On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at

On Ilkla Mooar Baht 'at
English: "On Ilkley Moor without a hat"
Ilkley Moor, setting of the song
Official regional anthem of Yorkshire
LyricsUnknown, 1850s–1870s
MusicThomas Clark[1], 1805
Ducks on Ilkley Moor, as in the song

"On Ilkla Mooar Baht 'at" (Standard English: On Ilkley Moor without a hat)[2] is a folk song from Yorkshire, England. It is sung in the Yorkshire dialect, and is considered the official anthem of Yorkshire.[3] It is sung to the hymn tune "Cranbrook", composed by Thomas Clark in 1805; while according to Andrew Gant, the words were composed by members of Halifax Church Choir "some 50 years after Clark wrote his melody", on an outing to Ilkley Moor near Ilkley, West Yorkshire.[4][5] It is classified as numbers 2143 and 19808 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

  1. ^ Adams, Stephen (15 December 2009). "Carol 'While Shepherds Watch' was sung to 'Ilkley Moor' tune". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Word Recognition". Yorkshire Dialect Society. 29 October 2007.
  3. ^ "The National Anthem of Yorkshire 'God's own county'". DKSnakes.co.uk. 24 October 2007. Archived from the original on 12 September 2007.
  4. ^ Gant, Andrew. Christmas Carols from Village Green to Church Choir. Profile Books. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-78125-352-6.
  5. ^ Kellett, Arnold (1998). On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at: the story of the song. Smith Settle. p. 55. ISBN 1-85825-109-5. We can at least clear the ground by looking at the most widely accepted tradition that On Ilkla Mooar came into being as a result of an incident that took place during a ramble and picnic on the moor. It is further generally believed that the ramblers were all on a chapel choir outing, from one of the towns in the industrial West Riding.