On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at

"On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at"
Ilkley Moor, setting of the song.
Song
English title	On Ilkley Moor without a hat
Written	1805 (music) 1850s–1870s (words)

Ducks on Ilkley Moor, as in the song

"On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at" or "On Ilkla Moor bar tat" (Standard English: On Ilkley Moor without a hat) is a folk song from Yorkshire, England. It is sung in the Yorkshire dialect, and is considered the unofficial anthem of Yorkshire. According to tradition, the words were composed by members of a Halifax church choir on an outing to Ilkley Moor near Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

Theme

The song tells of a lover courting the object of his affections, Mary Jane, on Ilkley Moor without a hat (baht 'at). The singer chides the lover for his lack of headwear – for in the cold winds of Ilkley Moor this will mean his death from exposure. This will in turn result in his burial, the eating of his corpse by worms, the eating of the worms by ducks and finally the eating of the ducks by the singers.

In The Yorkshire Dictionary (Arnold Kellett, 2002) it was said the song (i.e., the lyrics) probably originated from the Halifax area, based on the dialect which is not common to all areas of Yorkshire.

The title is seen in various transcriptions of the dialect, but is most commonly On Ilkla Mooar [or Moor] baht 'at, i.e. "On Ilkley Moor without [wearing] a hat"; idiomatically "On Ilkley Moor without (i.e. bar) a hat". Dr Arnold Kellett reports the traditional belief that the song "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".

The first published version of the words appeared in 1916, when it was described as "a dialect song which, for at least two generations past, has been sung in all parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire". Arnold Kellett calculates that the song "could well have originated in the early years of the second half of the [19th] century, and not as late as 1877 ...".

Tune

Sung to the Methodist hymn tune "Cranbrook" (composed by Canterbury-based shoemaker Thomas Clark in 1805 and later used as a tune for "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night"), the song became so popular that the origin of the music as a hymn tune has been almost forgotten in the United Kingdom.

It is still used for the traditional words "While Shepherds Watched" in some churches including Leeds Parish Church, but no longer widely recognised as a hymn or carol tune in the United Kingdom.

Cranbrook continues in use as a hymn tune in the United States, where it was not adopted as the tune of a popular secular song and is customarily used with the lyrics of Philip Doddridge's "Grace! 'Tis a Charming Sound".

Lyrics

Within the lyrics there is a central verse, the first, third and fourth lines are changed with each following verse. All the verses feature the second, fifth, sixth and seventh lines "On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at".

Lyrics in Yorkshire dialect 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 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

Interpretation in Standard English Where have you been since I saw you, I saw you? On Ilkley Moor without a hat Where have you been since I saw you, I saw you? Where have you been since I saw you? On Ilkley Moor without a hat On Ilkley Moor without a hat On Ilkley Moor without a hat You've been courting Mary Jane You're going to catch your death of cold Then we will have to bury you Then the worms will come and eat you up Then the ducks will come and eat up the worms Then we will go and eat up the ducks Then we will all have eaten you That's where we get our own back

Main article: Yorkshire dialect

The lyrics include many features of the Yorkshire dialect such as Definite article reduction and H-dropping. Baht is Yorkshire dialect for "without".

Many sources give the first line as "Wheear wor ta bahn when Ah saw thee?" (Where were you going when I saw you), though "Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' Ah saw thee" is the more common version nowadays.

Some singers add the responses "without thy trousers on" after the fourth line of each verse, and "where the ducks play football" after the seventh. Other variations include "where the nuns play rugby", "where the sheep fly backwards", "where the ducks fly backwards", "where the ducks wear trousers", "an' they've all got spots", and "where they've all got clogs on".

Also in some recitals, after the first two lines of "On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at" it is followed by a "Where's that?". Another variant adds "Howzat?" after the first line and "Not out!" after the second. In Leeds the line immediately before the chorus is often ended with "And we all got wet". In the United States, "Then we will go and eat up the ducks" is often followed by a shouted "Up the Ducks!"

There are also alternative endings, where verse nine states: "There is a moral to this tale", and is followed by a chorus of "Don't go without your hat / Don't go without your hat / On Ilkey moor baht 'at" (which is sung commonly within West Yorkshire), or "Don't go a courtin' Mary Jane" (another variation known in the Scouting movement). Alternatively, verse nine is sung as "There is a moral to this tale", and verse ten as "When courtin' always wear a hat".

Usage

The song has been used in various television programmes:

• Yorkshire Television – pre-programme ident 1968–1989 and 1996–2002
• Go With Noakes – 1970s BBC children's television programme
• The Onedin Line – 1970s BBC series. The song is heard in multiple episodes.
• Clouds of Witness – TV adaptation of Dorothy Sayers' murder mystery
• Heartbeat – sung by character Alf Ventress in an episode entitled "In The Bleak Midwinter" (series 14, episode 13, first aired 26 December 2004)
• All Creatures Great and Small – first season of TV series, and film
• A distorted version of the chorus is sung by Eccles (Spike Milligan) in an episode of The Goon Show

Commercial recordings:

• George Formby sang the second verse and the chorus in a medley of British folk songs.
• Chumbawamba – hidden track on Just Look At Me Now CD single; however this is not a Chumbawamba performance but an anonymous rendering from a vinyl recording
• Ted Heath recorded a Big Band Swing arrangement of the song in 1945
• Bill Oddie – 1970 a parody of the Joe Cocker arrangement of the Lennon–McCartney song "With a Little Help from My Friends"
• Ronnie Hilton recorded a version entitled "Elland Road Baht' at" as a tribute song for Leeds United AFC in 1964.

Other:

• The Yorkshire Regiment – 4th Battalion's Quick March
• Anita Rani introduced this song to a class of Chinese primary school children during an improvised English lesson on the BBC TV programme China on Four Wheels which was broadcast in 2012.
• A parody "On Exmoor Baht At" was widely sung at student and Young Liberal conferences in the 1970s.
• A contemporary rendition was produced by Welcome to Yorkshire for Yorkshire Day 2013. It features a rap by Brian Blessed, as well as an operatic verse by soprano Lesley Garrett.

Published versions

• Rise Up Singing, Peter Blood and Annie Patterson, editors, 1988, page 74 ISBN 1-881322-13-0

Further reading

• Kellett, Arnold (1998). On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at: the story of the song. Smith Settle. ISBN 1-85825-109-5.

External links

• Lyrics and music