5 - WHAT IS A “WELY”? – Is the word obsolete or is it still used in Somerset. I have

met with it in some building accounts dated 1488. A spade is entered as costing 5d,

and iron rake 5d, two barrows 6d (these I imagine to be four-handled for two men to

carry), a pail 4d, while a “wely” costs a shilling. This will give some idea of the

comparative vale of the tools mentioned. Was a “wely” a pulley? – T.B.D.

 

5 - WHAT IS A WELY – This may be a mis-spelling or a corruption of the word

“willy” given in Jenning’s “Somerset Dialect,” as being a term applied to basket made

of willow. A basket would be quite in place amongst building materials – Diogenes

 

5 - WELY – OR WILLY? – Mr F.T.Elworthy, in “The West Somerset Word Book,”

gives the following definition:- “Willy – A large basket – of a shape deep rather than

flat. The word would not be used for any shallow basket, nor for one having a bent

handle from side to side. A willy has two small handles at the upper edge, one

opposite the other. There are half-bag willies, quarter-bag willies, and two-bushel

willies, made to hold the specified quantities.” I have often seen such baskets attached

to pullies, and used by builders for the purpose of conveying bricks and other material

from the ground to high platforms where man were at work. – W.S.

 

5 – WHAT IS A “WELY” – I agree with Diogenes that the word wely mentioned in

the building accounts, dated 1488, is a basket and not a pully. A “willy” (willow)

basket was quite a common expression in my younger days, and when one recalls to

mind that the willow from which the baskets were made is Welie, welige in Anglo

Saxon, the suggestion is strengthened – W G Willis Watson.

 

5 – “WELY,” OR “WILLY” – When I was a lad – a good many years since – I

remember a willy basket – it was similar to what the coal merchants now use, only

larger, more upright sides, and deeper, and it had a handle either side – L