Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the testicles [= balls n. (1)].

1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 178: They got us by the cobblers.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 11: I trounced the cobblers off him [...] This made me the leader of the Tiger Yard boys.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene vi: mike: ’E picks ’em up at a ’undred yards. fred: It’s me magnetic cobblers.
1971		T. Murphy Morning After Optimism in Plays: 3 (1994) Scene iv: Get him in the cobblers, Edmund.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 178: Cobblers (awls) Testicles (balls).
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 41: Cobblers are testicles or balls (from cobblers’ stalls or, perhaps, awls).
2003		B. Dark Dirty Cockney Rhy. Sl.

2. rubbish, nonsense [= balls n. (4)].

1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 153: He pleaded [...] that when he was running away he was escaping from the Billy Hill mob. That was a load of cobblers.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 95: Right load of cobblers, all that guff about religion.
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 85: I talked all sorts of cobblers to her about weather and the like.
1977		A. Bleasdale No More Sitting on the Old School Bench (1979) 60: Load of cobblers.
1978		T. Davies More Aus. Nicknames 22: If something is a load of old cobblers it’s really a lot of cobblers’ awls.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 189: Her screamin and goin on like a maniac, let me go you bastards and all that cobblers.
1999		Observer 11 July 32: His claim [...] is a load of old cobblers.
2005		L. Theroux Call of the Weird (2006) 174: It was all cobblers.
2010		Guardian 18 Dec. 38/5: Now I can pick and choose what I do. I’m not contractually obliged to do cobblers .
2011		Independent 5 Oct. 7/2: No cobblers from him about glands or thyroid.