Be Ye Sure To Shut The Gate

Published 9 March 2014

Be Ye Sure To Shut The Gate

The Coast to Coast is not just home to messages left on gates, but also poetry too.

High up on the North York Moors, the Coast to Coast passes by a microwave radio station, and in earlier times owners British Telecom erected an information panel to inform people of what went on there.

The sign was positively ancient – a fact revealed by the presence of BT’s T logo that was abandoned in 1991 – but had had a slightly more recent message added on by some unknown person.

Be ye man or be ye woman
Be ye going or be ye comin
Be ye soon or be ye late
Be ye sure to shut the gate

Beacon Hill Microwave Station info panel

Comments

jay

4 October 2015 at 1:47 am

Any one know the origin of above, have heavy iron piece with
man guan wumman comin be ye sune or be ye late sure to shut this gate. If anyone knows anything about appreciate help. Thanks

Amanda

15 November 2016 at 3:41 am

It’s an 18th century Scottish proverb, if memory serves.

Rusty Jarmain

5 August 2021 at 1:05 pm

The era was early to mid-1950s and the place Fish Hoek, a small but affluent township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. More precisely, it was a homestead garden backing on the False Bay shoreline. The garden was “home” to a wonderfully conceived community of dolls representing families going about their daily chores. A plaque on the gate bore the verse, printed in stylized lettering with the phrase “BE YE” enlarged to initiate the first two and third and fourth lines respectively. My age has more than quadrupled since my last reading of the verse, so you will hopefully understand if memory fails, however slightly.

With this proviso, it read as follows:

BE YE man or be wumman,
” ” sune or be ye late,
BE YE comin or be ye goin,
” ” sure to shut the gate.

Thank you.
Rusty

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