DOBBIE
Jeremy Harte:
What is a dobbie anyway? The OED says it appears from 1811 onwards as a name for a household ghost: the references come from the Border Country, but this is probably just a side-effect of Sir Walter Scott, and there would be Yorkshire forms of equal age. Master Dobbs is recorded in Sussex, a parallel formation. The name comes from Dob, like Hob a pet name for Robin, and so applied to spirits to make them that little bit more familiar. (Have you noticed how many pub ghosts are called Charlie? Very strange).
I had assumed that the word was cognate with Caribbean duppy, but the OED gives references for this from 1774 onwards and says "understood to be of African origin"; though afterwards used for spirits in general, it originally refers to ghosts/revenants, and so has a separate shade [sic] of meaning from Northern dobbie.
NOON HILLS
Val Shepherd, Bradford:
Re query about Noon Hills, a few hundred yards from my house is Noon Nick (SE 1200 3620), at 750 ft ASL (I am 800 ft ASL).
It is on the side of a hill looking N towards Rombalds Moor (Ilkley) and consists of old cottages dotted about the hill side and some modern houses. It is near to where the Roman? road crossed on its way through Bradford to Harden, the Shipley/Bradford boundary on Stoney Ridge Road and an old boundary stone now destroyed. There is an old draw well there and a public footpath. A stream spreads out to form a bog below the area; Miles Rough glacial overflow channel and pond lies above.
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