Old fashioned expressions you still use.

grandtanteJE65

Mogsmaw

I’d be told I looked like “the wreck of the Hesperus” or “I was away to one side like Gourock” by my mother. I always knew what she meant, but I didn’t under the reference.

Am I wrong in thinking that Gourock is all to one side, because the other side of the town is the River Clyde?

"Straight as a dog's hind leg" said by my mother, usually when I had done the parting in my hair myself. Or indeed of anything else that was " all skew-wiff".

"the Hesperus was the ship in a lengthy poem learned by school-children that began with the words "The boy stood on the burning deck" I haven't a clue who wrote it, but remember it being in our school poetry book.

“The boy stood on the burning deck” was a different poem. The Wreck of the Hesperus started:

It was the schooner Hesperus
That sailed the wintry sea.
The skipper had brought his little daughter
To bear him company.

Approximately that, anyway.

"The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled;"

My dear GF used to delight us, much to my mother's distress, by reciting his own version.

The boy stood on the burning deck
His body all a-quiver
He gave a cough
His leg fell off
And floated down the river.

Simple pleasures ...

hollysteers

I’ll save it for the big film.
After being given a sweet during the B film.

I was always told to keep my sweets for the big picture hollysteers, oh how those dreary B pictures seemed to drag on for ever.

I remember that little ditty Ixion

A boy stood on a burning deck, picking his nose like mad....

EllanVannin

I remember that little ditty Ixion

Amazing EllanVannin.
Delighted at that!

My grandmother would describe a couple, or a pair of friends where one was tall and slim and the other small and round as "mop and bucket". And, for those seeking Mr/Ms Right - " every saucepan has a lid".

Our version was:

The boy stood on the burning deck.
Did he wash his dirty neck?
Did he heck!

My mother used to say to my brother's very tall friend 'Hand me down the moon' which I think is rather lovely. It always crosses my mind when I see someone very tall.

My husband says ‘slacks’ for trousers and ‘wireless’ for radio. And as a child my mothers encouraged me to eat food - ‘otherwise your hair won’t curl’. She also said the word ‘smeechy’ when food was burnt or overlooked in the oven and fumes enveloped the kitchen.

All these made me remember one we were made to say as children when we had a bag of sweets we offered them to people and said"Paddy would you lick?'.my mum did have Irish roots. Though looking back expressions used by my parent's generation were very derogatory to other countries in the U.K.
One that was meant to refer to Bonnie Prince Charlie marching through Cumbria though I doubt it.
Some come with Tartan trousers,
Some come with nin at ah,
Some come with big bare ar....
Marching through the snow.
and we wonder why the Scots want independence.

My dad's version:

The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled
And when his feet were burned off
He stood upon his head.

Sorry!

Cack handed = clumsy
Tin pot = poor quality
Fanny Adam's = acting up

Dead as a door nail = quiet, no atmosphere.
Poor as a church mouse = self explanatory
Happy as Larry = extremely pleased. (Was this after a music hall comic?)
Pot calling kettle black = hypocrisy.

Heavens to Murgatroid! Bit like Gordon Bennett.

Also, with apologies The boy stood on the burning deck picking his nose with glee, he rolled it into little balls and flicked it in the sea!

EllanVannin

To dad on getting ready to go out---hurry up, you'd be late for your own funeral, as mum would say.

Ha Ha that's what I say to my lot when they're dithering about before going out anywhere.

Rushing around like a blue arse fly.
I shall meet myself coming back in a minute.

Also, a most ridiculous question when to doing as you were told. Do you want a slap? Erm... obviously not.

That should be not doing as you're told obviously!

The boy stood on the burning deck
Having a game of cricket
The ball bounced up his trouser leg
and knocked off his middle wicket

(sorry to lower the tone)

We still say, if someone has done something in a long winded way, 'They went all around the Wrekin'. Whatever that might mean!

Some posters have mentioned "spending a penny". When I was pregnant with my first child in the 70s I visited a doctor who had an American trainee with her. My doctor asked how I was feeling and I told her I had a little bit of pain when I spent a penny. The American, with a very puzzled expression, asked the doctor, "When she spends a WHAT?" The doctor explained and we all laughed.

I use lots of expressions I heard as a child- she/ he would raise mutiny in he'll for someone inclined to cause arguments. A face like a Lugan spade - this one's from N.ireland and means cross or unattractive face. Hard as the hobs of hell for something hard to bite into. Will that pass muster? Meaning is that a good enough job. Is the sun over the yard arm? Is it late enough to have a wee snifter. Too many more to mention.

I haven't heard anyone say, 'By Jove' for many years now. My Grandfather and Great Aunts would say it eg 'By Jove that's a big cabbage' or 'By Jove you suit that colour.'