Monday, October 8, 2012

Building site slang

My beloved older brother has worked his entire life on various building sites around Warrington and the North West. Below is a selection of phrases he said are in common use on those building sites. I don't know if these are specific to Warrington, but I would imagine some of them are.

These are priceless, and some of them hilarious. My favourite is Squirrel up:

  • Half chop - finishing work at dinner time on a Friday
  • Early dart - finishing work early
  • Roman spear - finishing work early
  • March past - not going into work on a Monday
  • Put the stones in - the order to finish work, in other words put a couple of shovel of stones and a couple of buckets of water in the cement mixer, then run it to clean the inside of the barrel.
  • Poke - money
  • Tank - money
  • Boxed off - paying for something
  • Maverick - money put aside for an emergency
  • Squirrel up - staying indoor during the winter
  • Where is your next drop - what's the next job
  • Are you in collar - are you in work?
  • Have you got a bend - did you get work
  • Compo - mortar
  • Bucket of shite - bucket of mortar
  • Cod hod - Hod carrier who supervises other hod carriers

Every field of work has its own slang. What's yours?

1 comment:

  1. Hiya Wirelector. Thats a great list.
    Has your brother ever showed his "letter box"?
    This is a saying myself and my friends use(and Im sure other women) when we see a workman bending over with his jeans low down and his shirt rideing up showing the top part of his bum.

    Here are some Lollipop Lady (now school patrol) phrases that I used.Other Lollipops might have varied a bit:
    Window winder: A driver who wound their window down to say something.
    A dasher: a driver who,when he/she saw you getting ready to go to the middle would accelerate past quickly.
    A creeper: A driver who would creep forward slowly as you were crossing children.
    A rat runner: A driver who would turn quickly into a side street to avoid the wait.
    A chatterer: A child who would stand talking with you a long time after arriving to cross.
    A ****** ****** A driver who carries on driving when you are moving into the middle of the road(after giving them plenty of time to stop).

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