I was surprised to see in the photograph of the Craven primary pupils rolling Victorian-style hoops (Gazette, March 27, ‘Hoop-hoop hurrah for Victorian days’), that they are not using the hooked stick that Scottish children used to control the hoops’ progress.
The Scots’ version of the game is called ‘Gird and Cleek’, cleek being the hook, a word found in the northern place name Clickem, often that of a pub or alehouse (‘Hook ‘em in’ and sell them the beer, often bad), or a piece of land ‘hooked in’ to the farm.
Gill Woods’ class, glad they live today and not then, show good sense.
Jeremy Godwin
Penrith
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