Being sent to Coventry

[Muddlingalongalone]

Currently reading Malory Towers with dd1 (8).
Apparently her teacher doesn't know the phrase "Being sent to Coventry"
He is very young. 1-2 yrs post NQT but even so I was surprised.
Do you know what it means?
What other phrases are "old fashioned" now?

I definitely learnt it from Blyton too - will do a poll at work tomorrow to see whether it's a generational thing.
We have an office in Coventry, so I think about it regularly.

Slightly different but similar confusion at work was let's go to the pub for POETS day.

I remember it from Blyton but also vaguely from learning the origins of the phrase in school.

“Gone to see a man about a dog” is that just “gone on a non-specific errand”? Or does it have a set meaning? I was never fully sure of that one.

“Free gratis and for nothing” and AWOL are not old fashioned, are they?

I used the phrase "all quiet on the Western Front" at work......blank stares from all the under-30s 😂😂

My dad used gone to see a man about a dog as code for gone to the pub.

I'm 35 and know what it means, also from Enid Blyton books.

POETS day - piss off early tomorrow's Saturday haven't heard that for years, my dad used to say that!

I only know because of Enid blyton. It's a pretty outdated term.

May with my DDad it usually meant where he was going was none of your business but I think the generally accepted usage is gone to do something you don't want to explain (jobcentre, toilet, court )
My dad used to say it a LOT around Christmas time when we were little and DMum only recently told me he'd say when he was going out to buy presents for me

I thought 'man about a dog' meant 'none of your business'. Is there another meaning?

I’m familiar with these sayings. The Coventry one seems to go way back in time, with several thoughts on the origin.
My parents referred to Friday as Poets Day throughout my childhood.
I didn’t know what it meant until I did just that.

I've known about it for a long time - does anyone else know "Charley's dead?" as a phrase with a specific meaning?

"Swinging the lead" gets me blank stares.

used the phrase "all quiet on the Western Front" at work......blank stares from all the under-30s

^

I use this all the time! I'm 37...

Man about a dog is mind your own business, no?

I know all of these...aw fuck i’m old. Would ghosting be the modern day Coventry?

I'm 39 and know.

But again that's from Malory Towers, St Claire's and probably Enid Bluton in general!

I have to admit I don't know the Origen though, if someone would like to me plain?!

I know it because of Enid Blyton, as does my daughter!

My Dad used to say, I’ll be there in two shakes of a donkey’s tail. Not heard that for a while.

Two shakes of a lambs tail round here.

When I had recently moved to Yorkshire I completed some work, my new collegue said oh, you can go and swing in a hammock.

Scarborough warning.

Ahhh two shakes of a lambs tail is another one my dad used to say. I miss hearing him talk

My grandfather always used to say that he couldn’t do something “because I’ve got a bone in my leg”, and his age was “as old as my tongue, and a little older than my teeth”.

Seeing a man about a dog is going for a piss.
So is turning the bike around.

Although sending someone to Coventry is actually exclusionary bullying

Yes I know, but only through Mallory Towers. I can't imagine young people would know, it's an old fashioned term.

Ashamed to say I've never read Enid Blyton. I recognise all those sayings. I also work with youngsters who look at me really oddly when i use these or talk about old TV shows, even 60s pop music.

It’s a term which refers to the English civil war. There was a church which was used as a prison for one side (the royalists?). Coventry was firmly on the other side (Roundheads?) and so no one would speak with the prisoners.

I read that on a plaque on the church used as a prison. It’s in the city centre somewhere.

Yes it means noone acknowledges you or talks to you.