WE all know the expression: From Hull, Hell and Halifax may the lord deliver us. But where does it come from and what does it mean?
Halifax may be the wrong side of the hill but it has held onto its architectural history better than we have by keeping the Piece Hall and its original Victorian market hall. As far as Hull is concerned, I once spent a very pleasant weekend in the city which impressed me with the quality of its pubs and lavatories. They are award winning, as it happens (the lavs, I mean).
Over the years I suspect both places have suffered bad publicity from the saying and, once again, it was used in the pub the other night and we speculated as to its origin. So I looked it up.
It comes from a 17th century poem called The Beggar's Litany by a chap called John Taylor. One line goes: "From Hull, from Halifax, from Hell, ‘tis thus, From all these three, Good Lord deliver us."
Hull, according to Crowther’s Encyclopaedia of Phrases and Origins, was not a place for the unfortunate to linger. "Hull in those days was so well governed in vagrancy laws that beggars had little chance of acquiring sustenance by begging without doing hard labour for it."
So, move on to the next town then, just as long as they stayed away from Halifax where they had been using a gibbet to behead criminals since 1280. They didn't mess around in Halifax.
"At Halifax, the law so sharp doth deal,
That whoso more than 13 Pence doth steal,
They have a jyn that wondrous quick and well,
Sends thieves all headless unto Heav’n or Hell."
The "jyn" means engine and the good folks of Halifax perfected the guillotine – for anyone stealing more than 13 pence – long before it was embraced by the French Revolution, by dropping an axe shaped blade on the head of the condemned from a height of 7ft.
Any suggestion that the good burgers of Halifax introduced a gibbet after discovering Asbos didn't work, is pure speculation.
