Gret Booby's Burden, or, nicknames of Old Todmorden
Aug 16
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A short but sweet blog post today, marvelling at some of the tidbits found in John Travis's Notes (Historical and Biographical) Mainly of Todmorden and District.
This book is a fantastic compilation of, well, notes historical and biographical relating to Todmorden. It was published in 1896 by the author, a lifelong resident of Walsden who had been busy over the years putting together family pedigrees and other short histories of various parts of the town. He was a funny man who knew how to find the humour in any story, and no more so than his asides throughout the 386-page book about individual lives and exploits.
One of the longer explanations of a nickname is found in the paragraph about Abraham Crossley of Bottoms, who as a small boy was taken by a visiting soldier nicknamed "Tickler" to the extent that he called the next soldier who passed him on the road "Tickler" and was thereby given the nickname.
In due time Abraham was put to the mechanics trade, married, and had a family of children, who all bore the name, being called Mary Tickler, Sam Tickler, Jack Tickler, and often by folks who did not know that it was not the proper one. None of the family were over-shamed of the name either. "Tickler" lived to be an old man, always retaining and answering to the name as if he had received it in baptism and had been vouched for by sponsors, or god fathers and mothers.
Most lack explanation altogether though.
Nicknames, as Travis says, "were given to people in these parts of the district from trivial circumstances such as a misplaced word or other slip of the tongue in talking to companions" although this wasn't always the case. They could come from a parent - Sam o' Nell's - or a job - Poll at th' Shop, aka Mary Fielden who ran a shop on Water Street with her brothers. Some took a little more explaining, such as John Midgley who was known as Jack o'th bar - not because of his main job, shoemaker, but because he lived at the Toll House on Halifax Road leading out of town. Think toll bar. Some nicknames, however, both defy explanation as Travis says, and are presented without further clarification. Butty i'th Dean? Shinny Jimmy? Winsley Boggard?? Th' Edgeside Lawyer???
Travis ends these four pages of strangeness with a final note which more or less sums up the nature of nicknames in this part of Calderdale:
There were three brothers in Todmorden of the name of Dawson, namely: Abraham, Joseph and John, who somehow got known as Abley, Tubley and Thribley. Another family of four brothers, named William, John, Samuel and Thomas, were altered as they grew on to manhood to Billity, Johnaty, Sammaty and Tommaty; such sub-names being used without anybody caring or knowing the reason why.
Because ultimately it was about a sense of community, wasn't it - knowing your neighbours meant no one really needed to know where the name came from. Using someone's nickname without question or irony meant you were identifying yourself as part of the town, an insider, and someone with sufficient interconnectedness to call themselves a "local".
We're sure there are other volumes here in Local Studies which have nicknames of various residents of various towns included in them. Tell us if you want someone to hunt down a similar list for your part of Calderdale and we'll see what we can find!
