Some interesting snippets on local words and lore, found during my listing and summarising of all the contents of the North Staffordshire Field Club’s Annual Report and Transactions, 1897:

* The local name for a polecat was a “Fitchet, the last such being known locally… “about the year 1840, when one was caught in a trap at Wootton Park Farm, near Cheadle.” The fur thus being known as ‘fitch’.

* In Shropshire the word “breaking” alludes to the strange phenomena of the meres, namely that a flood of “minute bright green particles” in Autumn turns a lake or mere bright green. The term is a local one… “It is simply a colloquial expression, best known and used in Shropshire where Meres occur more frequently than in our County, and where the phenomenon is well known to the Mere-dwellers. It is also called “middling,” no doubt from a resemblance to the breaking of milk into curd and whey on the introduction of rennet. But the term “Breaking” is said to be derived from an analogous appearance in brewing, when fermentation takes place. … At certain times in each year, generally in autumn, the Shropshire Meres become turbid with these green particles, the water becomes unfit for domestic purposes, and it defies the powers of filtration”. The cause is the natural late-summer ‘flowering’ of microscopic algae, which live for most of the year down in the muds and sediment. (Nothing to do with artificial fertiliser run-off, since there were no such chemicals in the 1890s and especially not on the mere meadows and high moorland). The article has no mention of children’s ‘Jenny Greenteeth’ lore, though the phenomena shines an interesting sidelight on the lore, especially in relation to the breakdown of very large amounts of algae and the consequent stink — suggesting the possibility of flammable vapours and glowing will-o-the-wisps.

* Among their many outings and excursions a trip was made by the Club to “Ludchurch and Swythamley” near Leek. The short report for this makes no mention of Gawain, then seemingly unknown in connection with the locations. But some late local lore is mentioned in passing, that ‘Robin Hood’ once lived in Back Forest.