A Yellowbelly is a native-born resident of

Copthorne, West Sussex Copthorne is a village in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. It lies close to Gatwick Airport, south of London, north of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the southwest an ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The origin of this

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

is uncertain, but a number of explanations have been offered. These include: * The men of Copthorne used to

smelt Smelt may refer to: * Smelting, chemical process * The common name of various fish: ** Smelt (fish), a family of small fish, Osmeridae ** Australian smelt in the family Retropinnidae and species ''Retropinna semoni'' ** Big-scale sand smelt ''At ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

and make

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

in the woods around the village, stripped to the waist, and their bellies turned yellow in the smoke; *Copthorne Rovers, a local soccer club, was known as the Yellow Bellies, and the nickname was then applied to the whole community; * Bellies became yellow while crawling through fields of

buttercup ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about almost 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed in Europe, ...

s to poach game; * In a local

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

, the men became covered in yellow dust; * The

gypsies The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

on the common placed a gold sovereign on the belly buttons of their new-born children;Joy Day, "Traditions and Characters" in ''Copthorne: the story so far'' (Copthorne Village Millennium Group, 1999) * The early

Saxons The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

living in this area used

yellow ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

, found in the local clay, to colour the walls of their homes; * An outsider wishing to marry a Copthorne girl had to cross their prospective bride's belly with gold sovereigns; * The old villagers wore gold strapped to their bellies * A scurrilous story was spread by the residents of the neighbouring village of

Crawley Down Crawley Down is a small village in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. There is one church, one school, and a number of social groups. It lies seven miles from Gatwick Airport. The next nearest railway stations are Three Bridges an ...

about urination habits in Copthorne; and *Local

smugglers Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

would run away if they thought they were likely to be caught. The Crooked Brook Beer Company Limited, a brewery in Copthorne, was known until 2014 as the Yellowbelly Brewery.Crooked Brook Beer Company Limited
copthorne.cylex-uk.co.uk, accessed 14 August 2022

References

{{Reflist

External links

Copthorne Village history page
History of West Sussex Regional nicknames Mid Sussex District

See also

References

External links