Haway / Ha'Way / Howay / Ho'way The Lads - Origin?

[super ally]

Pretty sure it was almost always Haway in the whole of the north east, then thinking about it howay seemed to appear a few years after I noticed the club started using Mackem. I remember having an official T shirt with SuperMackems written on it in the late eighties/early nineties, and I think howay appeared somewhere after that.

Made up bollocks to just be a bit different.

Christ, I'm googling Newcastle stuff.

So apparently a bloke from Seaham and a bloke from Nottinghamshire brought out a single in 1974 called "Howway the Lads!" as The Barrie Brothers.

So the spelling is wrong, and it still sound like they are saying Haway, but it goes back further than I thought.

 

[woodlebert]

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If you can get on twitter, there’s an interesting thread on it above.

Superb

 

[70s traveller]

Or in a Norfolk Twang
Hawaay Let's be having you !! ....

Evening Delia

 

[Houghtoner]

Reading everything in here looks as if it’s not an exact science in terms of origin but as a Sunderland fan I’d never write “howay” if it’s in reference to us as a club or area.

 

[Ark]

Howay is the Newcastle mating call

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[DonaldDownTheWing]

I was always led to believe it meant from how deep the lift was going to take the miners down the pit. Haway coming from half way?

 

[PrisonBroken]

I always just shout waythalads as nonsensical as I can make it


Edit until the chorus when it is ha way the lads

 

[Twisted]

Howay chop his f***ing head off, kill all the gays and slaughter the babies women and children in Yemen as long as wa can sign some geet good playas

Haway the lads

We say haway, they say howay.
They say yemen, we say hyem.

 

[Shandy drinker]

H’way haddaway or howah as Brian Moore would say

 

[Dave Hosselhaff]

No

Stan Cummins, what a player. Was about 8 like.

 

[70YearsOfHurt]

We say haway, they say howay.
They say yemen, we say hyem.

Excellent - a nice bit of humour

 

[Dodgy]

Thought it was a mining term, when miners going down into the pit would shout half-way so they could get ready to start work. Hence, ha'way would make sense, ho for half makes no sense, not to me anyway. Also, miners coming up would shout ha'way as they would be excited to be finishing work, very similar to our fans, when the team on the attack.

It is/was. Not quite as you've said but certainly a mining phrase. I've posted on the matter numerous times over the years.

It was from the days when there was only one pulley lift in pits and the cry of "ha' way" indicated that the lift was half way up or down when shifts crossed, so that access was clear, in a similar way to sailors using "up top" and "below" for clearance of access hatches.

Thus, howay is a slight bastardisation of it, though it has been argued that it is a similar "hold your way".

Not for me, though. Haway is right: howay wrong.

 

[Chop Sauce]

Mags hate it that Mackems do it right! Only a proper melon would say howay.

 

[Vauxie]

A guy wrote a book on regional divisions which included dialect. You can probably still get it somewhere. You’ll have to do some searching on it though as can’t remember what it’s called

Was he an american?

 

[stan the man]

I remember hearing me old dad saying hadaway, long before I ever heard Haway.....So, I personally think Haway is a derivative of Hadaway

(from Collins English Dictionary)
Definition of 'hadaway'
hadaway in British English
Northeast England dialect,
an exclamation urging the hearer to refrain from delay in the execution of a task.

 

[Vauxie]

I remember hearing me old dad saying hadaway, long before I ever heard Haway.....So, I personally think Haway is a derivative of Hadaway

(from Collins English Dictionary)
Definition of 'hadaway'
hadaway in British English
Northeast England dialect,
an exclamation urging the hearer to refrain from delay in the execution of a task.

I'm going with that Stan.

 

[Dodgy]

I remember hearing me old dad saying hadaway, long before I ever heard Haway.....So, I personally think Haway is a derivative of Hadaway

(from Collins English Dictionary)
Definition of 'hadaway'
hadaway in British English
Northeast England dialect,
an exclamation urging the hearer to refrain from delay in the execution of a task.

Unless you're considerably older than me, I've heard both Haway and Hadaway used for upwards of 50 years. As for the Collins definition, that's just completely wrong. Hadaway has never been used to urge someone to refrain from delay, to my knowledge.
It's more akin to a southern "get away with you", meaning go away or occasionally "I don't believe you".

 

[ajsafc]

Can someone with history between Sunderland & Newcastle about who said Ha’Way versus Newcastle’s Howay first and when did this happen? Is there a story behind it?

1642 bro look it up

 

[Vauxie]

Unless you're considerably older than me, I've heard both Haway and Hadaway used for upwards of 50 years. As for the Collins definition, that's just completely wrong. Hadaway has never been used to urge someone to refrain from delay, to my knowledge.
It's more akin to a southern "get away with you", meaning go away or occasionally "I don't believe you".

He is, in fact he's older than mois

 

[diggers22]

I used to have a few pics of them from the 70s with banners with Haway the lads on. Seem to have been erased from the internet now.