Celebrating the Yorkshire Dialect

The Yorkshire Dialect Society, one of our Heritage Guardians, is kicking off a weekend of activities for Yorkshire Day in Keighely with what might be described as an important warming up event Yorkshire Day itself, with something unique and special about Yorkshire people – how we talk! The way we speak is unique and helps define us – it’s part of what makes us Yorkshire!

Keynote speakers will include Ian Stevenson on The Story behind Yorkshire Dialect; Rod Dimbleby, Chairman of YDS, on the prolific 19th century Halifax dialect poet and storyteller John Hartley of Clock Almanac fame; and Eric Scaife on Tyke Talk – readings and recitations of dialect poems and prose.

There will also be an exhibition of books and pamphlets by the noted Keighley historian, writer and dialect poet, the late Ian Dewhirst who sadly died in 2019.

THE ITINERARY:

10.30  Registration and coffee

11.00  Welcome –  Rod Dimbleby, Chair, Yorkshire Dialect Society

11.10  Ian Stevenson "The story behind Yorkshire Dialect".

12.15 Lunch break (bring sandwiches or use local cafes/hostelries in Keighley), During the lunch break there will be time to see the exhibition in the library to commemorate the life and work of Ian Dewhirst MBE 1936-2019, former Keighley librarian and noted local historian, dialect poet and storyteller.

13.30    Rod Dimbleby :  “Discovering John Hartley’s Clock Almanacs - a Yorkshire Dialect Treasure Trove”

14.30-14.45 tea interval

14.45  Eric Scaife  –  “Tyke Talk – a celebration of Yorkshire dialect through humorous poems and anecdotes”

16.00  Questions and discussion – the future of Yorkshire Dialect

16.30 close.