Just plain Yorkshire folk. Mind you, both my kids were born and raised in the Midlands, and sound like it most of the time. But then my daughter turns to my granddaughter with "Oi! Was tha born in a field wi' t' gate open? Shove t'wood in th'ole!"

Meanwhile my grsndson raised eyebrows at school bt referring to his six-foot- four-inch PE teacher as "That great long streak of yesterdays' dishwater!"

As to 'no better than she should be', apparently it originated in the 18th Century as a disparaging comment on the conduct of a woman who had 'married above her station' without acquiring the mannersims and attitudes of her husbands' circle.

By the 19th Century it had become a phrase used by working-class women to obliquely condemn a woman whose sexual morality was questionable. It had largely passed out of use by the 1960s, but my great-grandmother (who died in the week I turned 18), was born in 1881, so could be excused. From speaking with my Dad, I'm given to understand that the neighbour in question was an attractive widow in her 40s with a 'gentleman caller' who frequently stayed the night but showed no signs of seeking matrimony. This would be in the 1960s or so, when such arrangements were not commonplace among the working classes in Hull. Great-Grandma Byatt was far too proper to call anyone a slut, so 'no bettter than she should be' was as close as she came to openly condemning such goings-on.

As my grandfather used to say "There's nowt as strange as folk. Bar me and thee. though now I think about it, tha's a bit odd as well!"