My little part of the world part V

The historic county of Yorkshire situated in northern England is the largest in the United Kingdom. Within its borders are some of the most beautiful areas of England, including the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors as well as many old industrial towns like Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford. Yorkshire has sometimes been nicknamed God's Own County, it’s emblem is the white rose of the English Royal House of York ( I shan’t mention the War of The Roses for fear of giving offence)



Yorkshire folk are hardy, thrifty and allegedly will never use ten words when one will do. The word blunt comes to mind, although Southerners (the fat lazy people from down south) and Oftcumdens (foreigners) sometimes prefer the word ‘rude‘. Like the rest of England we are a mongrel race and the hand of the Romans, the Vikings, Celts and Anglo-Saxons are omnipresent. Harsh sounding names like Scarborough and Hardcastle, along with the blonde hair of some women show the Viking’s influence and the modern day use of ‘thee’ and thou’ in speech can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxons.

We have cute dogs which make good ratters......



and we are also home to the famous Yorkshire pudding....



The County town is the ancient walled city of York which has a truly beautiful and ancient Cathedral. We Yorkshire folk are very proud of York and when we visit foreign parts we usually build settlements in honour of our county town, the largest to-date is New York which can be found on The eastern seaboard of the USA although sadly they’ve now all but lost their Yorkshire accents.



The unofficial county anthem is a song called:On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at. It’s a sad story of a man who went walking on Ilkley Moor without his hat (bah t'at ) to court Mary Jane and caught his death of cold (cowd). He was then consumed in the great cycle of nature and eaten up by the worms who in turn were eaten by the ducks and eventually recycled when the ducks were eaten.

Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee, ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee, ah saw thee?
Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at

subsequent verses:

Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane
Tha's bahn' to catch thy deeath o` cowd
Then us'll ha' to bury thee
Then t'worms'll come an` eyt thee up
Then t'ducks'll come an` eyt up t'worms
Then us'll go an` eyt up t'ducks
Then us'll all ha' etten thee
That's wheear we get us ooan back

People can be found singing this song everywhere and even the sheep sing it:





I spent a fair chunk of my early life in and around the Yorkshire Folk music circuit. Here are a couple of singers from that time to give you an idea of what the Yorkshire accent sounds like:




....and so thou knows what us wimmin sound like here’s Kate Rusby:




There are many famous Yorkshire people, but perhaps one of the most closely guarded secrets is that a Yorkshireman was the first person to climb Everest. He took with him a bag full of women’s underwear and Yorkshire folk were so embarrassed he was never mentioned again. Back in the 30s there was quite a stigma attached to anyone born with a left-hand thread (gay). If you find this story incredible, here it is told by a Lancastrian so it must be true. Compare and contrast his accent with the more eloquent Yorkshire dialect. ( Just so tha knows this man talks like Auntie does)