Cow and Calf Rocks, Ilkley Moor
Image credit: Craig Wilkinson
Ilkla Moor Baht 'At
I learnt these words as a young boy growing up from the singing of my father. It is traditionally sung in Yorkshire dialect, and is considered to be by many, the unofficial ‘Yorkshire National Anthem’.
The words are thought to have been written by the members of Halifax Wesleyan Methodist Church Choir, after their annual walk across Ilkley Moor. It was set to the hymn tune ‘Cranbrook’ written by Thomas Clark, a cobbler from Canterbury in 1805. The tune was already used for the hymn ‘O for a Thousand Tongues’, and at Christmastime for a version of ‘While Shepherds watched their Flocks by Night’.
