 thumb|float|right|200px|ducks on ilkley moor, as in the song. "on ilkla moor baht 'at" or "on ilkla moor bar tat" (standard english: on ilkley moor without your hat) is a folk song from yorkshire, england. it is sung in the yorkshire dialect, and is considered the unofficial anthem of yorkshire. according to tradition, the words were composed by members of a halifax church choir on an outing to ilkley moor near ilkley, west yorkshire. ==theme== 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 &ndash; 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. the yorkshire dictionary (arnold kellett, 2002) said the song (i.e., the lyrics) probably originates 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] a hat"; idiomatically "on ilkley moor deprived of (i.e. barred) 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". the first published version of the words appeared in 1916, when it 
British_anthems English_folk_songs Ilkley Music_in_Yorkshire Regional_songs Yorkshire_Regiment Yorkshire_culture