“T’ back-end’s ola’s t’ bare-end”

I stumbled upon a Facebook post the other day claiming Cumbria has five seasons. The fifth, the Back End, supposedly hits between Autumn’s fall of leaves and Winter’s icy grip. Having woken up to a dusting of snow on the Cleveland Plain this morning, I headed with high hopes up onto Urra Moor, the highest point on the North York Moors. The snow cover there was just a smattering, but it definitely felt like the Back End.

The post had got me curious. Only source I found, a 2013 online article, threw a Cumbrian proverb my way: “T’ back-end’s ola’s t’ bare-end“¹Cleaver, Alan. 2023. ‘Cumbria’s Fifth Season: Back End’, Blogspot.com <https://lakedistrictletters.blogspot.com/2013/12/cumbrias-fifth-season-back-end.html> [accessed 27 November 2023]. Translation? The time when trees are nearly bare, days are at their shortest, and the weather’s the bleakest.

But the phrase “Back-end” isn’t a Cumbrian exclusive; it’s a whole northern counties affair. In one 1829 glossary, it’s the “autumnal part of the year“²BROCKETT, JOHN TROTTER. “A Glossary of North Country Words in Use”. 1829. . In another, Blakeborough in 1912 saw it as “the time following harvest”³Blakeborough, Richard.”DIALECT GLOSSARY OF Over 4,000 WORDS and IDIOMS NOW IN USE IN THE North Riding of Yorkshire.” 1912.. And Robinson, writing in 1876 about the dialect of Whitby, called it “the latter part of the year”⁴Robinson, F.K. “A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Whitby”. 1876. . The most comprehensive though is Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary, from 1898⁵“The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect Words Still in Use, or Known to Have Been in Use during the Last Two Hundred Years; Founded on the Publications of the English Dialect Society and on a Large Amount of Material Never before Printed”. In six volumes edited by Joseph Wright, 1898. Volume I. Internet Archive, 2014, https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi01wriguoft. Accessed 10 Apr. 2021.. Wright gets the whole North of England and Scotland too in. Yet, he couldn’t agree on when the Back End rolls in. He quotes some as saying, “Back-end lasts from harvest to Martinmas; the period following is called ‘efther Martlemas’ or ‘a bit afooar Kesmas’“; others argued it’s “the period between harvest and mid-winter, not necessarily Martinmas“. A linguistic tangle for a seasonal wrangle.

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  Cleaver, Alan. 2023. ‘Cumbria’s Fifth Season: Back End’, Blogspot.com <https://lakedistrictletters.blogspot.com/2013/12/cumbrias-fifth-season-back-end.html> [accessed 27 November 2023]
• 2
  BROCKETT, JOHN TROTTER. “A Glossary of North Country Words in Use”. 1829.
• 3
  Blakeborough, Richard.”DIALECT GLOSSARY OF Over 4,000 WORDS and IDIOMS NOW IN USE IN THE North Riding of Yorkshire.” 1912.
• 4
  Robinson, F.K. “A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Whitby”. 1876.
• 5
  “The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect Words Still in Use, or Known to Have Been in Use during the Last Two Hundred Years; Founded on the Publications of the English Dialect Society and on a Large Amount of Material Never before Printed”. In six volumes edited by Joseph Wright, 1898. Volume I. Internet Archive, 2014, https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi01wriguoft. Accessed 10 Apr. 2021.