BristolUK

@Lorry

Your song?

Lorry1

WTF?

Gordon Barlow

No, not really. I've heard southerners joking about the Watford Gap for forty years or more.

dbd33

Assuming you're from the north, past actual Watford, you'll be misinterpreting what they say, viewing it through a cultural filter. They'll say "Watford, end of earth" something like that, and you'll interpret it as referring to the Watford Gap because, being from the north, your perceptions are northern. To people from London, Watford is already at the end of the earth. The concept that, in the north, there's a place called the Watford Gap is of no interest at all.

It's similar to Canadians thinking that, when people in the rest of the world make mention of "London" they mean London Ontario. It's not the case but if you come from somewhere a bit bog trotty you tend not to see the wider picture.

Gordon Barlow

Actually, I'm Australian-born and bred, and became an Englishman ( "a Henglish", as the say in the Caribbean, only in recent times. But I have been an expat for fifty years, and most of my friends during that time have been southern English. It's from them that I learnt about the Watford Gap. Maybe it's "expat talk" - but in my experience it's in no way limited to northerners.

Aviator

Watford Gap is not southern England talk, we always said north of watford, never heard it with watford gap, perhaps that's northerner talk, definitely not the parts of the south I hailed from anyways.

Howefamily

I am from the South of England and everyone there that I have conversed with on that subject calls it the Watford Gap, everything north of the Watford Gap is "up norf"

dbd33

The Watford Gap is in the far north, it's beyond Watford so in conversation the "Gap" is redundant and syntactically awkward.

"Never 'eard of it, must be north of Watford"

is something one might hear in a pub

"One is unfamiliar with that location, it must be north of the Watford Gap"

is not a phrase I've ever heard but I suppose it might be the sort of thing one would say in a golf club. I don't find it credible though, why would people have heard of a minor topographical feature somewhere in the tundra? Watford people know because it has a football team, one that had a flamboyant owner.

Howefamily

No idea, never even gave it that much thought

dbd33

You wouldn't, not in England. Here, however, time hangs heavily.

pthom

I'm originally from the Midlands and the comment was often made there was that Southerners didn't think anything existed north of Watford Gap. This may explain it:-

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watford_Gap

P

dbd33

The Midlands, being north of Watford, are part of the north. That's why you'll have learned this northerner talk.

scrubbedexpat091

Tornado touches down in southwest Manitoba, lasts nearly 3 hours - Manitoba - CBC News

Former Lancastrian

The Midlands being south of Cheshire etc is where you will hear Southerners talking about this gap north of Watford.

AlliF

It has been pretty extreme in Winnipeg/MB for the last week or so - temps up into the 30's almost every day (with humidex values of up to 40) and not cooling down below 20's overnight. Feel like I'm back in Aus.
Massive storms, tornado warnings in the last few days 😳
But just give it a few months and the wooly gloves will be getting dusted off again..