With apologies to the anyone who might be offended, but did you know that before they built Marine Promenade the sand used to come right up to the bottom of Rowson street in New Brighton.

This part was known as "Niggers hill" in either Victorian or Edwardian times. I can only assume it was called that because the minstrels probably performed there. Not nice but times were different.

Any more did you knows that we might not know?

Could it be linked with the slave trade?

Interesting

It could be that the hill presented a problem . In the past, nigger was sometimes used as a synonym for "defect", deriving from the phrase "nigger in the woodpile", which originally referred to escaping slaves hiding among woodpiles being transported on trains. It came to mean some unseen problem.

Or it could be in relation to it looking in a particluar way. Because the word was used freely for many years, there are many official place-names containing the word nigger. i.e

"Nigger Bill Canyon, Nigger Hollow, and Niggertown Marsh".

In 1967, the United States Board on Geographic Names changed the word nigger to Negro in 143 specific place names, although this did not always eradicate common use of the word in reference to such places. One specific example is that of Nigger Head Mountain, located just outside of Burnet, Texas. For decades, a particular hillock was referred to as such due to the forestation at the peak resembling a black man's hairstyle of the times.

Crazy Stuff, but then it a historical part of our heritage. No matter how wrong we were i dont belive they should be changed.

Two more did you knows seeing as not many are playing.

Did you know that ships had to line up both Leasowe and Bidston lighthouses to be in a safe channel?

Did you know that the USA threatened to invade Canada and keep it if Britain did not pay them a shed load of money in reparation for supporting the Confederacy by allowing things like the Alabama to be built at Lairds. Great Britain paid up!

Did you know that around 2% of £1 coins in circulation today are fake?
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7628137.stm

Did you also know that no coins were minted in 1998 and 1999?

That's a hell of a lot of money when you think about it. It's never been the same since they got rid of the pound note.

Back to the word "nigger", it was also the name of Douglas Baders black Labrador dog in WW2!!

At least up here Morseman, we still have pound notes! Sadly no ten bob notes though !

It was indeed. Unfortunately, those in charge of tv programming decided that because of that, it would not put the film of his life on tv in case of backlash!!

This country is getting PC stupid!!

The movie has been on tv loads of times Pagan. Its called "Reach for the skies"!!
Classic black n white `o` vision!!

I know and you want to hang on to them. I was embarassed by the actions of a young girl in one of our shops a few weeks back. A lady obviously from Scotland paid with Scottish notes. Of course the girl had to make a big fuss and shout "are we allowed to take these?". You would think these stores would train their staff correctly wouldn't you? I actually apologised to the lady for the ignorance of some of the locals.

It wasn't reach for the sky but the dam busters. Guy Gibsons dog was called Nigger. It was also the code word they had to send back (in Morse ) to say they had breached the Mohne dam. Digressing slightly, I have walked over that dam and around the whole lake twice. It's a long walk.

P.S. I have also been to Colditz castle. Fascinating stuff.

My aunty had a dog called n*gger. I think it was very common in the 40s-50s to use this word to describe something which was black.

Home Bargains in Birkenhead went through a phase of not excepting Scottish £20 notes because they were so easy to fake, or there was a huge amount of fakes going around at the time, 2005 iirc.

I've seen the film a few times, but it was recently that they decided not to air it again. If I could remember where I saw this information I'd put a link up

I say again, it wasn't Reach for the Sky that featured Nigger the dog but the "Dam Busters" so there would be no need to ban this film. Actually didn't I see something about a remake of it? I bet if it is remade then it will be yanks bombing the dams in B17's and some genius of an American professor inventing the sliding bomb or some such!

I still think the Carling dam busters advert is one of the funniest I have ever seen.

Right repeat after me everyone. Reach for the sky a true story of a man overcoming the loss of both his legs in an air crash and going on to be one of Britains best fighter pilots of the second world war. He did not have a dog called Nigger to my knowledge.

The dam busters, the true story of 617 Squadron RAF formed to use a special bomb invented by Barnes Wallis to breach three Ruhr dams. Only two were in fact breached. This Squadron was led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson (later VC) who did own a dog called Nigger. The dog was run over outside of the camp gates.

Altogether now, der der der der der der der etc et al .... Dam busters theme.

I believe that most, if not all, river mouths have 'leading lights' to guide the boats in. I know that the Taw / Torridge Estuary has them - the lights are on the land around half a mile apart. When the 2 lights merge into one from the sea then the captain knows he is in the correct channel to pass into the mouth of the river.

I didn't say it was either film - I just said I'd seen the film with the dog called Nigger in it a few times - but thanks!!!

I will do my fookin damnedest to find out where I read about the powers that be banning it from being aired because of complaints etc!!

Personally, I don't care which of the films it is, they are both good if the other is the one I remember watching with my Dad. I also don't care about people getting offended because of something that was made donkeys years ago - get over it! Too many complaints about unimportant stuff these days!

I know Jay but you quoted another posters "reach for the sky". I'm pedantic about such things because they are representing true history and one should not get it wrong.

I'm not bothered about using the word Nigger in this context either.

Keep a cool head as they say!

Keeping a cool head is sometimes harder than one thinks!!

I tried to edit my post in order to appease but unfortunately I can't. Oh well, I tried


I have, however, found what I was looking for. It is more about editing it to apease others (again - lot of this going on today lol) but it serves to show my point.

"Revisionist usage in Britain
"Nigger" was famously the name of a Black Labrador[43] belonging to the RAF Second World War hero Wing Commander Guy Gibson. The dog died before the 617 Squadron's 1943 raid on the Ruhr dams (the "Dam Busters raid"), and "Nigger" was adopted as the radio code word signaling the destruction of the Möhne dam. The British television broadcaster ITV now tries to reduce offense by editing out some scenes including the dog when it broadcasts the film Dam Busters. This has been condemned by some as "revisionist", although the edited version apparently produced fewer complaints than a previous uncensored broadcast. However, this scene probably has been viewed more times than any other part of the movie. It was watched by the character Pink (Bob Geldof) in the hotel-room sequence in the Pink Floyd film The Wall, during which the dialogue relevant to the dog's death is screened."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#Other_names

(Feels like being back at Uni, citing my source )

So what it all boils down to is that some people want to change history?

I'm with Cromwell on this one, warts and all! It may not be nice but it happened, much like our "betters" shoving my ancestors up chimney's and down mines with no regard to their health or safety in pursuit of wealth.

Oops sorry got on my soap box a bit then. Won't happen again

Uni? Jeez, secondary modern here if anyone is old enough to know what that was? I refer to it as factory fodder.

I think revisionist historians should be burnt at the stake, or hung drawn and quartered or.....hold on, surely we did not do this to our fellow subjects? Surely we just poked them with sticks. Yes stick poking sounds a lot more pc than grilling someone or slice and dice.

Oh and Guy Fawkes was not Catholic, he was a Quaker, he didn't use gun powder, it was candyfloss, and parliament pardoned him after the poking with sticks (there may also have been a 'comfy chair')

Brilliant.

Basically yes! All so that they don't have to deal with people NOT watching the film but hearing that it MAY have contained something that they MAY have been offended by had they actually watched it (but probably not as they would have seen it in its true context and not what THEIR interpretation of the word means), complaining!!

*breathes*

Now they want Jeremy Clarkson to either resign or be sacked for "Truckergate"! *screams AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrgh*

And that sounds an awful lot like the reason the complaints about Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand kept increasing with every news report.

I stand corrected on (grovelled) bended knee my friend!! You are correct of course, i was having a "blonde" moment!!

Get off your knees you look silly. You are forgiven.

Could you not have left him there for a bit longer?? It's not very often I get to see a man in that position (or any position for that matter)

on the subject of pc correctness , what happend to the golliwog off the robinson jam jars,I heard it was deemed offensive to our coloured population? is that true?

did you know?

there is no gravity at the centre of the earth

Isnt it something to do with the Golliwog, being linked to slavery?

There was a row about it being black however.

Robinsons jam is no longer made though.