Article Number Three in Hook History Society’s Lockdown Series.

The famous Landsker line which runs approximately from Newgale in the north to Amroth on the county’s south coast was originally a boundary set by the land grabbing Normans as they drove the indigenous Welsh from the agriculturally rich lowlands of south Pembrokeshire. To ensure the warrior like Welsh were kept in their place a string of fortifications were built along the boundary which became the Landsker line.

North of the line was predominately Welsh speaking and the southern side English to the degree it became widely known as Little England beyond Wales. The spoken language in this area was influenced by Normans; Flemish; English; Welsh and a noticeable west country input. Such was the unusual spoken word that in 1924 a dictionary of south Pembrokeshire words ran to 27 pages. Talking of the west Country it was two men from this area that introduced compass net fishing to the village.

With increased means of communication.....radio and then in the early 1950’s television....and with the introduction of the railway and readily available motor transport...the usage of the old eccentricities of language slowly diminished. Strongholds were somewhat isolated villages like Marloes; Angle Llangwm and of particular interest to us the community of Hook.

The Old Lingo

In Hook, until comparatively recently, it was not unusual to hear the old south Pembs lingo.................an example would be.

How’s a gwain? Hast tha come across the new fla from up the line yet ? .They say his father came across the fields.

Get thee away fla.

Ah drop dead.............its no old dullery.

Roughly translated:

How are you. Have you met the new man from South Wales. I’ve heard it said he’s illegitimate.

I don’t believe it.

Honestly.............I’m telling the truth.

Another:

Whet tha gwain maid..dost tha Mam know where tha gwain?

Where are you going girl? Does your Mam know where you are going?

Also it was far from unusual to hear a conversation along these lines................”How’s the missus?”....................”A there she is like. Fair to middlin.”

“Still under the doctor? .....Why aye boy. Been under’n for days but still in ramping pain.”

A Lord's Tale

Gordon Parry, who lived at Port Lion and sat in the Lords as Parry of Neyland, had a favourite tale to illustrate the eccentricities of the south Pembrokeshire dialect and that was...”See that big tree over there .............I’m gwain to chop’n down now and then I’m gwain to chop’n up.” When Lord Parry was Chair of the Wales Tourist Board he delight in dropping into the south Pembrokeshire dialect to amuse visiting journalists including one tale about outside toilets and barbecues, which I hesitate to relate here!!

My favourite and I fear oft repeated tale was when I first came to live in Hook in the early 1960’s an elderly gentleman, who had been associated with village cricket since he himself was a boy, was told of an Australian fast bowler who had come to work in the area and was looking for a team.

“Problem is”, he was told “the Aussie takes a massive run up when he bowls.” The old boy replied in all seriousness, “Never mind the run up I’ll cut a slop in hedge and the bugger can start in the road.”

In the days when the hearth and an open fire, with an oven alongside, was the only source of heating and cooking the fire in Hook was invariably run on a fuel made of culm balls. That is more or less coal dust mixed with clay or sometimes river mud and shaped into balls. It was a job that meant the clay and coal dust was mixed by hand as was the shaping of the mixture into balls. Against this background it is little wonder if anyone appeared to be dirty they were described as “black as balls”.

Hook culm was “exported” from Hook Quay up to ten tons at a time to many parts of rural Pembrokeshire.

It was also strange that women of all ages were described as “maids” and there was the frequent use of the pronouns thee and thou. ........although the latter has seemed to have died out this last 20 years or so.

Not sure it is relevant to an article about language of yesteryear but while researching I came across the following in the locally published book entitied Below the Landsker:

"According to the Rev Thomas Watts of Haverfordwest writing in 1861: I have lived among the heathen people, but I solemnly declare that I have never heard, even among an ignorant negro population, language which could for its vileness and indecency, be compared with that used by women of Llangwm."

Sure this language was reserved for nosey b****** stanjers!!

There is also a reference in the book to the custom which involved children tying the gate of the place of worship where the wedding ceremony had been performed preventing the newlyweds passing through until a toll was paid by throwing a handful of coins for the children to scramble for. Not sure if this is still the practice today but it cost me a few shillings when Janet and I were married in Mount Zion in the 1960’s.

A brief listing of some of the words of yesteryear:

Storm..........gossip
Slop......... gap in the hedge
Pyat .........magpie
Scadly........greedy
Dysel.........thistle
Kift............clumsy
Eager..........sharp
Fla..........fellow
Caffle.........tangle
Culf............chunk
Burgage,,,,,,,,,small furzey field
Creath........scar
Swelter......hot as in weather
Croglins......... small potatoes
Evil...........hay fork
Gorral guts.........greedy/glutton
Penny sow..............woodlouse
Drang.......narrow lane
Pill............tidal creek
Mandrel.................pickaxe
Flush.........wealthy
Cack handed......clumsy
Dab handed..........expert
Pelting down......heavy rain
Tamping...........furious
Crut.....................young child
Frit..........................very small
All to clush.....unsettled
Druke......... handle to start engine
Grip......................a ditch
Clod.......lump of earth
Coffins...........open cast mines
Brammer..........a big object
Bittie............little
Scaddly pluck......scramble for sweets (for example)
Emmocks.............ants
Black starving.....very hungry
Like a hen in barley......very untidy mess
Furze................................gorse
Headland.........edge of field
Croft.....small field near house
Jom.........................gatepost
Grig.............to pinch
Murfles......................freckles
Brammer...................impressive
Capswabble...........nonsense, untrue
Cadge.................scrounge
Catamouse....................bat

A great deal has been written about the south Pembrokeshire dialect and the way of life in the area when such language was in common usage, but highly recommended reading is BELOW THE LANDSKER. It is an introduction to the dialect; place names and folk lore of the south Pembrokeshire and is written by Robert Scourfield and Keith Johnson. Both Messrs Johnson and Scourfield have been guest speakers with Hook History Society. Another of the Society’s supporters is Dr Simon Hancock who has also written about the old language of south Pembrokeshire and provided useful background for this article.

Hope this frit of a write up as’nt caffled ya. Drop dead tis not capsabble......................well not all of it.!!!

Written by Richard Howells 2020.