18 replies to this topic

[gypsygeoff]

As a Rainhiller, like splus, we had both variations of the cat/mouse = moggy.Me Mam and Dad being fron the Manor called mice moggies.Everyone at school called a moggy a cat.Scousers used to also call cats ''jigger rabbits''.Jigger being an entry.

[Voll]

And a measure of liquor.

[splus]

Geoff, everyone knows a moggy is a cat.

[Nemo]

Mouse in St. Helens and in the south Lancashire Liverpool hinterland.

A pit moggie, for example, was a mouse that dwelled underground in Lancashire coal mines. Wiganers and Leighers also called pit mice "moggies".

Moggie hunting used to be a popular sport with boy haulage hands underground, especially before the annual shut down of the pit for the summer holidays. (Last week in July/first week in August in the St. Helens area.) Captured moggies were put into a tub (an underground narrow gauge 50 cwt railway wagon) and left there for the duration of the holiday period. Upon recommencement of work underground a fortnight later, only the bones of the devoured were found left in the tub and one whole, super moggie that, although dead, had survived longer than the others and had not become another moggy's dinner.

They were all cannibals in any case: their imprisonment in a tub had not forced this anti-social behaviour upon them.

I also knew a lad that answered to "Moggy" McGuire. He was a pit moggy in the sense that he grabbed all the overtime that he could get down the pit because he had a shedful of kids.

Edited by Nemo, 04 November 2007 - 05:58 AM.