Mee-Mawing

Yesterday being Remebrance Day, and needing a new book to read - I pulled down Hells Foundations from the shelf which I recently borrowed from my Dad. I bought him this book 10 years ago in Seattle. It's a war history book, about a regiment from my old town in England. I was stunned to see it in Seattle Tower Books, and even more stunned to find it mentioned a war hero in our family on my Grandma's side of the family. The book also gives an overview of Lancashire (my county), the valley mill towns and a history of the cotton industry. The book talked about "Mee-Mawing". I'd never heard of it before. First a little background ...

The milltowns of Lancashire were fabric producers and up until the American Cival War they outputted 56% of the worlds cotton fabric. Cotton was exported from the American South to the mills of Lancashire via the port of Liverpool. During the cival war, the ports were blockaded preventing the ships from sailing. The Lancashire cotton industry plummeted, the work dried up and famine hit the mill towns. The British government began to pressure India to increase it's cotton exports, which it did and the industry began to boom once more.

The point ... During this time the industrial revolution was in full swing and the mills operated night and day. Inside the mills the machines roared and the noise was deafening. It was impossible to talk and be heard. So ... the mill workers began to over ephasize their words, and speak silently. The mill-workers mastered a kind of lip-reading, and the process spilled over into every day life. This was called MEE-MAWING. When I read it, I laughed because one of the traits of the older generation of Lancashire folk is to over-emphasize their pronunciation whilst talking. Obviously, it sources back to this time in the cotton-mills. I mentioned this to my brother, who said when he was a kid there was a saying "stop mee-mawing at me!", which meant stop pulling faces at me or talking behind my back! LOL!. North American readers will get a laugh out of this.

Links:

• Northwest History Film Footage (BBC) - requires RealPlayer
• Hells Foundations - Geoffrey Moorehouse
• Lancashire (WikipediA)
• 'Why Local Dialect Is Reet Gradely" (Bolton Evening News) LOL!
• Photos Of Lancashire