Sussex Slang and Dialect

[Curious Orange]

I think Twitten's are a sussex/ Brighton word for (steep) paths. When Brighton was built these rights of way were preserved and the twitten's remained.

LC

So how comes the twitten just down the road from my Grandparents house in Burgess Hill that led to the park was flat?

 

[Curious Orange]

Not a word but Stoolball is a game that is unique to Sussex!

I've seen it played in Surrey on many occasions.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Bostel.

Another type of Sussex road - going up the downs the steep way.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Not a word but Stoolball is a game that is unique to Sussex!

AKA poo-marbles?

 

[Curious Orange]

AKA poo-marbles?

Nah, stoolball involves posts with square targets on top, funny spoon shaped clubs, and is usually played by girls.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

AKA poo-marbles?

No.

What is Stoolball?

The game of stoolball, more that 500 years old, is the forerunner of the modern game of cricket, being played with similar equipment on any grass area with a 90 yard diameter boundary. The actual pitch is 16 yards in length. Bowling is underarm from a bowling crease 10 yards from the batsman's wicket and teams consist of 11 players either Ladies or Mixed.

Records show that the game was played in 1450 and it is mentioned in the classic book "Don Quixote". The game also cropped up in 1656 in a pronouncement by the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland which said that 'too much attention was being paid to "shooting, playing at football, stoolball, wrestling"'.

The modern rules of stoolball were consolidated at a meeting at Glynde in East Sussex in 1881. Before that time East Sussex played with the wickets 16 yards apart and the bowling crease at 8 yards, halfway between the wickets; West Sussex played with the wickets 13 yards apart with the bowler having to bowl from 13 yards. East Sussex won the day on the length of pitch; 16 yards was adopted, and there was a compromise on the bowling crease with the meeting settling on 10 yards, the current ruling.

During the 10 years after WWI, Major W.W.Grantham organised, with the permission of the M.C.C. Committee, a series of annual games at Lord's Cricket Ground with the last game on Saturday September 24th 1927 played between Major Grantham's Own XI and the Japanese Embassy; Major Grantham's team won by 53 runs.

One of the advantages of the game as far as schools are concerned is that it is comparatively cheap, and does not need an immaculately maintained pitch, in fact the equipment can be set up on a playground if necessary. The wickets are wooden boards on stakes and the ball, aimed at the wicket, does not pitch. Eleven a side usually play the game, with one side fielding and the other batting. The bat is the shape of a table tennis bat, made of willow with a long, sprung and spliced handle.

The scoring and rules are similar to those of cricket, with the batting side defending the wickets. There are runs, boundaries, catches and run-outs, and also 'BBW', body before wicket. One difference from cricket is that there are eight balls to an over.

 

[London Calling]

So how comes the twitten just down the road from my Grandparents house in Burgess Hill that led to the park was flat?

Because it was a flat twitten.

LC

 

[Curious Orange]

No.

What is Stoolball?

The game of stoolball, more that 500 years old, is the forerunner of the modern game of cricket, being played with similar equipment on any grass area with a 90 yard diameter boundary. The actual pitch is 16 yards in length. Bowling is underarm from a bowling crease 10 yards from the batsman's wicket and teams consist of 11 players either Ladies or Mixed.

Records show that the game was played in 1450 and it is mentioned in the classic book "Don Quixote". The game also cropped up in 1656 in a pronouncement by the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland which said that 'too much attention was being paid to "shooting, playing at football, stoolball, wrestling"'.

The modern rules of stoolball were consolidated at a meeting at Glynde in East Sussex in 1881. Before that time East Sussex played with the wickets 16 yards apart and the bowling crease at 8 yards, halfway between the wickets; West Sussex played with the wickets 13 yards apart with the bowler having to bowl from 13 yards. East Sussex won the day on the length of pitch; 16 yards was adopted, and there was a compromise on the bowling crease with the meeting settling on 10 yards, the current ruling.

During the 10 years after WWI, Major W.W.Grantham organised, with the permission of the M.C.C. Committee, a series of annual games at Lord's Cricket Ground with the last game on Saturday September 24th 1927 played between Major Grantham's Own XI and the Japanese Embassy; Major Grantham's team won by 53 runs.

One of the advantages of the game as far as schools are concerned is that it is comparatively cheap, and does not need an immaculately maintained pitch, in fact the equipment can be set up on a playground if necessary. The wickets are wooden boards on stakes and the ball, aimed at the wicket, does not pitch. Eleven a side usually play the game, with one side fielding and the other batting. The bat is the shape of a table tennis bat, made of willow with a long, sprung and spliced handle.

The scoring and rules are similar to those of cricket, with the batting side defending the wickets. There are runs, boundaries, catches and run-outs, and also 'BBW', body before wicket. One difference from cricket is that there are eight balls to an over.

As I said, stoolball involves posts with square targets on top, funny spoon shaped clubs. The women at North Holmwood Cricket Club used to play, I used to watch that and the cricket from my parents' bedroom window, which overlooked the ground. I do remember playing stoolball at middle school a couple of times, the rules are very similar to cricket.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The kit needed for stoolball

 

[Meade's Ball]

I remember stoolball now.
Thank you.

I'll send you the link for poo-marbles in the morrow.

 

[Skaville]

'ank is a classic! That reminds me of the school... playing stoolball
just for "the 'ank".

 

[Sergi Gotsmanov]

jasper - wasp

Cornwall for this one old son.

They've been calling wasps jaspers for bloody years.

 

[perseus]

Somebody who casts aspersions = Crystal Palace Supporter (from don't throw stones of you live in a glass house).

Also, general insult, anybody who comes from sath London,

 

[Bwian]

You lot are all bloomin' willocky

How about "Timber Toes" which according to my Dictionary of The Sussex Dialect is somebody with a wooden leg or legs

...and yes-I do have said dictionary. Sad innit?

Fluttermouse anybody

 

[dougdeep]

Well bugger me, is old sussex to show suprise(it didn't mean what it does today.

 

[Bobby's Gull]

I have often been mistaken for an aussie by the yanks.

One of my brother's get that. I get asked if I'm from sarf London or have been told that I have a Tonbridge accent, which is basically the same.

 

[perseus]

"We will not be druv" an old Sussex saying.

"Nah, its best to catch the train."

 

[bobbycodpiece]

..."chav" comes from slang for "certain people" fom Chatham in Kent..... a shorter version of "Chatham Average" !

...as for a Brighton accent I think...."we are Bwoiton, super Bwoiton, we are Bwoiton from the sarf !!!!" sums it up nicely !!

 

[Curious Orange]

I got accused of being a cockney by a Welshman once. To be fair, my accent is fairly mixed having lived in the northern climes of Surrey most of my life and I certainly don't have the Brighton accent that a lot of my relatives, on my mother's side, have. My Dad claims he has a Sussex burr, which fits because he grew up in Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill (although I doubt he has a pure mid-Sussex accent as Grandma was a Scot complete with rolling r's and a habit of calling people hen!!).

 

[Sir Royston thorne]

My late father was a fisherman by trade and all the local fishermen used to refer to slightly undersize flatfish as " Spatters"....and the Common Shore Crab much hunted by townies when they get to the seaside were "Addlers"

My mother who is barking hatstand..used to scold me when I had been bad, and threatened to "Marmalise" me !...she never caught me so I never found out !

Current fishing parlance that I know of is to Call Garfish "Sticks"


and Gurnards are "Stompers"