a walk - not a whippet but a Chinese Crested and a Chihuahua. Downloaded an iBook for the iPad. Had a couple of glasses of wine with a nice Chinese takeaway. Played with the iPad while Mrs. F watched Rocky 2. Northern enough?
Merc?
Do you live in Cheshire by any chance? In a bungaloid 'ranch-style home'? :-)
You mean to tell me that people actually live
further north than Cirencester? Ye Gods, do they speak English?
nay lad
we're the english speakers, thou's all bloody french an that. ;)
Well, I'm from Bolton
But I live in Bavaria. Go figure.
if there's just one....
if one song sums up being northern it has to be this
Unfortunately
Batley shipped 70 odd points to the French invaders. Pity.
ah yes but....
how many of the so called Catalans arew actually French? or indeed Catalan?
Was there ever
trouble at mill, lad?
'appen
Aye! one't flaw rods went outta skew on'treadle
Wooly Backs and Soft Southerners
The North may be a place unknown to you Shandy Pants toffs, and somewhere where wooly backs compare tripe recipes, but those of us in Greater Merseyside know that Liverpool's a state of mind.
Sorry for the self publicising nonsense but Paul Du Noyer offered his thoughts about Liverpool v London to me here.
Chippy dinner. Me? Chicken curry + rice and chips (half and half). Proper order.