Diddlum

Does anyone remember the Diddlum? When I was a child growing up in Hillfields my mum used to run a saving scheme for friends and neighbours and she called it the Diddlum. Various neighbours would come to the door with a few shillings and say "put this in the Diddlum" and mum would save it for them, to be drawn out for occasions such as holidays and Christmas. She kept a note of every transaction in a large blue book and never charged any interest for the service. Many housewives in those days did not have access to a bank account so the service was gratefully received. It never occurred to me at the time what a strange choice of words it was for a saving scheme.

Ah diddlum, haven't heard that for many years now. My aunt in Holbrooks ran one and my mum saved a pound every week or was it two? Can't remember for sure now but it got us two weeks in sunny Great Yarmouth every year. North Denes camp site! Honestly you could set your stopwatch with us every Cov fortnight. Happy days indeed.

I'd forgotten, but now recall what my elders called the "diddlum box". Apparently, this was a money box, probably wooden, that the family kept, whereby members were expected to pay in a certain amount each payday, for future eventualities like a rainy day. It was so-called because it only needed one family member (in my family's case grandfather allegedly, who was a gambler) to illicitly dip into it, in other words diddle it.

Ooooh! I have a nasty feeling they are called 'swear boxes' now. Nothing is the same the way it was intended.

Mayjan, you’re almost right about a saving bank your mum ran. Why it was called a diddlum? The saver and the banker agreed that whatever the saver saved, say £1 a week, they couldn't take it out for 21 weeks. When the 21 weeks was up the banker would have £21 of the saver's money to hold in safe keeping till it was required. When paying out, the banker would only pay out £20, the other £1 was for them for running the bank. That’s how the name diddlum came about. In those days £20 was a lot of money, but also £1 was to be diddled out of.