A Phrase We All Use...

[AndiFlatland]

Does anybody know the origin of the phrase 'Going Like the Clappers'?

[Baldric]

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/like-the-clappers.html

Any help?

[frugalfred]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=going%20like%20the%20clappers

[RATTER15]

The phrase that confuses me is:

"Well Bugger me!"

People are then confused when I politely say "i'd rather not if you dont mind!"

[frugalfred]

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060903093816AA9VmAL

[DTCwordfan]

Apparently, Welsh origin - folk on Hel Ynyd, or Shrove Tuesday to us more logical people, would turn out and receive gifts of farmers fine flour, milk, lard etc. Eggs were clapped for and boys went about with two stones as clappers. In front of a farm house they clapped away with speed and received for their pains a gift of eggs.

Personally, I would have thought an ambulance driver with a dose of the claps was far more reasonable.............

[craft1948]

lol Ratter I said that once when working in London. One of the natives asked me if it was a quaint Yorkshire custom.........

[AndiFlatland]

Very speedy responses from you all!
Seems to be a general consensus that it's to do with the ringing of bells at certain times in past centuries, and has been appropriated by the British forces to describe any kind of movement in a great hurry. That sounds plausible to me. A friend of mine suggested pretty much the same thing, so I think we've nailed that one!
Many thanks, all.

[Quizmonster]

Ratter, though the word bugger has been used as a verb since the late 17th century, the earliest recorded use of the phrase you ask about appeared in a letter written by the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, in 1936.
It's not so very different from the "F... me!" variant, really and - in the latter case - your response may not be so negative in the right circumstances!