Has anyone else heard this saying….

[IncognitoUsername]

… or did my family just make it up?

When I was a child, if the sky was darkening due to incoming rain, my DM would say ‘It’s a bit dark over Will’s mother’s’. I grew up thinking this was a saying everyone used but if I’m honest I can’t remember anyone outside of our family saying it!
My DH thinks I’m crazy - or at least my family is. Please tell me someone else has heard this?!

'It's black over Bill's mothers' my GP would say.
Lancashire.

Never heard that saying, grew up south coast.

Yorkshire here and ‘it’s a bit dark over Bill’s mothers’

'It's a bit black over Bill's mother's' - my dad used to say it. Haven't heard it in years - it's brought me over all nostalgic.

East Midlands here

I hadn't heard it until I moved to Stoke on Trent.

Yes, Bill's mother: also Worcestershire

Interesting that Shakespeare theory, makes sense

Yep, my nan used to say this. We're from London or thereabouts, although she grew up in Sussex. Also, "all round Will's muvvas mother's", referring to going the long way round, or travelling a long way etc running errands. My mum still uses this one sometimes.

How about flying around "like a blue-arsed fly", referring to being v busy and on the move? 😆 I like that one.

I've been known to "go to the foot of my stairs"..

There are loads more, I love old and random sayings.

Bills mothers here in South yorks (with appropriate apostrophe I cba to manually add on phone and autocorrect is refusing to help)

Isn't it funny how all your families knew where Bill/Will's mother lived?

My Mum said this to me on Thursday!

My family used it and continue to use it.

"It's black over the back of Bill's mother's" phrase for when it's looking like rain. I heard it for the first time when I moved to Dudley, West Midlands.

Ironically I worked with a man called Bill, who's mother was in a care home. Colleagues would comment on the sky looking black, and I'd ask where, and they'd point east for example, then weeks later Bill's mothers was in completely the opposite direction. I was seriously disappointed in him the way he shuffled his poor mother around various nursing homes, as I thought it would be so unsettling for her. I just kept my options to myself but he really went down in estimation. It was only years later when Bill's mother passed away that it came up in conversation and I realised my rookie error. 🤣🤣

.. Over our Vera's

I think it's Yorkshire

Yep, 'A bit black over Bill's mother's' Bill being Shakespeare.

East Anglia - not very close to Bill's mother's

Yorkshire: ‘bit black o’er our Bill’s’

Yes, 'dark over Will's mother's' was a thing my family said - Bedfordshire based.

My parents were born in Derby and they would often say "Eeee, it's black over Bill's mother's" when dark rain clouds were gathering over the horizon, We did, as a family, often jokingly wonder who was Bill and where did his mother live...

A decade or so after my parents had passed, I was on a train to Nottingham for work (lived - and still live - on the south coast). Some chap sitting close by looked out the window and said that phrase in a broad Midlands accent. I nearly fell off my seat - it took me right back!

I am certain it originated in the Midlands and has been adopted by southerners in more recent times...

"You're not as green as you're cabbage looking" isn't just a Yorkshire thing.

What is this phrase used for?

Same here. Nottingham

Thi followed a dustcart and thowt it were a wedding- Lancashire

Something didn't live up to expectations.

From NE England and my mum always said it’s black over Will’s mother’s !