On Ilkla Moor Bah T'at

DESCRIPTION: On the dangers of visiting the moor without a hat: One singer tells the other he has been (courting) on the moor without a hat. He is told he'll die of cold. They will bury him, and worms will eat him; ducks will eat them, people eat ducks, and so it goes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: clothes courting disease death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Wales) Canada
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 303, "On Ilkla Moor Bah T'at" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkns, p. 43, "On Ilkla Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 26, "Ilkley Moor Baht 'At" (1 text)
DT, ILKLAMOR
Roud #2143
RECORDINGS:
Gareth Coles, "Ilkley Moor Bar Tat" (Piotr-Archive #36, recorded 07/01/2021, with wandering pitch)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" (tune "Cranbook")
NOTES [121 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland reports, "The author of this local dialect song is supposed to have been a Thomas Clark who wrote it in 1805 to the hymn tune Cranbrook. Who he was or how the song came to be are not known. Yorkshire men all the world over regard the song with ritualistic respect."
On the other hand, I've seen Clark listed as the author of the tune "Cranbrook" (so, e.g., Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 128), leaving the lyrics of this song anonymous. Kellett says the lyrics were were a gag by un-named choir members, perhaps from Halifax, about a member of their party. So I'm listing the author as unknown. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K303

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