So why the Shat Birder?

I got a bit of stick for calling my blog The Shat Birder and contrary to the jibes it is not a description! Shat is actually (believe it or not) the local name for the village in which I have lived all my life, Skelmanthorpe.
Skelmanthorpe is on the outskirts of Huddersfield and in the 1870’s during the construction of the railway line (which is now Kirklees Light Railway), local unskilled labourers were drafted in to chip away at the rock that would later carve out Shelley Tunnel. These local lads were nicknamed stone “Shatterers” by the Irish navvies who had been employed to lay the line. The taunting from these “foreigners” actually ended in a 200 man mass brawl, which saw one of the Irish workers getting part of his ear bitten off! It was this incident that coined the phrase “Shat lug oyl biter” which when translated from broad Yorkshire is basically “Skelmanthorpe Ear Hole Nibbler”. Since then though, nearly 140 years on, Skelmanthorpe is still known as Shat! And all its inhabitants by the abbreviated “Shatters”!

Tuesday, 10 August 2010

Skelmanthorpe CC - Sykes Cup Winners 2010!!!

I've often referred to cricket in this blog like another woman in my birding love life, but the punishing fixtures and subsequent lack of free Sundays to get out locally paid off this weekend when we beat Delph to be crowned champions. We knocked off a competitive 240 runs with two wickets down clawing our way back from 19 for 2 to sneak it off the penultimate ball of the game. Great game and a great night followed, hence writing this today, yesterday was a complete write off!!!





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