Retired teacher, local Ely councillor, deputy mayor, author (and occasional Ely Standard photographer) Mike Rouse knows when its dockey time and can safely be relied on to stay home if he has a tizzick.
But despite it looking dark over Will’s Mother, Mike was able to travel to Cambridge on Saturday for a special presentation.
Cambridgeshire Association for Local History honoured him with an award for two of his books – including a local history guide on How to Speak Fen.
Mike is an expert on such things as dockey time (sitting down to a meal), tizzick (a cough) and Will’s Mother (probably going to rain) and these and other phrases are included in his guide.
Mike Petty, president of the association, made the presentation to Cllr Rouse at a ceremony in St John’s Hall, Cambridge. The award was for a brace of local history books since Cllr Rouse has also penned The Story of Ely.
He says the book about Fen Speak contains some phrases “that are quite quirky and odd and you hear them less and less”.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here