Walking like a northerner
Ey up! ‘Ow do. Nice weather for it, in’t it?
Hello again. How have your strolls and scribbles been coming along since we last met? As always, I hope you’re feeling inspired to walk and write.
Walking
In 2021, Natural England launched a refreshed version of The Countryside Code: the official guide to enjoying nature in a respectful way. It’s a wonderfully simple guide, which pairs sensible advice like ‘take your litter home’ with an encouraging invitation to ‘enjoy your visit, have fun, make a memory’. As a copywriter, I’ve rewritten and edited a fair few codes of conduct and I wish more organisations wanted to make them this clear, simple and enjoyable to follow.
But the thing I love most about The Countryside Code is this line, which comes under the ‘Respect everyone’ principle:
be nice, say hello, share the space
It’s way more than a rule to follow when you’re out in nature, isn’t it? It’s a philosophy for life. And when we northerners are out and about we live it. It’s an unwritten Northern Law to nod, smile, say hello and pass the time of day with the people we meet while we’re out – whether we’re up a hill, by a river or simply goin’ down rerd to the shops. Even if we sometimes terrify Londoners with our Northern friendliness!
So for your next outing, I want you to walk like a northerner. Each time you pass someone, try and catch their eye, nod to them, give them a friendly smile and, if it feels right, say hello and maybe pause to chat.
To make this a bit more interesting, I’ve created a Northern Lingo Bingo card, with some of the things you might hear from a northerner when you stop to chat with one:
If you’d like to join me in a bit of fun, see if you can weave some of these phrases into your walk as you meet people on the path. If you’re not northern, or actually in The North, you might want to use the non-northern equivalents (see below)1. Because we don’t want to make this weird, do we?
Writing
I’m from Hull – a Yorkshire city with an unmistakably unique dialect. If you wan’t from ‘ull you probably wunt understand a wod of what I’m sayin’ if I dint translate it into Proper English for yer.
To prove my point, here are some typical Hull phrases:
Gizza croggy
Larkin out down tenfoot
Fern curl
Err nerr, it’s snerr
Bool the bain
Pattie and a breadcake
Bags to go foggy
Your writing task is to pick one of these phrases and invent a definition for it. No cheating here, please – it shouldn’t be the real definition. The fun ‘ere is to mek summat up.
So if you think one of the phrases sounds like a band name then have a go at writing about your imaginary band: who’s in it, where they’re from, the type of music they make and that time they played at Glastonbury and caused a scandal. Or maybe one of them is a character whose tale you want to tell, or it’s the name of that new hipster cafe where they serve coffee out of vintage slippers. You get the idea.
I’d love to hear what you come up with, so feel free to share your chosen phrase and its definition in the comments below. Then in my next post, I’ll let you know what they ‘really’ mean.
Ta’ ra for now.
Sarah
A short guide to some of the northern phrases you might hear on the trails:
Ey up! – hello and good day to you, fellow traveller
It’s nitherin’ – I say, it’s terribly cold outside today
’Ow do – how are you? And also used as hello. Confusing, innit?
Where you traipsin’ off to? – might I enquire as to where you are heading?
It’ll tek yonks to get there – my goodness, it’ll take an awfully long time to arrive at your destination
It’s maftin’ – it’s so hot I’m sweating uncontrollably
Don’t cockle ova – be careful not to twist your ankle
Ta’ ra – so long, farewell, goodbye, cheerio
