My Grandparents used to call the dustbin collectors ,The Miskin menI wondered about that and even Googled but did not get much. I've guessed that they are what I used to know as Dustbins but I might be wrong....
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Old street pics..
- Thread starter Astoness
- Start date
Susan shaw
master brummie
Happy days.
Susan shaw
master brummie
I remember going to Dymchurch in Kent early sixties to visit my moms oldest brother. One of the very few family holidays. My dad called the dustbin the miskin and my cousins hadn’t got a clue what he was talking about. Happy days.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
I suppose miskins could be positioned to hide suffs, another word maybe known to folk who knew what miskins were ... 
I had never heard a drain referred to as a 'suff' but looking through the 'old evening mail' pics, I noticed the word 'suff' in the caption underneath the 1960's Ladywood picture below.
Smudger
master brummie
I can remember my dad saying to me "You`d better bring the dog into the house, the middin men are coming "
Michael_Ingram
gone but not forgotten
Never heard of suff oldMohawk!!!!!! Are you a fake Brummie or are you posh
Susan shaw
master brummie
Wonderful picture old Mohawk. Can relate so much to it. I am back in my nans yard in Gopsal street. She lived further down than us and her yard was bigger. Two families shared the brewhouse in our yard and we had a communal toilet. I remember my mom lighting the fire under the the built in tub, in her wellies. A line of clean washing when we came home from school and leftovers from Sunday and hot rice pudding. I note that in a lot of old photographs yards are referred to as courts. I do not remember that at all. I have a couple of old photos of my nans yard somewhere,, cannot find them yet. I would love for you to see them. Kind regards,I suppose miskins could be positioned to hide suffs, another word maybe known to folk who knew what miskins were ...
Susan shaw
master brummie
I can assure you Michael, the word suff existed to us Brummies. We are neither fake or posh, just proper Brummies.
He he.
Kind regards Brummie Sue
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
When I was a lad drains were drains and dustbins were dustbins ... never heard of suffs and miskins. I suppose we mainly put ash from the kitchen fire in our bin and maybe should have called it an ashbin. We used to call 'binmen' 'dustmen' ... I called them 'dustmen' in an old post from long ago
A dustman at work in Alexandra Rd, they carried the rubbish in tin baths on their heads. The dogs look a little excited but they stay on the footpath.
Our dog used to go berserk when dustmen came, he could hear them before they got near to our road.
michaelwicks54
Aston bred & proud.
My mum always told me & my brothers the clean the Suff outside, meaning the drain. Where the word comes from is a mystery. Maybe it is to do with the pipework. Never heard the word Miskins though. This is a new one.I suppose miskins could be positioned to hide suffs, another word maybe known to folk who knew what miskins were ...
michaelwicks54
Aston bred & proud.
I know my dear mum never called the waste bins Dustbins. She always called them "Ashbins", as it was where the ash from the fires were put.
Michael_Ingram
gone but not forgotten
My mate's mom who lived down the back yard always referred to the suff; they lived right next to the miskins and the lavs opposite the brew ouse
Susan shaw
master brummie
Brilliant Michael.
Michael_Ingram
gone but not forgotten
Where we lived the pig bins were in the street on the pavement
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
With lavs being mentioned in #5756 some were so bad they removed them even in the old days ...as shown in a post below. No miskins or suffs in the pics.
birminghamhistory.co.uk
Staniforth Street
hi folks could i ask you all to keep your eyes open for any pic of staniforth st please...it was off corporation st... many thanks lynne im pretty sure ive not seen this one before it was in one of the books our kid gave me today...dated 1967
birminghamhistory.co.uk
Eric Gibson
master brummie
My ma-in law called the dustbin the miskin and I recall dad used to say "Down the suff." ................. He was from Barton's Bank too Maurice.
Brookfields Lad
master brummie
In Brookfields where I grew up, Miskins and Suff was used regularly by my dad.
michaelwicks54
Aston bred & proud.
I just got informed that a miskin was a pit or covered area where daily rubbish was disposed of.
DavidGrain
master brummie
Suff is a word perculiar to the West Midlands meaning the drain.
Shakespeare used it in Troilius and Cressida Act 5 Scene 1 when one servant insults the master of another servant. Except that in most copies of the play it now says south instead of suff because some printer made a typo which makes nonsense of the passage:
Why, his masculine whore. Now, the rotten diseases
of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs,
loads o' gravel i' the back, lethargies, cold
palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing
lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas,
limekilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ache, and the
rivelled fee-simple of the tetter, take and take
again such preposterous discoveries!
Shakespeare used it in Troilius and Cressida Act 5 Scene 1 when one servant insults the master of another servant. Except that in most copies of the play it now says south instead of suff because some printer made a typo which makes nonsense of the passage:
Why, his masculine whore. Now, the rotten diseases
of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs,
loads o' gravel i' the back, lethargies, cold
palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing
lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas,
limekilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ache, and the
rivelled fee-simple of the tetter, take and take
again such preposterous discoveries!
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Susan shaw
master brummie
WOW!
mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
what a nice pic of the BB.Thanks.... and welcome to the forum.