27 sayings only uttered in the Black Country – how many do you know?

What we say, and how we say it, defines who we are.

And nowhere as much as the Black Country – there was a time, well most of time, people and whole towns did not want to be part of the Black Country.

Now, everyone wants to be part of the Black Country, we even have a flag.

But if you hear these sayings and have no-idea what is being said, then can you be from the Black Country?

Pig On Wall

As in "blimey, Bobby's got his gladrags on, put the pig on the wall". Believed to date back over 150 years, putting the pig on the wall is not slang, it is descriptive, it means putting an actual pig on a wall. Why? Well, so the porky part of the family does not miss out on whatever everyone else is enjoying.

A picture postcard was published in 1875 of a parade in honouring hero Captain Webb becoming the first man ever to swim the English Channel, however, the moustachioed muscle man was not what captured the public's imagination, it was a pig on a wall watching proceedings.

Copies were made of the postcard, poems added, and places and names were changed, it was like the Victorian version of going viral, and after that the pig on wall became synonymous with Gornal, and the Black Country, not Dawley in Shropshire where the parade, pig, photographer and the swimmer were all from.

However, like the perfect 'meme' or GIF that perfectly encapsulates a global scandal, it was a poem added to the picture postcard which created the urban legend.

"Who put the pig on the wall at Gornal to see the band go by. Was it Billy the Boy, Jimmy the Go, Clockweight, Billy on Tho'b, The Pokey Mon or Jacko, Tasso, Cogger, Blossom, Jackery? No, it was Johhny Longstomach."

Now, Pig on the Wall is one of Black Country Ales best selling beers, so the saying is repeated every day at the bar in hundreds of Midlands pubs, it is an English dark mild ale style beer brewed in Dudley, which goes perfectly well with pork scratchings.

Round the Wrekin

As in "the cowing M6 is closed again, we'll have to go round the Wrekin now". Again, no rhyming slang or play on words, it is descriptive, because to go round the Wrekin is, to go round Shropshire wanna-be mountain The Wrekin.

As opposed to walking through the secret tunnel underneath it or being catapulted over it, round the Wrekin means going the long way round.

Fittle

Fancy some fittle? Faggots and peas, pork scratchings, bacon and grey peas, bread pudding, they are all fittle.

Fittle basically means Food Fit For Human Consumption!

And what washes down fittle nicely, a bit of Council Pop, or tap water as most people know it.

Cob

Down south they roll with it, up north they are barmy for a balm, but in the Black Country it is, and always will be a cob.

Cobs can be made at home but the "fresh cob" is at home behind the bar of proper pubs, not Gastro-pubs or hostelries which sizzle which enlist a focus group to create a menu. Cheese and onion is the classic, there could be a fire drill or a police raid, even both, and the cheese and onion cob would still taste as nice as the moment it was suffocated with cling film minutes before opening time.

Ham salad is another classic but they are normally made by an enterprising barmaid for cash in hand and made just before opening. The enemy of the "fresh cob" is the tomato, as over a shift it can turn all around it soggy.

As well as "fresh cobs" there is type which disintegrate into a thousand pieces on first bite, the "crusty cob".

Why the rounded piece of bread is called a cob round here has been lost in time but it is such a staple of life it has become part of other phrases, which have nothing to do with food.

As in "he's got a right cob on" which means bad mood and "she is sweating cobs" which means being hot.

Our beloved "cob" even made it to Hollywood. Shape-shifting, multi-Oscar winning actor Christian Bale uttered the phrase "let's get a cob" in the final moments of Ford v Ferrari when he was playing Midlands race ace Ken Miles in the movie.

Cowing Hell#

As in "Cowing hell, they've got no cobs"

Cakehole

As in "shut yer cakehole", the Black Country term for mouth, which is on your Fizzog! Which is another term for face or head. And if the person gets annoyed about being told to shut their cakehole, they might 'chunter' which means moaning to yourself under your breath.

And if the chunterer will not shut his cakehole, and annoys everyone with his Fizzog, they might be called a Barmpot which means someone who is Saft, a cross between stupid and daft. But, they can be all that and still be your Mucker, who you can greet by saying "hello my old Cocker".

Lamp, lamped, lamping.

As in "he was doing my head in so I lamped him" which means beat up, punch and generally assault. An old Black Country pub joke, uses the phrase. "What do you call a Chinese man with a black eye in Cradley Heath? Wo-Lamped-Chow?

A lamping could be the end result of a Straightner, which is when two men, well, normally men, decide to settle an argument physically, one on one. And anyone who does get lamped will most likely end up with their a*** in their hand, which in the Black Country means being in a bad mood.

Blartin' or Barlin'

If you are a proper Tittybabby, that means you cry a lot. But here we would not say "he/she is crying" it would be he/she is blartin'.

But thanks to the influx of West Indian immigrants to the West Midlands, who have added their own words to our vernacular, then an alternative to blartin' is barlin', as in the "the pitney is barlin'" (the child is crying).

Obviously, one of the main contributions to sentence construction by our West Indian friends is the almost ubiquitous use of "man" at the end of saying something, I know I do it without realising, man.

Islands

It appears everyone else, in the world calls "islands" roundabouts. How weird of them all.

It led to confusion when the Government announced Black Country Route was getting statues on all the main roundabouts, like Pegasus and the others celebrating our industrial past.

Thankfully, all the statues and lumps of metal which meant something were in fact, put on the islands. And those things between houses, they are not alleys in the Black Country but gulleys, anywhere else and no-one would have a Scooby Doo (not a clue) what you were on about.

The Cut

To others they might be canals, but to us its The Cut. Again this is no rhyming slang, it is descriptive because the canals were literally cut out of the land.

Before railways changed the world there was a period of time when the canal system was like the super highways of the UK, and they transformed the Black Country into an industrial powerhouse.

We had the raw materials, and the industrial geniuses to turn it into products wanted all over the world. In the late 18th Century and early 19th Century the canals cut through the land to connect Black Country brilliance to everywhere. A port was even built in landlocked Dudley.

Canal life carried on long after railway and roads left canals back in the history books, families made their living off the water into the mid 20th Century.

There are still canal boat yards and mechanics fixing boats in Tipton to this day. If you are on the train between Dudley Port and Tipton you can see exactly what canal life would have been like and what bit remains.

Gambol or Gambowl

Now, this could be an interloper from Birmingham, but we say it in the Black Country too, and nowhere else in the world says it, or knows what it means.

Which is a forward roll. Not, a cob type of roll but a physical rolling forward motion. But more people might find out about Gambols shortly because one of the hottest bands in Birmingham are called Shaun Gambowl Walsh and The Plagiarists.

They do a souped up cover version of the BBC's snooker theme called Where Is the White Ball Going which has been known to get an entire crowd gamboling in unison. Another song references another of our terms, "spread". As in a conversation starter at funeral, "nice spread" after a knowing look at the buffet.

Bostin'

With our fittle, faggots, cobs, roundabouts and various ways to tell a Barmpot to shut his cakehole we can all agree its Bostin' to live in the Black Country.

When stuff works and they are not Bost, which is another word for broken or smashed, which is why some people believe Bostin' means smashing, either way you only hear it a few miles either side of M6 Junction 7.

Bab

As in "alright bab, how's it going." East Midlands has "duck", the south west "lover", Essex "darlin" but here we use the term "bab".

It survived any charges of mmisogynyor over familiarity to remain a friendly greeting, to a woman, without any intention to offend, patronise or threaten. It did not just survive, it thrived, there are fashion labels, interior design brands who have appropriated "bab", and saying it will identify you as coming from Birmingham or the Black Country.

Alright?

Obviously Alright is not a Black Country phrase, or even a Birmingham one. But in a lifetime, the average person in the Black Country will say it thousands of times more than people from elsewhere. That is because elsewhere they use the word as a description, whereas we use it as a greeting, or acknowledgement.

You would not say "Alright" to a mucker, because you would stop to chat, whereas "alright", is said to those who you are not going to stop and chat to, it is said whilst walking, or passing someone after catching their eye.

The milkman, the bloke who was a milkman for a week and you only saw once, the fella with gammy (broke, bost, deformed) leg who you stopped the bus driving off so he could get on eight years ago, he is someone you would say "alright" to.

Basically, anyone you have met before, seen before, anywhere, or at anytime, but you don't really want to, or need to, get to know further, then "alright" is the greeting used to acknowledge them and not ignore them. Obviously, you do not say the whole word, "Alright", that would be overkill, so over years it has been shortened to a raise of the eyebrows and "ight", they know what you mean. Alright? Right.

Have another go....

"Alright bab, I thought I'd end up in The Cut before getting off that island, had to go right round the Wrekin, now, you got any fittle? Faggots or even just a cob? I need to fill my cakehole before I get a right cob on."