'Yer jerking, merr rerd werks': Signs poking fun at Hull accent make a comeback

Tongue-in-cheek road signs poking fun at the local accent have made a return to a Yorkshire city.

Signs, reading "Err Nerr, Rerd Werks" ("Oh no, road works"), first appeared on the streets of Hull in 2018, when civil engineering company M.B. Roche started using them in the hope that it made sitting in traffic "a little less painful".

They were joined in 2020 by a new design reading "Yer Jerking, Merr Rerd Werks" ("You're joking, more road works").

The signs have now made a return, with a new one appearing on Beverley Road between Hessle and Anlaby.

The signs have divided people in the city.

One member of the Hull Traffic and Travel Facebook group said: "I had to smile tonight reading a doctored road sign. 'Ooh Nerr, men at werk on rerd' just before Spire Hospital."

Another struggled to see the funny side though, responding: "The way that reads is as if we come from another solar system, I've never in my 65 years heard anyone speak the way that reads."

In a nod to Hull's dialect, the signs that read "Yer Jerking, Merr Rerd Werks" include a fake traffic symbol showing two people on a bicycle.

The text suggests that the practice – known locally as a "croggie" – is banned on the stretch of road where the roadworks are taking place, although this is suspected to be tongue-in-cheek.

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