Basil Weir

TARRY TOOT I am 85 yrs old now, living in California, but think often in Geordie which I consider to be as legitimate as any other language such as French. In my childhood in Silksworth which has been swallowed up by Sunderland we kids played around the pit head and scrounged anything that was not nailed down. One item was TARRY TOOT which was hemp rope taken out of steel hauling cable. This rope was saturated with some kind of oil and had an interesting property. If lighted with a match it would burn steadily for hours but not with an open flame, just a flameless burning. If the rope was long enough this would continue for hours until it was all consumed. The ash if untouched would have the exact form of the rope. I can imagine that in a primitive society it would be useful to keep the community cook fire lighted. For us kids it was amusing.