Regional Expressions Still a Mystery

Well, I'll Go to the Foot of Our Stairs

"An exclamation of surprise or disbelief, roughly 'well, I never!'"

A classic Northern English exclamation of astonishment, strongly associated with Yorkshire and also heard across Lancashire and the wider North. The earliest documented use found so far is from 1939, in Peter Chamberlain's short story "Shrimps," where a barman exclaims: "Well, I'll go to our 'ouse! You don't say? Shrimps! Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs." The phrase was popularised nationally soon after by Tommy Handley on the BBC radio comedy ITMA during the 1940s. Some families, including plenty in Yorkshire, tell a charming explanation for it: that the phrase comes from hearing news so exciting you'd need to go to the bottom of the staircase to shout it up to the rest of the household. It's a lovely story, and it fits the meaning perfectly, but no dialectologist or etymologist has ever traced it back to an actual incident or a documented first use that confirms it. Why a staircase specifically became shorthand for astonishment is, honestly, anyone's guess.

Myth vs. FactPopular family folklore says the phrase began with someone shouting big news up the stairs to the rest of the house. It's a genuinely plausible story and matches the phrase's meaning, but it isn't attested in any dialect dictionary or etymological source. The documented history only goes back as far as a 1939 short story and Tommy Handley's radio use soon after, both of which already treat it as an established saying rather than a brand new coinage.

Sources: Earliest identified use in Peter Chamberlain's 1939 short story 'Shrimps' (Under Thirty: An Anthology); popularised via Tommy Handley's BBC radio programme ITMA (1939-1949); documented as a Northern English exclamation in regional dialect scholarship, with the specific staircase metaphor's origin unconfirmed.

Well, I'll Go to the Foot of Our Stairs

Quick react

Discuss