What was the word in question?
“ni##er in the wood pile.”
Could have been the N word but it’s very possible it was the word spade. It didn’t become derogatory in the UK until the mid to late 80s. I only know this because it was used in the song “All The Way From Memphis” ( 1973 ) by Mott the Hoople.
In the song the word spade was used to describe a bus porter. It just fell into disuse here at the time as among other things, Archie Bunker was using it. Took the UK a while to catch up.
NAGGER!!!