1st August Yorkshire Day - introducing a bit of Yorkshire history

The perfect day for me to start writing blogs. Why? Because I am a professional genealogist with a specialism of family and local history in Yorkshire, England.

My blogs will often be focussed on Yorkshire and the wealth of history which has impacted on families and local history over the centuries. I aim to reach out to share my knowledge of researching family history throughout Yorkshire and hopefully helping, or entertaining you, on the way.

I was born in Yorkshire and am proud, and lucky, to still live in Yorkshire alongside four generations of my Yorkshire family. I live, and grew up, in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and my paternal and maternal ancestors are from the historic counties of the North, West and East Ridings of Yorkshire.

It may surprise people that the modern county of Yorkshire covers a bigger area than Greater London, has a population larger than that of Scotland and the economic output is twice as much as for Wales. That helps to put into context the size of the county which is now generally split into four smaller counties – North, East, South and West Yorkshire; created following the county boundary changes of 1974 and roughly creating these counties from the three historic Ridings.

Yorkshire has a diverse landscape. The coastline is 100 miles long running down the east side of the county, the coast has been involved shipping, smuggling and tourism. The industrial areas of Yorkshire, predominantly in West and South Yorkshire, have been important centres of coal mining, steel works, railways, canals, textile mills and administration.

The rural areas to the east are arable farming while the rural north are busy hill farming areas rearing sheep on the Pennine hills, this landscape produced many years of lead mining in the dales. Much of Yorkshire is a tourist destination for the diversity of city life, historic abbeys and houses and the magnificent countryside of the Dales, the Wolds and the coast.

Maps through the centuries :

https://commons.wikimedia.org to view the 1611 map of Yorkshire, John Speed

Yorkshire Administrative Map 1832 - Category:Maps of Yorkshire - Wikimedia Commons

North,west,east&southyorkshire - Category:Maps of Yorkshire - Wikimedia Commons Dr Greg and Nilfanion - File:Yorkshire_and_the_Humber_counties_2009_map.svg

Each area of history, trade, people and places will be explored in future blogs.

As August 1st is Yorkshire Day, we can take a look at some of the words used in the county over past centuries, these may vary from place to place and differences in the way they were spoken depending on local regional dialect.

Today pubs and inns are denoted by a sign, usually with the name and image to represent the pub or brewery. A fine example is the Boars Head in Ripley, North Yorkshire; the boar’s head being the crest of the Ingleby family of Ripley Castle. Before these elaborate signs an alehouse, pub, was identified with a pole outside a house indicating that they sold ale; these poles were known as ale rods, ale stakes and ale wisps.

We associate the word arrest with someone being taken into custody by the police or suddenly stopping something. In the past arrest was used when legally removing property from someone and placing it in a secure place; the secure place was often known as a pound. Hence the use of the word pound for where animals were impounded in an enclosure.

Peaks on a hat to shield from the sun are nothing new, a bongrace was a brim on the front of a bonnet to provide shade over a woman’s face. John Hartley, West Riding poet, wrote a poem called Ahr Mary's Bonnet, this provides some light-hearted insight into the West Yorkshire dialect:

Have yo seen awr Mary's bonnet?

It's a stunner - nooa mistak!

Ther's a bunch o' rooasies on it,

An' a feather daan her back.

Yollo ribbons an' fine laces,

An' a cock-a-doodle-doo,

An' raand her bonny face is

A string o' posies blue.

Just in case you need some words translating:

Have you seen our Mary’s bonnet?

It’s a stunner – no mistake!

There’s a bunch of rosies on it,

And a feather down her back

Yellow ribbons and fine laces,

And a cock-doodle-doo

And round her bonny face is

A string of posies blue

Have you ever heard the term chubby chops? Chops has become used as a term for the cheeks, but a chop was originally the area around the jaw.

Why is it useful to understand old words in a region that have been used over the centuries?

When family historians are looking through archival records and trying to decipher the words on the wrinkled, marked and torn pages some words make no sense at all. It could be that the word has not been seen before or it could be that the word is familiar but does not appear to make sense in the context of the document.

Taking the time to understand the greater context of a document and researching the meaning of words used in the past can bring more accuracy to a transcription of a document. This then creates a clearer understanding the people and items mentioned in the document providing more background research and a comprehensive family history understanding.

Have you come across words used in and around Yorkshire or your region of interest and how are they pronounced?

Over the coming weeks and months I will share topics, discussions and advice for anyone with an interest in Yorkshire family history and local history. Let me know what you would like to achieve or have a specific interest in.

until next time, Jude

Yorkshire Facts and Statistics | Yorkshire Enterprise Network (yorkshirenetwork.co.uk)

Re: Ripley Castle and the Ingl - Genealogy.com

Ahr Mary's Bonnet - a Yorkshire dialect poem by John Hartley • MyLearning

The Yorkshire Historical Dictionary, Redmonds & Medcalf, 2021, YAHS