Is this a generation thing ?

Well, I had hair which was 'straight as a yard of pump water' down here in the west, but I also went up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire and put the wood in the hole. I also, too, went to the foot of our stairs in amazement sometimes ............

Born in a barn and you're a door not a window for someone blocking the tv( they were small in those days) (liverpool )

Born in a barn and Up the wooden hill commonly used here (Somerset/Dorset) but one that I never understood came from my Nan. When we asked her where someone was she would say "up in Annie's room behind the wallpaper" lol.
Another that a lot of people don't know is dumpsy dark, that time when it's just starting to get dark in the evening.
As black as your hat, when somethings really dark.

My maternal grandmother used 'put wood in hole'she was originally from Yorkshire farming stock.
My father used to ask if I was born in a field and also if I cast a shadow when he was reading "you make a better door than a window"
The younger generations don't seem to understand these old sayings but DS sometimes says things that remind me so much of my father, an over-filled cupboard that spilled it's contents was always an avalanche cupboard often prefixed with an expletive.

Regional accents and expressions are rapidly disappearing so its both a regional and generational thing.

Its very sad. In another fifty years the entire country will be speaking what has come to be known as 'inner city English', innit.

Regional. East Midlands. (Leicester)

"It's looking a bit black over Bill's mothers." =Dark clouds in view.
"Were you born in barn?"
"Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire"
"Skin a rabbit for Ninepence." (Undressing a small child.)
(You let the tea) "mash"

"Bonny" = Rather fat
"cots" tangled hair.
"mardy" =grumpy.
"rocks" =sweets
"Entry" the path to the back yard of terraced houses.
"Me Duck"
All of these I remember.

We always said it's raining in Paris if your petticoat was showing.

Elrel if someone's petticoat was showing, the expression up here was "Charlie's dead!" . 'Snowing down south' at least makes sense!

Snowing down south, used as teenagers if someone's slip (petticoat) was showing.

Wood in hole and born in barn in Midlands but never heard piffy on a rock bun until now, great expression!

"Going to see a man about a dog" to me means going to the gents I didn't know what "piffy on a rock bun" meant, Iv'e never heard that. I have heard "pimple on a ducks arse" though.

There are so many lovely sayings what about ' popping your clogs' 'and pushing up the Daisy's' for death and does anyone else use piffle and squit for rubbish When grandad went to the pub he was ' going to see a man about a dog'

Like Bluebelle, I grew up in East Anglia and am quite familiar with it. To answer the original question, though, I would have thought it was a regional thing - a Northern expression, as it was mainly used by the Yorkshire girls at school. I even hear it in a Yorkshire accent when I say it to myself.

Grew up in Essex with 'put the wood in the hole', along with 'born in a barn' and also 'born in a field with the gate open'. Homes were draughty then . I was also told to 'hold your horses' when rushing at things.

I thought "piffy on a rockbun" meant looking a bit silly or out of place.
e.g. "He was left standing there like piffy on a rockbun".

I'm a southerner but I lived in the north for four years and I've never heard this expression.

I think it came into the family through my Leicester-born-and-bred maternal GM.

I am Scottish and have used it

Yes anno that used to be said a lot by grandparents.
Also, if describing somebody being angry with somebody they would be 'playing Pop.'

We're from East London (ish) and my family used "put the wood in the hole" and "born in a barn". I'm sure these are more generational than regional.

I've never heard that one anno!

My DSs and GC used to think I was very odd when I said that something of someone 'would make a cat laugh'. Now they sometimes use it themselves.

Like a pea on a drum my mother said.

Well I m from East Anglia and we always said 'put the wood in the hole' also ' were you horn in a barn' and ' hold your horses' my grandad used to say about anything not brilliant ' well it's better than a slap across the belly with a wet fish' When the sky was very black it would be ' a bit dark over Wills wife's mother's' and who the heck was Gordon Bennett???