The Grimsby accent

It always makes me laugh when other teams' supporters refer to Town fans as inbreds as Grimsby is one of the most mongrel and least inbred places in the country due to the huge influx of people into the fishing industry in the nineteenth century. All of those immigrants, from Devon, East London, Essex, Kent and Sussex as well as more northern counties must have affected the local accent (and dialect) quite a bit over the years. The basis is a generic East Midlands accent, as with Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, but with much sharper vowel sounds. We share a lot of dialect words with Yorkshire but the accent is very distinctively ours.

Quoted from Bagshaw99

It always makes me laugh when other teams' supporters refer to Town fans as inbreds as Grimsby is one of the most mongrel and least inbred places in the country due to the huge influx of people into the fishing industry in the nineteenth century. All of those immigrants, from Devon, East London, Essex, Kent and Sussex as well as more northern counties must have affected the local accent (and dialect) quite a bit over the years. The basis is a generic East Midlands accent, as with Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, but with much sharper vowel sounds. We share a lot of dialect words with Yorkshire but the accent is very distinctively ours.

That certainly was the case at the height of the fishing industry, but it has completely reversed in recent times; very, very few people move into the area nowadays, and as Grimsby has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe(!), I think the trend has completely reversed.  

Quoted from MaccaBilk

That certainly was the case at the height of the fishing industry, but it has completely reversed in recent times; very, very few people move into the area nowadays, and as Grimsby has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe(!), I think the trend has completely reversed.  

Not true.

Harlepool and Middlesborough have significantly higher teenage preganancy rates than Grimsby.

It is a 'nice' story to bring the Town down but wildly inaccurrate

Having grown up in Barnetby, I think most of the language I use is from Grimsby, but the accent is closer to Scunny.

I still use the word "bealing" much to the confusion of the locals, and have met with similar vague looks when asking for "scraps" at the chippy. Also, never had a crogger, always a pagger. And I occasionally still get a benny on at work...

Quoted from MaccaBilk

That certainly was the case at the height of the fishing industry, but it has completely reversed in recent times; very, very few people move into the area nowadays, and as Grimsby has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe(!), I think the trend has completely reversed.  

Yes, you've certainly got a point there Macca. Most of my generation left the town and never came back and very few people came in to replace us. I'm involved in parental caring duties or I would still have been down south with the London Mariners. Luckily though historically we've still got a larger gene pool up here than many other places, even if it is a tad shallower than it once was.

Quoted from mike the mariner

Your not on form at the minute are you Wrawby.

A bit hit and miss at the moment (mostly miss)

Quoted from 97

Having grown up in Barnetby, I think most of the language I use is from Grimsby, but the accent is closer to Scunny.

I still use the word "bealing" much to the confusion of the locals, and have met with similar vague looks when asking for "scraps" at the chippy. Also, never had a crogger, always a pagger. And I occasionally still get a benny on at work...

What is the origin of that phrase? I always thought it related to Benny Hawkins on Crossroads.....

Quoted from barralad

What is the origin of that phrase? I always thought it related to Benny Hawkins on Crossroads.....

I think I first learned of that phrase as a child in around 1981, although I don't think the etymology lineage of "Benny On" goes through Benny Hawkins. The term "Benny" (referring to Hawkins) meant someone who was slow, mentally. This got replaced by "Joey" in the early 80s as a doff of the cap to our favourite spastic, Joey Deacon.

I think the term "Benny On" was invented in a Grimsby playground in the early 80s? Anyone have any proof to dispute this?

i told one of my kids at school to stop having a benny on the other day and he just stopped and laughed at me nd asked what the intercourse it meant (i work in a naughty school).

it confused him good and proper

My girlfriend from Somerset has quite a posh accent until she gets drunk and then wow it's like im sleeping with one of the Wurzels!