Words and Tales of The Fen

   There is one thing that really stands out above any other in my cycling around the fens, not the wonderful raw countryside or the stunning old parish churches that boast some of the best stonework and roof angels in the country, but the fascinating stories and fen sayings that I hear from the people I meet. From the old fella who still to this day calls river water "frog skin soup", to the old lady who explained how she and her childhood friends would fold the long leaves of the sedge reed into little boats which they then released onto the water rather like "poo sticks".
   After sixteen years of living here in the fens, I've just started to understand the local dialect and sayings, examples like "Goo" instead of go and "Mizzle" instead of mist. There are of course the old favorites such as "Fen Cuckoo" the old fen name for frogs and many more. One old farm boy told me I was as "long as a yard of pump water", a saying still used by many when describing somebody tall, I'm told the saying "straight as a pound of candles" means the same.

   One old fen tiger explained to me how when he was a small child their little single-story cottage would always flood in the winter and the beds were raised on bricks to keep the bed legs above the flood water. He told me the floors were of earth with flagstones on top, but they were never joined so the flood waters were able to drain away through the open joints, oh how different our world is now.

   So as you now see, not only does my cycling give me great exercise and a chance to explore this magical land of fen and marsh but I also get an insight into the people who lived the hard life you yesteryear, those who lived off the land and managed the cold winters and fen winds, the true famous fen tigers.