Wor Nanny's a mazer explained

Wor Nanny's a mazer
Artist:	Thomas "Tommy" Armstrong
Language:	English (Geordie)
Written:	1800s

Wor Nanny's a mazer is a famous Geordie folk song written in the 19th century by Thomas "Tommy" Armstrong, in a style deriving from music hall. It is regarded by many as one of the classics.

This song tells the tale of a husband and wife setting out on a train trip from Rowlands Gill, a village in County Durham, to "toon" - meaning 'town', presumably Newcastle upon Tyne - to do some shopping. The trip starts to go wrong when they miss their train. The pair end up in a pub where the wife becomes "a bit the worse for wear". We are left to assume no shopping was done and no clothes bought.

Lyrics

Places mentioned

• Rowlands Gill is a village situated between Winlaton Mill and Blackhall Mill, on the north bank of the River Derwent, previously in County Durham but now in Gateshead, England

This is the only place mentioned by name. It is not known either where they started their journey, or where they intended to do their shopping, although Newcastle upon Tyne would be an educated guess as it is locallyreferredto as the toon.

• As Rowlands Gill was not a rail interchange, it has to be assumed that they travelled the first part of their journey by means other than rail.
• The Derwent Valley Railway was started in 1865 and the line was opened on 2 December 1867. The line (part single track) ran between Blackhill and Derwenthaugh on the River Tyne where it joined the Newcastle upon Tyne to Carlisle rail track.
• Even the name of the pubbilick hoose was not given.

Comments on variations to the above version

• In the early 19th century, as today, there were cheap books and magazines.
• Many of these "chapbooks" were on poor quality paper to a poor standard and with poor quality print. *The works were copied with no thoughts of copyright, and the work required very little proof-reading, and what was done was not required to a high standard. Consequently, the dialect words of songs varied between editions.

As this was a very popular song, it appeared in numerous editions. The many versions published show considerable, some very minor, variations, mainly in the spelling of the words, and sometimes variations within the same edition. Some of the most common are listed below:

Generally

• aa'd, aa had
• afore, before
• alang, along
• an, an', and
• any, ony
• aroond, around
• ay, aye
• beer, beor
• bitter, bittor
• both, byeth
• called, called
• claes, clathes
• com, come
• convaince, conveyance
• couldn't, cudden't, cuddent
• doon, down
• feel, felt
• feyce, fyece
• first, forst
• gan, bannin'
• gone, gyen
• good, gud
• hard, heard
• heh, hev
• heor, here
• her, hor
• hyem, hyeme
• inti, into
• iss, us
• lang, long
• leeve, live
• made, myed
• maisor, mazer, mazor
• Nan, nannie, nanny
• never, nivor, nivvor
• o', of
• paper, papor
• parlor, parlour
• pubbilick hoose, public hoose, public house
• rang, rung
• really, reely
• saa, saw
• same, seym, syem
• says, sez
• shaal, shawl
• shame, shyem
• sic, such
• stoot, stout
• swallied, swalleyed
• thoo, thou
• took, teuk, tuek
• trouble, trubble
• varra, varry, very
• wad, would
• wadden't, waddent, wouldn't
• was, wes
• wer, wor
• wersels, worels
• wi, with
• with, wiv
• yersel, yorsel

Specific differences

Chorus line 1 "And" is added to the start of the line
Chorus line 2 ends with "she remains" instead of "she'll remain"
Chorus line 3 "And" is added to the start of the line
Chorus line 4 starts with "aa'll nivvor" instead of "aa winnet"
Verse 1 line 3 "For" is added to the start of the line
Verse 1 line 7 "was ne mair" is substituted by wasn't another one"
Verse 1 line 8 The time period varies from fifteen to seventeen minutes
Verse 1 line 9 "An" or "An" is added to the start of the line
Verse 1 line 12 "gan in" is substituted by "gan on"
Verse 1 line 12 "So" is omitted from the start of the line but "we'll" is added before "gan"
Verse 1 line 15 "hev" is substituted by "git" and later "warmed" by "warm"
Verse 1 line 17 "But" is added to the start of the line and later the line changed from "aa knew she'd not waak" to "aa knew she couldn't walk"
Verse 1 line 20 - the line starts "Aa's like te" instead of "If aa like aa cud"
Verse 2 line 1 "doon" is substituted by "away"
Verse 2 line 3 "te" is substituted by "inti"
Verse 2 line 4 "in" is substituted by "heor"
Verse 2 line 7 "drink" is substituted by "hev"
Verse 2 line 8 "And" is substituted by "Why"
Verse 2 line 11 & 12 changed from "But after she swalleyed three parts of hor gill, She said, "Bob, man, aa'd rather hev gin" to "An afore she'd swallied a haaf o' hors, She said, "Aa wad rethur hev gin"
Verse 2 line 14 changed from "And she gobbled it up the forst try" to "she swallied it doon the forst try:"
Verse 2 line 15 "Says aa te wor Nan" is substituted by "Aa sez to wor Nan"
Verse 3 line 3 "Why" is omitted from the start of the line
Verse 3 line 4 The "three" gills becomes "two" or more than three gills
Verse 3 line 6 "hoyed" is substituted by "tossed"
Verse 3 line 7 & 8 changed from "Aa thowt she was gan te gan wrang in her mind, so aa sat mesef close by the door" to "Aa thowt wor Nan was gan' Wrang iv hor mind so aa set mesel near the door"
Verse 3 line 17 "for" is omitted before "te sing" and the 'Cat Pie' becomes 'The Cat Pie'
Verse 4 line 1 changed from "The landlord says" to "He sez te me"
Verse 4 line 6 changed from "acroos" to "ower"
Verse 4 line 7 changed from "And Nan, poor sowl" to "An poor aad Nan"
Verse 4 line 8 changed from " tummelled" to "hoyed"
verse 4 line 9 "And" is added to the start of the line
Verse 4 line 11 changed from "for te lift" to "ta lift"
verse 4 line 12 "And" is added to the start of the line
Verse 4 line 13 changed from "ride" to "lift"
Verse 4 line 14 changed from "lifted" to "hoisted"
Verse 4 line 15 changed from "But Nan was that tight, she" to "She was that tight that she"
verse 4 line 17 "And" is added between "sit up" and "she" instead of the comma
verse 4 line 18 "And" is added to the start of the line
Verse 4 line 19 changed from "hor new basket" to "a new basket"
Verse 4 line 20 changed from "That mornin' wi lossin' the train" to "That wummin, wi lossin' the train."

Recordings

• Alex Glasgow (1935–2001) was one of the North of England's most popular folk singers in his day. His CD entitled "Alex Glasgow - Songs Vol - now and then" recorded in 1970 (ref MWMCDSP21) included "Wor Nanny's a Mazer" together with 28 other titles^[1]
• Bob Fox and Benny Graham include the song on their album "How Are You Off For Coals?", along with several more of Tommy Armstrong's songs. (Fellside Records catalogue number FECD111)
• YouTube recording ^[2]
• YouTube recording of ^[3]

See also

Geordie dialect words

Notes and References

1. Web site: Alex Glasgow.
2. Web site: Wor Nanny's a Mazer by Tommy Armstrong arr. Roly Veitch. Performed by the Blaydon Aces]. .
3. Web site: two Tommy Armstrong songs: The Durham Lockout (Maureen Craik and Colin Ross) and Wor Nanny's A Maizor (Tom Gilfellon, Johnny Handle and Colin Ross). .