Yellowbellies the world around celebrate all things Lincolnshire on October 1st – Lincolnshire Day. But who, or what, are yellowbellies, we hear you ask?
A Yellowbelly is a person who is native to the glorious county of Lincolnshire. This is, of course, different to yellow-belly, which means a coward in most places!
There are as many theories about the origins of this term as there are yellowbellies themselves. Here are just some of the wonderful theories about where it comes from.
The Lincolnshire Regiment wore yellow waistcoats as part of their uniform and their nickname was then used for anyone from the county. According to the Sealed Knot Society, officers directing the Lincolnshire troops in the civil war, wore yellow sashes in battle.
Much of the county was fenland and under water - draining the fens started with the Romans and was still in progress in the 19th Century. As a consequence, many of the yellowbelly theories are related to our watery past.
Before the fens were drained, many residents suffered from a malaria-like illness. One theory has it that the illness caused jaundice, which makes the skin go yellow, and another that the remedy caused the same effect.
Lincolnshire’s fen dwelling ancestors were susceptible to developing a yellow fungus on their stomachs in damp weather. The fenland mud was said to be yellow - colouring the bellies of poachers as they stalked game.
The Lincolnshire stagecoaches travelling to York and London, and back, were painted yellow, according to another theory, so that the mud wouldn’t show.
The fertile drained soil was used to grow mustard, giving us another theory that the crop stained the aprons of the farm workers giving them and the resident sheep a yellow belly.
Finally, the rural deaneries in the diocese of Lincoln still use the names they had when they were Saxon wapentakes. The fen area was Elloe Bellie or Ye Elloe Bellie - which might roughly translate to “out of the boggy hole” and which may well have spread in usage, so that Lincolnshire people became known as yellowbellies.
Do you know of any other theories? Which is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below, or on Facebook and Twitter using #Yellowbelly.
Thanks to Sue Dowman for her Yellowbelly knowledge.
