What is or was the Northern Union?

[Gillg]

I remember as a child in Lancashire (oh, so long ago ) saying, "My grandfather makes the best chips in the Northern Union."   This reference (best ..... in the N.U.) was used quite often in our family to show excellence, but I don't think any of us had a clue what exactly that Northern Union was.

I know that one "Northern Union" was connected with the game of Rugby, but can't think that is what my family was referring to, unless some keen Rochdale Hornets (founder members of the Rugby N.U.) supporter introduced it into our vocabulary.  Does anyone else remember using the expression, or do you have some other explanation for this expression of excellence?

Just curious.

Gillg

[RJ_Paton]

Could it have had its roots in the Chartist movement

http://www.chartists.net/Leeds-Chartists.htm

[RJ_Paton]

or possibly given the different counties involved it does have slightly more recent  origins in Sport with the formation of the Northern Union Rugby League Association
http://www.rlhalloffame.org.uk/cup1.htm

[Gillg]

Thanks, Falkryn, for these suggestions.  My grandfather, curiously, was not a northerner, though both my parents were, and we children certainly had the feeling that the Northern Union was some kind of equivalent to "God's own country", i.e. the most desirable place to be. 

p.s. I mentioned the Rochdale Hornets team before, because I lived in the town as a child.

[km1971]

Found on the Twickenham website:

"...The Northern Union Breaks Away
In August 1895 twenty two clubs seceded from the Rugby Football Union and formed the Northern Union (which in the 1920s became the ‘Rugby League’). The loss of these northern clubs, and the many others that followed them, to the Northern Union had a serious impact on the English international side and it was several years before the loss could be made up..."

Ken

[Gillg]

I guess I'm going to have to conclude that someone way back in my family was a Rugby fan, though looking at my maternal grandparents and gt-grandparents (the Rochdale folk) it seems most unlikely.  They were "chapel bodies" and musicians.  Maybe my paternal grandparents, one of whom was from Burnley, were to blame.  I must say that I had the feeling that the Northern Union was a geographical reference, rather than a sporting one, but then I was only a child repeating someone else's sayings.

Just thought it might have been a current expression at that time.  Thanks for your suggestions, everyone.

Gillg

[km1971]

I think you are reading too much into it. He was probably using it to mean "in the area".

Ken

[RJ_Paton]

I think you are reading too much into it. He was probably using it to mean "in the area".

Ken

I agree, it sounds very much like one of those phrases which started out in life with a very specific meaning (either in this case through sport or the chartists etc) but which has made its way into general everyday speech of the area concerned.

[Gatacre]

I would say that having a grandfather and his brothers who played for the Hornets that the Northern Union is the break aware from Rugby Union.  I heard it lots when I was a child, too.

Gatacre