On the 10th of October the Forum welcomed its guest speaker Alan Hemsworth who had travelled from Settle. Alan entertained the members with a talk about the Yorkshire dialect which he titled In Grandmother’s Footsteps.
He was brought up in Pudsey and, as a boy, was a regular visitor to his grandmother’s house which was a typical terrace house – two up and two down with an outside “privy”.
From his grandmother he learnt a great number of Yorkshire words and phrases which he passed on to the Forum members and explained the source of the words from the original Anglo-Saxon and compared them with words in modern German and Danish.
Although England abounds with local accents actual dialects are dying out, only being of interest to academics. Alan has accumulated many poems written in the Yorkshire dialect and he finished his talk with a selection delivered in true Yorkshire.
Chairman Mike Earle thanked Alan Hemsworth for a most entertaining talk.
Forum Deputy Chairman Duncan Verity has arranged an evening event for Sunday the 14th of October in the form of a buffet meal and film show for Forum members and their guests. This takes place at Wetherby Golf Club when the film featured is The Glen Miller Story.