Bristle*

Bristol has two railway stations that are served by trains to and from London.  The more famous one is Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Victorian gothic masterpiece - Temple Meads, the other one is Bristol Parkway, for many years merely a large shed at the side of the track.  These days it is much fancier and modern, and in many ways is far more 'upmarket' than good old Temple Meads.  There are two reasons why I usually arrive in Bristol via Parkway - 1. the journey time from London is 20 minutes shorter as the train goes directly from Swindon to Bristol Parkway (unlike the Temple Meads route which also stops at Chippenham and Bath), and 2. the recorded message in the lift has been done by someone with the most wonderful Bristol accent.  Whenever I hear that Farmer Giles-type voice intoning 'Dorrrrrs closing, firrrrrst florrrr', I know I'm back home.

I never liked having a Bristol accent when I was younger as someone with a West Country accent was always portrayed in the media as being a complete idiot with a piece of straw hanging out of their mouths (not helped by The Wurzels or course).  I always wished I spoke with a 'witty and with-it' Liverpool or Geordie accent.  These days it seems to be quite cool to have a West Country accent with people like Justin Lee Collins and Stephen Merchant making it quite trendy to speak 'Bristle'.  Those two even do voice-overs on adverts now, and not just for 'rural' products like butter - something I never thought I'd hear.

I realise I must retain quite a robust Bristol accent as now I live in Essex I'm quite often asked 'Where do you come from?', or 'You're not from round here, are you?'  And this is despite me never using the word 'gert' to describe something as big or excessive.  Nor, saying the famous Bristol phrase - 'Where's it to then?', meaning where is that?  But I do still refer to shoes you would wear for doing P.E. as 'daps' instead of plimsolls - I mean if you don't have daps you can't have a 'dap-bag' to keep them in!!  In fact, I never realised 'daps' was not used all over the country until I went to college aged 19 and found only me and a girl from Somerset knew what I was talking about.  When I'm cold I say I'm 'shrammed'.  Snow that stays on the ground is 'pitching' rather than 'settling'.  And small children's hands will forever be known to me as 'pudds' or 'mitts'.  I can remember first reading Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' when I was doing my A Levels, and being amazed that they felt the need to include a translation of some of the West Country words because it all made perfect sense to me.

I love the way some Bristolians really mangle the language with phrases such as 'I said to she, and then she said to I', and 'how bist be?'.  Then there is the catch-all greeting of 'alright?' which means anything and everything from 'how are you?' to 'hello, nice to meet you'.  And added to this is the habit of calling even perfect strangers 'my love' or 'my lover', something I've done in Essex to, say, helpful shop assistants - which does attract some rather odd looks.

These days far from being ashamed of my Bristol accent, I'm really proud that I speak with a West Country burr and I hope it never gets lost or subsumed by the local Essex 'estuary English'.  Perhaps I'll even take up using the word 'gert' and see if anyone understands what I mean.

*The way Bristolians pronounce Bristol.

Comments

[Jen]

Wonderfully nostalgic post! We had a book about how to "spik Bristle" when I was young, because my father's family are all in Bishopston, Bristol 7. We used to talk like them when we spent hols with them, saying "meeeeerm" with the intonation, when we wanted to ask mum something. Happy days :)

[Anita]

This made me (or should I say "made I") chuckle! I've lived in London for the past 20 years but am from Bristol originally (Downend). I made a big attempt to dampen my accent when I first moved to London but it hasn't fully gone, nor would I want it to really. Words with a vowel before a r (like course, war, board) are the ones that give me away, especially when I am tired. I still call my trainers daps (though sadly no longer have a bag to keep them in hanging from a peg). I think the term is also used in south Wales.

[Gill]

What a nice post, I love the West country accent, and hear it quite often these days as Mum moved to Cornwall 20 years ago. Mum always resisted talking with a London accent despite growing up there. She didn't have a particular accent,just softly spoken, and after she moved to Hemel in the 1960s(where we were born)never semed to pick up a local accent. I remember her hating us kids talking "common" (sort of Londoner/Hemel), dropping our aitches, sloppy language really! She still sounds the same to me but has picked up many of the local words..."my lover" and "dreckly" are ones that spring to mind. She thinks we all talk too quickly up here! How soon she forgets.....
Gill x

[Racheal]

Hi, I found you through Apron Thrift Girl.

A really interesting post, I smiled a lot whilst reading it.

Racheal x