With me brought up in the Somerset and Anne, my wife, brought up in Haslingden, Lancashire, we sometimes surprise each other with dialect words that the other does not know.

Last one I remember saying was "dimpsy", as in at twilight.

The odd thing is that some words are quite similar between the two regions and I can even understand more of what Sid Calderbank says than a lot of less heritage educated Lancashire folk.

Dave Howard is a bit of a railway enthusiast, by the way, and lives close to the East Lancashire Railway. Helen has told me that the dog has better hearing than him, of course, and he has it trained to come and ask for a walk when it hears a steam loco coming!

Robin