I AM writing in response to the "Gobsmacked" article (Hyndburn Citizen, May 16), because I feel I must support Bob Dobson.

In my opinion, he rightly laughed off the criticisms made against his remarks about "Gobbinland".

In 1986 Benita Moore published a book entitled Gobbin Tales, which I do not recollect causing a furore.

Oswaldtwistle folk have always jokingly referred to being "born above or below t'lamp".

In Gobbin Tales, I wrote a light-hearted treatise in which I mentioned that I could not find the word "Gobbin" in my standard English dictionaries.

But in the Chambers' 20th Century dictionary I found the word "Gubbins" - a half-savage race in Devonshire - and I wondered whether possibly "Gobbin" was a corruption of this, as at one time lots of people migrated from the south, often settling in Lancashire.

If Greg Pope and local dignitaries were to question the older generation in Oswaldtwistle, I think they would find that the word "Gobbin" is treated with amusement.

Mary C Clark

Jubilee Street

Oswaldtwistle

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