How Royal Enfield workers talked

Slang words and phrases always fascinate me.

 The Three Lions Pub in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, advertises itself as an authentic British pub. 

The decor certainly makes an effort, including a clever framed sign, "I Want to Be British, Then I Could Say..." And then it lists and defines some pretty familiar slang expressions. 

You will recognize most of them. 

But see if you recognize these additional Britishisms below (definitions are at the end of this item). 

I came across them (and had to look them up on the Internet) while reading outtakes from Anne Bradford's book "Royal Enfield, The Story of the Company and the People Who Made It Great, 1851-1969." 

Bradford's book is composed of conversational contributions from the people who worked in Royal Enfield's UK factories up to 1969. Their language is sprinkled with delightful terms of that place and time.

Do you know what they mean?

"My foreman was Harry Hay, he was a proper toff." — Wilf Kinchin

"Those of us who were not on tour used to doss down on the factory floor by the old cost office." — Wilf Kinchin

"In those prewar days nearly everybody had an allotment and a 'pig on the wall.'" — Edna Kinchin

"Apprentices were not, as a general matter, treated as navvies." — Mac McGowan

"I used to collect up the orders for the canteen from the men and get their Tizer." — Mervyn Panting

"We finished stocking after two days and spent the rest of the week doing crosswords and playing noughts and crosses." — Mervyn Panting

"I've never known a palaver like it!" — Raymond Jones

"Being a stroppy youngster..." — Paul Savage

"They went into twinsets and straight skirts and that was it." — Sally Hawthorne

"He was as fair as he could be in those days  —  a foreman had to be the gaffer." — Wilf Kinchin

"We went in two charabancs." — Harry Hughes

"He was a tubby man, a bit shandy." — Louise Challice

"Albert was off sick, he was probably swinging the lead." — John Latter

"If you wanted you could have a ha'porth of milk in your tea." — Bert Wedgebury

"The Tannoy had been installed during the war to warn the workers if any enemy planes were coming over." — Eddie Wright

DEFINITIONS

Proper toff — Stylishly dressed upper class man.

Doss down — Bed down in a convenient place.

Pig on the wall — A joking phrase about a simpleton lifting a pig so it could look over a wall to see a passing parade, but in context it seems more likely the meaning here is that the family had a dressed and smoked pig in the larder.

Navvies — Common laborers.

Tizer — Citrus flavored orange soft drink.

Noughts and crosses  — Tic-tac-toe.

Palaver — A fuss.

Stroppy youngster — A difficult or contrary child.

Twinsets —  A matching pair of women's sweaters, a pullover and a cardigan, intended to be worn together.

Gaffer — Manager. Context here is that the foreman had to take charge.

Charabancs — Horse drawn or open topped coaches.

Shandy — Redheaded.

Swinging the lead — Dodging work. A sailor tasked with measuring the depth of the water would swing a lead weight ahead on a knotted rope and then, when the ship passed directly over the lead, now on the bottom, announce its depth. Pulling up the weight was hard work, so the sailor would swing the rope as long as he could get away with before letting it fly.

Ha'porth — A halfpenny's worth; in other words, not very much.

Tannoy — The first public address system of loud speakers for buildings.