Clog

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Hardeep Singh Kohli chooses a word and sets off on an exploration into its origins, meeting people for whom it has different associations. He hopes to learn 15 things along the way. Today's word is 'clog', and etymologist Susie Dent is on hand to explain the origin of the word as a block of wood, which came to mean the footwear as well as the notion of clogging or blocking anything from arteries to drains. Hardeep meets Phil Howard, one of the few remaining clog-makers in Great Britain, and hears tales of three clog-busters who deal with obstructions of all kinds, in drains and down manholes. He also talks to Kate Tattersall who runs the Camden Clog, a group of dancers who trace their dances back to the Lancashire cotton mills, where the millworkers tapped their clogs in time to the machines - a moment of history restaged by Sarah Angliss and Caroline Radcliffe. Producer: Richard Bannerman A Ladbroke production for BBC Radio 4.