Yellowbelly (Copthorne)

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A yellowbelly is a native-born resident of Copthorne, West Sussex, England. The origin of this nickname is lost in history, but a number of explanations have been offered in Copthorne - a story so far, the book written for the village's Millennium Celebrations, in the chapter by Joy Day entitled Traditions and Characters. These include:

The Gypsies on the common traditionally placed a gold sovereign on the belly buttons of new-born children
The early Saxons living in this area would use yellow ochre found in the local clay to colour the walls of their homes
Bellies became yellow due to crawling through the fields of buttercups whilst poaching
In a local iron quarry the men became covered in yellow dust
Any outsider wishing to marry a Copthorne girl had to cross their prospective bride's belly with gold sovereigns
Copthorne Rovers (football club) were known as Yellow Bellies, and it was from the footballers that the nickname came into being
The old villagers wore gold strapped to their bellies
There was also a slanderous story perpetuated by the residents of the neighbouring village Crawley Down who queried in which direction certain unmentionable lavatorial ablutions were carried out
Because smugglers would run away (afraid) if they thought they were likely to be caught
They used to smelt iron and make charcoal in the woods around Copthorne, they used to strip to the waist and their skins turned yellow in the smoke