WHAT IS A LINCOLNSHIRE YELLOWBELLY?

Over the years there have been many attempts to explain the origin of the nickname applied to those of us born and bred in the ancient county and these are summarised below:

1. A frog native to the Fens has a yellow belly. It may also be an allusion to the eels which inhabit this area of South Lincolnshire.
2. The waistcoat of the uniform of the Lincolnshire Regiment was yellow. The fastenings of the uniform tunic which were known as frogs were also yellow.
3. Opium extracted from poppy heads and taken to relieve malaria which was prevalent in the Fens turned the skin yellow.
4. Bacon hung up and stored for a long time turned yellow (reasty).
5. The backs of farm workers who stripped to the waist in hot weather turned dark brown but their bellies turned yellow!
6. Sheep grazing in mustard fields got yellow tummies!
7. Apparently women market traders wore a leather apron with two pockets -one for copper and silver and one for gold. At the end of a good day they would say they had "a Yellow Belly" meaning they had taken a large number of gold sovereigns!
8. The most convincing suggestion is that the term originated in the name for the Rural Deanery which serves the fen area of the Lincoln Diocese. In turn this took its name from the Saxon Wapentake which was referred to as "Ye Elloe Bellie". Elloe means “out of the morass" and bel was the Celtic word for hole or hollow. Therefore, the original Yellow Bellies were the inhabitants of the Fens and the expression over the centuries has been adopted for all inhabitants of the County.