Ilkley Moor bahtat?

[Stu in USA]

What does "Ilkley Moor bahtat" mean? Please help with the correct spelling as well as origin of "bahtat"

[mushroom25]

http://www.ilkley.org/iguide/baht.htm

"baht 'at", venturing forth without apparel on the head.

[brachiopod]

Ilkley Moor - a moor (rough, heath covered hills) near Ilkley, in West Yorkshire, England.

Bar t'at - without a hat.

[brachiopod]

sorry, mushroom, cross-post !

[mushroom25]

sorry mushroom, cross post!

'appen that it 'appens sometimes.....

[brachiopod]

aye, wi' t'internet an' all.

[Stu in USA]

Thanks Brachiopad and Mushroom for the same answer at same time, so looks like studio audience is 100% in agreement! But what I still don't understand is the significance of a moor without one's hat?

[Stu in USA]

Oops I meant to type Brachiopod!!!

[brachiopod]

Because out on the wiley, windy moors*, it would be cold without a hat, and you would risk dying of exposure, and (as per the song), be buried, eaten by worms... etc.

* with apologies to Kate Bush

[brachiopod]

Just been having a Google about this - apparently the tune was originally written for the Christmas carol "While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks By Night" - can you imagine singing that carol to the tune of Ilkley Moor Bah t'at ? !!!

[ursula62]

Brachiopod, when I was nobbut knee high to a grasshopper my parents had a record of the Salvation Army children's choir singing carols - and While Shepherds Watched was sung to the Ilkley Moor tune.