New Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker has put 'Shat' in the limelight.
Jodie caused a stir on the Graham Norton Show on Friday night when she was asked to explain her home village's nickname.
After saying Skelmanthorpe, Norton pressed further until Jodie revealed she was from 'Shat'
Pausing for a moment, Jodie checked whether the show was going to be aired after the 9pm watershed, asking: "I'm allowed to say this aren't I because this goes out past when kids have gone to bed?"
Having got the nod from Graham, she continued: "The name for me would be affectionately referred to as - 'Oh, are you a Shat lass?'
"'Yeah, I'm from Shat'."
As Graham and his Hollywood guests burst into bemused laughter, Jodie added: "And there's Shat taxi, Shat pizza, there's Shat everything, because the name of the village, Skelmanthorpe, is really long."
But how did Skelmanthorpe get its nickname of Shat?
This is the town that is famous for its cricket team and love of ancient sporting games such as lug ole biting and shin kicking. In clogs.
Well, they didn’t have telly, then.
But how did it become to be known as Shat?
One story is that when the railway was being built, locals were employed to shatter rocks during the excavations for a tunnel. Another says men from Skelmanthorpe made up a Parliamentary artillery crew at the siege of Pontefract Castle that shattered the walls.
But I prefer the even older story that says when the de Lacy family, who acquired the lands during the time of Norman the Conqueror, wanted really hard soldiers for a campaign, they recruited in Skelmanthorpe. These men were used as shock troops or Shatterers.
I suppose all that ear ole biting and shin kicking had something to do with it.
“Get your clogs on, lads, we’re going to war.”
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