The Goldings Thesaurus

Leslie Thomas author of "The Virgin Soldiers"  who was evacuated to Goldings in 1945 wrote:  Through generations of boys a slang had been evolved at Dickies, an insular language that left strangers mystified, and you had to learn from the start.

These are just a few of the words used by Goldings boys, if you know of any more please advise. As we had boys from around the UK some of these slang words came from their original home, some of these are from years past and not used in later years. Please remember that most of the slang originated from the Stepney Home in the East End of London and other regional Branch homes.

Note The word Stivers or stiver which was pronounced stevers I note from the 1950 Winter edition Mr. Wheatley used this very word stivers in his notes called Personal Equation click here to view The truth is quite simple. One of the early carpentry or was it a print masters was named Steve Penny so in Goldings slang a penny became a stevea.

Explanation of Dickies: the name applies only to the Kingston Home boys and is in memory of Richard (Dick) Gardener who was with Dr Barnardo's Homes for some 40 years, the last part at Kingstone" his boys became known as one of Dickies boys. If this was the real reason I can't say but old Kingstone boy Leslie Thomas wrote: Through generations of boys a slang had been evolved at Dickies, an insular language that left strangers mystified, and you had to learn from the start. Yet, strangely, the very word '"Dickies" had grown without anyone being able to recall or even guess its origin. It was just called Dickies and nobody knew why. A boy was a kid or, more generally, a guy. Thus a boy from the home was a Dickie guy. Once a lad called Frank Knights, who went to a grammar school, wrote a letter to' 'the London Evening News and signed it Dickie Guy and it was published with that name under it.