Blyth History.

[peteloud]

Brian Brown,

I believe the the origin of the word posh comes from the days when people travelled out to India by ship. To get a good view of Africa from your cabin porthole/window passengers wanted to be on the port side of the ship on the way out and the starboard side on the way home, Port Out, Starboard Home, or POSH.

[stanmapstone]

From the OED A popular explanation (still frequently repeated) is that the word is the initial letters of the phrase port outward, starboard home, with reference to the more comfortable (because cooler) and more expensive side for accommodation on ships formerly travelling between Britain and India. It is often suggested that the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company stamped tickets for such cabins on this route with the letters P.O.S.H., whence the word. However, no evidence has been found for the existence of such tickets.
See https://tinyurl.com/y7wyzxxp

Stan

[TriciaK]

There's another explanation on Google - posh was underground slang for money. Not sure how it came to that, but fits in with the name of a character in Diary of a Nobody, written in the 1880s. Murray Posh, who was assumed to have loadsamoney. Sold hats.

[stanmapstone]

There are five definitions of Posh as a noun and as an adjective, verb and adverb, in the OED. One is slang for  Money; spec. a halfpenny, a coin of small value.
e.g. 1830   Sessions Papers Old Bailey, 1824–33 VI. 590/1   He had not got the posh (which means money) yet.
Stan

[Brian Brown]

Re Posh

Thank you.
It does look as though there are quite a number of 'threads' to the many associated 'yarns' re the origin/usage of Posh ...

[HenryWood]

I don't know if I'm doing this right but I posted this message originally in "Blyth, the lighter side" and someone has suggested that I might get more results posting in a proper Blyth thread. I am still very keen to hear that my memories of the "Timber Pond", situated way above New Delaval are not the product of a faulty memory. I suppose that looking back some maybe 65+ years means that fewer "witnesses" are now left, but comments on my original message would be greatly appreciated. Here is what I posted:

I was having a chat with a relation about our younger days living at the top end of Plessey Road and some of the "adventures" we used to have with ponds etc. (I am going back maybe 65+ years!)

I can distincly remember what I called the "Timber Pond", a kind of natural pond which lay in the middle of the Timber Yard above Delaval, the yard which I think mainly handled pit props for local mines. The banks of that pond were composed mainly of sawdust, obviously from the years of the sawmill cutting the timber and ejecting huge quantities of sawdust waste. Another big feature of that pond which I remember were the vast swathes of bullrushes growing around the perimeter.

The "Timber Pond", as I recall, had a great variey of "wildlife" - like sticklebacks and frogs - *huge numbers* of frogs, and I do remember collecting frogspawn from there, keeping them in a big jar in the backyard, watching them develop, then eventually watching the poor creatures die as we had no clue as to how to nurture them.

The other ponds nearby were what I called the "Pit Ponds" which were 2 brick lined "reservoirs" handling the discharge/effluence from the old New Delaval Pit which I think closed during my childhood living nearby. We are in agreement about the Pit Ponds (and the Yella Babby!)

(Another question: Did Evvie Chamberlain's shop sell carbide? For we would often discover small piles of carbide nearby the shop, on the side of the street/pavement where I think the miners may have filled their lamps. When we spat on such little piles of carbide they started "fizzing")

Now, the questions are:

1. Was there a "Timber Pond", because my relation simply cannot remember such a pond? Or am I imagining things having read "Wind In The Willows" too many times?

2. Another subject that came up was the "Fever Sink"! These were drain openings in the gutters of our streets which were covered by cast iron open covers with cast iron bars across them to possibly catch leaves etc. I suspect that nowadays they would be referred to as "storm drains" to carry rainwater away from the street surface. Again, the reference meant nothing to my relation but some very distinct memories of the "fever sinks" I do have was that during dry, settled weather, the water at the base of the drain became stagnant and the smell of them is what I believe led to the naming of them as "fever sinks". Also, following a wet spell when the drains had obviously been flushed through with rainwater, we often discovered frogs living in those same drains. I don't know how they got there but I suspect they probably fell into the drain and then could not get back out! And us boys, being boys, would drop stones from the roadside onto them and try to hit a frog!

Definitely *not* acceptable these days, but then we knew no better.

Any thoughts on any of these points, please? *Especially* the Timber Pond for I am sure that I did not imagine it.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

[peteloud]

HenryWood,

I clearly remember the 'Timber Pond' that you mention.  In fact, there were two ponds there.

My friends and I would collect sticklebacks, red-breasties, frogs and spawn there. The ponds also had leeches which scared us a little. 

I remember a time when we tried building rafts on the ponds. We used the trimmed logs which I assume were intended as sleepers for the narrow gauge rails for the tubs that came up from the pit.  The rafts were not a success.  We had to pile layer upon layer, at right angles to each other, to get sufficient buoyancy to support one of us.  By the time that happened the rafts were almost cubes, and unstable. Amazingly, we didn't have a serious accident.

[HenryWood]

Thank you, peteloud.

I am still trying to get my memories correct from a faulty memory. What I can remember is there was a kind of proper footpath running alongside that pond and if we were heading "away from home", i.e. heading maybe to Robson's Farm, Horton Church etc., we would pass by the "Timber Pond" on the left-hand side of that road.

So, I doubt if it was in the "middle of the timber-yard" as I first thought. Also, this footpath was a kind of red-dirt road. I have often remembered that, when reading books about the American South and reading of brick-red, dirt roads. That is the colour of that footpath that I remember. I think we often passed the pond by when walking up to the likes of Humford Wood Baths with our parents during the summer holidays.

My main memories of the Timber Pond are of exploring it as kids - where we had likely been forbidden to venture - and yes, the leeches come back to mind now and in our young minds they were very dangerous creatures!

[peteloud]

HenryWood,

It was as you said.  The main track through the timber yard was a red track which was a continuation of Plessey Road. Before it reached the railway line, (where there was a Methodist Chapel), it turned right to the pit.  Just before the pit it turned left to Robson's farm.  The pond you mentioned was off to the left of that middle section.  As I said earlier, there were two ponds, the path from the red track ran between them.  The pond on the right was smaller and less interesting.

If, at the second bend in the red track, near the pit, you continued straight ahead, instead of turning left for Robson's Farm, you would come to the two 'pit ponds' which you refer to.

Where were you living at the time?  Your name is not familiar, yet in the early - mid-1950s we kids around there knew everybody.

I presume that you have seen the photos of New Delaval Infant school at,
http://www.peterloud.co.uk/photos/Northumberland/School_Photos/School_Photos.html