Norfolk County Council is preparing the gritters in readiness for winter. They have 55 lorries, and this year held a competition to name each one. Asking the public for names is always dodgy [BoatyMcBoatface] BBC Radio Norfolk, and the Eastern Daily Press helped. Over 600 entries, mostly from children and local schools. They have just published the list of the winning names. You can tell the majority of entrants were children! I am impressed by a four year old suggesting Control Salt Delete [I suspect parental influence there]
Many refer to famous people or films, some [in red] are folk with Norfolk connections, others relate to the Canaries [Norwich FC] Some I found a little confusing [Doris? Gracie?] In Norfolk dialect, great is pronounced grit. One in six have ice in the name somewhere. One in 3 include ice. One in 8 have salt.
My own Norfolk favourites are Edith Gravel [Miss Cavell's name often mispronounced, but her family insist the emphasis is on the first syllable, so this one works well] and On the ball, Gritty [the Canaries song is the world's oldest football chant] And I think it is lovely to have Kitt The Grit. Terry Kitt was Assistant Norfolk County Surveyor for many years, and responsible for winter maintenance. That was his nickname at work. He died last year. and this is a fine tribute.
|
|
|
Which is your favourite name in this list?
And what would you call a gritter?
I investigated Suffolk CC and found they'd had a competition to name the gritter lorries at the 2024 Suffolk Show and have 38 named - very similar to some of Norfolk names.
ReplyDeleteIt's many many years since Colin drove a gritter but I can remember the odd hours (overtime thankfully) and him coming home really cold in horrible weather. 1981 was a bad one.
I bet NCC got the idea from Suffolk! 78/79 was bad too. I remember a wedding in February had to be cancelled, because the bride [a farmer's daughter] couldn't get to the church!
DeleteI bet someone suggested the Bay Gritty Rollers. What about Holkham Spray?
ReplyDelete🤣❄❄❄🤣
DeleteYou got some really clever names there!
ReplyDelete❄❄❄We have! ❄❄❄
DeleteIf we ever saw a gritter down our road we would rush out and cheer. All winter the nearby residents have to park on the main road leading to our estate so we can all get about in the snow as we live on a hill in a cul de sac and the only way out is by driving up the hill....impossible in snow and ice. The council leave us a gritbin but don't refill it and often it is used as a litter bin, so when you need grit and open the lid you get crisp bags! There are so many cars now if you don't bag a space quickly on the main road you end up down near the village a quarter of a mile away, and that is a long way to trudge through snow with your groceries. Because of all the hills here the buses always stop running so you can get stranded in town 7 miles away and have to walk home. My daughters often had to walk the 4 miles home through the snow when the school buses stopped running. I sometimes think our local authority only have the one gritter, so I would name it 'useless' !!
ReplyDelete❄❄❄ that does sound difficult!❄❄❄
DeleteI rather like Usain Salt. I will check if East Sussex name their gritters, Brighton name their buses. Regards Sue H
ReplyDelete❄❄❄
DeleteOur area has been doing this for a number of years and many have a Scottish connection-Lewis Caploughdi, Oh Plougher of Scotland, Chilly Connolly. Also Spready Mercury, Taylor Drift and we also had Control, Salt, Delete. The names change after a few years to give a new generation of pupils a chance to name a gritter. Catriona
ReplyDeleteThese are fun ❄❄❄ I like Chilly Connolly ❄❄❄ What about Oscar winning PETER Caploughdi? [2nd cousin of Lewis] ❄❄❄
ReplyDelete