Heddlu

[caddyman]

Listening to Sir Terry on Radio 2 this morning, I am sure that I heard a bizarre news snippet (not in the regular news) about a policeman in Cardiff who found a dead donkey in the street. He started writing it up in his book, realised that he couldn’t spell the street name so dragged the body round the corner into Splot Street and wrote it up there.

Now while this is a rather gingery thing to do, I find it rather believable; it is Wales after all¹. Trouble is, I haven’t been able to find anything about it via Google, so it may be either a hallucination on my part, or just some spuff spouted by Radio 2…


¹I shall now officially go into hiding, to escape the caustic comments I expect from ladkyis

Comments

[fencingsculptor.livejournal.com]

I have heard many varients of this tale.

Could be true...could be urban myth...who knows.

The Welsh name for Plod has always made me laugh though.... Head(Navy term for the toilet) and Lu (well it sounds like Loo doesn't it).

Next time I'm back in Wales (it's been a very long time), if I happen across a copper I am minded to ask if he finds this as consistently funny as I do....

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I believe that it's pronounced "Heth-lie", but I'm not sure.

[fencingsculptor.livejournal.com]

Ah...that old chestnut.

In Ireland 'Brid' is pronaaaunced 'Breath' or 'Breath-a'.

It's not proper I tell you !

Truth is stranger than fiction

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I remember hearing something similar about a horse being stuck on the tenth floor of a block of flats in Hatfield (one of the ones they demolished when they built the tunnel) and dismissing it as crap, only to later find out that it was actually true.

[sack-boy.livejournal.com]

I tried doing a Google, but the only match I could find was this LJ posting ...

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

Now what you 'ave to reelize is this see. Thass Caardiff innit see, an I lives in the Port dun I like. They are diffrunt in Caardiff more Welshy like see so draggin a donkey round the corner is possible... but all the streets in splott (now pronounced by estate agents as Splow, to rhyme with slow) 'aves short names so the english incomers can spell them. Names like Morgan St, Mary St, Bute St (thass scottish after 'is lordship)
As for the welsh word for p'lice well we don't say it very often if we can help it cos we speaks Wenglish round yer and we calls them p'leece like what you does
I looked on the BBC and on several other sites and there is no mention of the donkey so I think it was probably a Woganism - I suspect that any donkey that lay down in a street in Caardiff would be whisked away and served up in one of the kebab shops.

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

After all, a dead Donkey would be far more likely to be found in Splott than anywhere else around there...

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

That's a long way to take a dead donkey....

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

In your literal Old English translation of the poem a friend of mine had written, sometime back in the early 'eighties, you used the word "splot" (could have been two Ts actually). I'm trying to remember the context, but you got it from a dictionary.