SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Dick's days - nothing to do with the Lionheart perchance?

Had a word with Mi Mam yesterday about theorigins of Dick and Liddy.She has known of it for quite a long timeand remembers her mother(born 1900)using the term.Certainly a very old expression.

dogduke wrote: Had a word with Mi Mam yesterday about theorigins of Dick and Liddy.She has known of it for quite a long timeand remembers her mother(born 1900)using the term.Certainly a very old expression. Nivver heard of em in all me 81 yurrs!I DO remember a club turn called 'Dickie and Dottie' tho!!!lolGeordie Lass(!) It IS "Deoch an 'Doris, as you say!Auld Scottish song, "Just a wee deoch an'DorisJust a wee drap tha's a'Just a wee deoch an' DorisAfore ye gan' awa'There's a wee wifey waitin'by the aul' but an' benAn if ye can say "It's a braw bricht meunlicht nicht"Then yer a' richt ye ken!(Famous Sir Harry Lauder music hall song!)

Earliest reference in print? Dick and LiddyYorkshire Literary Union 1871http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6kFFAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Dick+and+Liddy%22&dq=%22Dick+and+Liddy%22&hl=en&ei=mZ4nTZuvHYPAhAflibmIAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAwI suspect it goes back long before this - but who were they?One source might give the answer - but I can't access it (yet)"The English Dialect Dictionary" 6 volumes by Joseph Wright 1855-1930http://www.uibk.ac.at/anglistik/projects/speed/

Another reference from 1876"Yorkshire Puddin'" - 1876 John Hartley"Owd Tommy"....."Shoo wor, Tommy, an shoo allus will be toher deeing day. It put awr Joa into a awfulpasshian, but shoo didn't care a pin, shoosaid shoo'd lived too long near a wood' tobe fear'd ov a hullet,--but they're as reightas Dick and Liddy nah. Aw'll tell thi ha thathappens. Tha knows, awr Joa allus thowt adeeal ov his mother, an he wanted th' wifeto do i'th' same way; an one morning shoo'wor neighding th' dooaf, when Joa says...    

My mother often mentioned Dick and Liddy and it certainly pre-dated both the Watergate affair and Richard Nixon's presidency. Can't help identify who it actually referred though I'm afraid!

A term that was used a lot where I was brought up, Harehills, usually describing courting couples. "Look at them two, just like Dick & Liddy". Never knew who they were though but then again I never knew what a "Wingwam for ducks to peak on" was either.

Does anybody know "Its all my eye and Peggy Martin" whoever Peggy was I dont know but I recall my grandma saying it back in the 50s

I can remember the term being used in the 1950's but cannot help beyond that. I remember the Watergate / Nixon scandal, which was much later.
I always associated the tern with someone who looked, 'prim and proper'.

loiner99 wrote: ↑

Wed 11 Jan, 2017 4:11 pm

Does anybody know "Its all my eye and Peggy Martin" whoever Peggy was I dont know but I recall my grandma saying it back in the 50s

All my eye and Betty Martin.

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10 ... 941-e-0592