Народная песня Йоркшира: «On Ilkla Mooar Baht 'at»

Folk song from Yorkshire, England

"On Ilkla Mooar Baht 'at" (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. 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. It is classified as numbers 2143 and 19808 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

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] thy (your) 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". Arnold Kellett judged 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".

It is sung to the Methodist hymn tune "Cranbrook" (composed by Canterbury based shoemaker Thomas Clark in 1805); this was published by him in 1805 in "A Sett of Psalm & Hymn Tunes with some Select Pieces and an Anthem", setting the words of Philip Doddridge's "Grace! 'Tis a Charming Sound". It was later used as a tune for "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night"), but the "Ilkla Moor" 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 and St Aidan's Church in Manor Parish, Sheffield, 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".

EFDSS director Douglas Kennedy collected a version in 1917 from a performer in Ilkley named Wilfred Hall, which was later printed in his son Peter Kennedy's book Folksongs of Britain & Ireland (1975). Several audio recordings have been made of traditional versions. Ken Stubbs recorded Albert Gartside of Delph in the West Riding singing the song in 1964, whilst Fred Hamer recorded William Bleasdale singing a version in the village of Chipping in Lancashire some time in the 1950s or 60s. The American folklorist Helen Hartness Flanders recorded a version in her hometown of Springfield, Vermont and another in Naushon Isle, Massachusetts in the 1940s, suggesting that the song had made its way to North America with immigrants from Yorkshire.

The song was sung by soldiers during the Second World War. 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, referring to the Thorpe affair. It remains in the Liberal Democrats Glee Club songbook to this day. 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. Eric Fenby composed an overture in the style of Rossini, entitled Rossini on Ilkla Moor.