We asked you for your St Helens sayings...and this is what you said

It's perhaps only when you travel somewhere else or move away that you realise that our way with words isn't always understood by people from other areas.

We guess it's this rich Lanky twang – much of it formed from the town's industrial heritage – that partly gives St Helens and its communities such strong identities.

We recently asked Star readers: "What are the things that people in St Helens say that no one else does?"

And we were flooded with replies on our Facebook page.

Accepted, there may be some that are not entirely unique to St Helens and are simply good old Northern or Lancashire expressions.

But there are those that are woven into our DNA, with the classic: "Where you made at Pilks?" reference – commonly used when someone is being urged to get out of the away of the television – a favourite example.

So we asked our readers what are things you will only hear people from St Helens say?

And here’s some of our favourites responses.

We've tried to interpret them the best we can with our St Helens dictionary but if we've got the wrong end of the stick with anything then keep the debate going and let us know!

Your responses:

Michael Cozens pointed to the common use of I and me in the same sentence, which seemed to strike a chord with readers.

He wrote: Any sentence starting in “I” must end with “me”

For example “I’m going the chippy me”” I’m watching Corrie tonight me”

Jackie Price Edwards, who is from Wigan and lives in St Helens told us.

£I know most of all the Lancashire sayings but, there’s only one I think, associated with this town and it’s “Are you made at Pilks”?

Carol Ann Smith-singleton said the Pilks reference was often used in her family home. Readers pointed out that sometimes Triplex (the former factory) was used instead of Pilks

"My dad worked at Pilks so our family saying was "I know dad works at pilks but you weren't born there" usually if you stood in front of the telly. I've heard the triplex one too though."

Paul Topping picked out a couple of terms used for childhood games:

"Playing bung-off and skilly outside of sin tellins no one has ever heard of these games."

Anyone know if they were words just related to St Helens? And are they still in use?

Moy Law said she loved this debate and picked out as favourites:

"My dad is full of St Helens sayings. Like slutch. Mithering is an all time favourite, as is skriking. Also he taught us the song "we're off in a motor car" which apparently is a Liverpool/Saint Helens thing."

Slutch is term generally used around here to mean mud. For example - "you're covered in slutch". Mithering – is generally used as an expression about when someone is pestering or bugging you. Skriking - crying or whinging.

Victoria Carney came up with a couple of corkers:

"When raining – you won't melt you're not a sugar lump

"And calling someone nesh meaning they're soft for feeling cold etc"

We've certainly heard those a few times.

It's often people who move here who pick out the Sintellins terms. For many of us we've never known anything different.

Rachel Featherstone, who moved into St Helens, picked out her favourite:

"I don’t know what for do for best!"

Meaning, I don't know what choice to make.

Bev Jonkers points out this is often abbreviated to: "What t do f't best"

Julie Wood Maley suggests: "Up the dancers"

Quite a few readers liked that one, we'll admit to not being too familiar with it but suggest it means "Up the stairs". Correct us if we're wide of the mark.

Tracy Lomax tells us that men often: "Call their wives or partners maude."

"Or Our Maude."

This sparked off an exchange with Tracy adding: "I worked in a factory as a young girl and thought my god there are a lot of women around here called maude."

And Sharon Weeks responded: "Hubby called me that to his mates at work in Liverpool and when I met them they really thought my name was Maude and I got stuck with Maudey."

Kitty Campari suggested one expression that some from other areas find a little odd:

"Cock! As in... ya alright cock? Never realised it was weird until I went to uni!

"Honestly I never realised it was weird till I left St Helens and heard my flat mates bf say it but we were in Manchester so it was out of context and at that point I realised it was a weird saying."

We can empathise with you there Kitty. A few of us have found this.

Vanessa Lynn suggests

"Toffees instead of sweets."

That was another that seemed to register with Star readers.

Catherine Mercer, meanwhile, picks out a classic St helens order at the chippie:

"I live in Yorkshire now and I find it weird that no-one at any chippy knows what a split is! There's a few no-one gets either, like slutch, wagging, were you made at Pilks and meet."

Is the term split (an order of chips and peas) understood outside our boundaries?

Want a few more...well Katie Smith highlighted: "It’s like Blackpool illuminations in here."

This roughly translates to "there's too many lights on in there – turn them off", while Rachel Louise picked out: "It's keld in there." As in: "It's freezing."

There were plenty more so we may well revisit this. If you want to contribute or offer feedback email Andrew here: andrew.kilmurray@nqnw.co.uk