Road Scrapers Complaint

Written by Angela Gooch on November 2nd, 2007 in Early Skegness, Herald Newspaper, Human Interest, Social History, Town Council.

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Source: Skegness Herald 4th January 1884

Rather than type out this letter to the editor of the Skegness Herald, I’ve included it as an image because I don’t want to be held responsible for Google having a complete melt down trying to translate it!

It’s revealled that the practice of ‘road scraping’ existed in Skegness in the 1880s. Clearly this employment caused concern amongst pedestrians on the footpaths when the debris from the roads were thrown onto the pavements.

Being a Yorkshire lass, I can offer a rough translation, though some of the words used tax even myself!

The writer, Mr Craw says something like: “Mr Editor, Will you tell the road scrapers through you valuable paper when they haul muck off the roads onto the footpaths again, not to do it on a [work?] night as several folks got [?] more than they bargained for. I heard this said at the Methodist Chapel the other night. If they put [squash?] down I think it ought to be when it’s light nights, and something added to it to make it solid”.

The inclusion of this dialect in the newspaper proves that the letters to the editor were reproduced exactly as received.