Bowyangs

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Bowyangs are pieces of cord, rope, or leather that are tied around the wearer's lower legs. A "bowyang" is a single piece of the tie.

Contents

Types

Australia and New Zealand

Bowyangs come in several varieties:

These devices are commonly used in Australia and New Zealand by agricultural workers and those who frequently work in a stooped position. They are a particular feature of the dress of a shearer and are used, nowadays, worldwide by them. The statue of a ploughman and his plough on the war memorial on North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia has a man wearing bowyangs.

England and Scotland

In England, bowyangs (but not by that name - in Norfolk, they were called Elijahs) were an integral feature of “gorblimey trousers”, baggy corduroy trousers worn by e.g. coalmen and dustmen as featured in the song “My Old Man’s a Dustman” by Lonnie Donegan. In some parts of Scotland, they were known as “Nicky-tams”, and are the subject of a traditional Bothy Ballad of the same name.

Associated types

See also

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