AGM 2025
The AGM will take place at the Shepherds Hall in Chorley at 2pm on Tues 22 April 2025. All are welcome. The address is 63-67 Chapel St, Chorley PR7 1B. It is very accessible for both bus and train stations.
Bancroft Mill Engine
We will be performing as usual at Bancroft Mill Engine but this year we will be there twice – Sun 20 July and Sun 2 Nov, between 12-4pm, both of which are steaming days.
You are most welcome to perform, but if you would like a slot please respond in advance to lancsocsecretary@gmail.com, as performance times at Bancroft are constrained between the running of the engine, looms etc. A great location to visit for a day out with the engine in steam. Address : Gillians Ln, Barnoldswick BB18 5QR. https://bancroftmill.org.uk/
NATIONAL DIALECT FESTIVAL 2025
This will be held at the Savoy Hotel in Blackpool on the weekend of Friday 17th to Sunday 19th November. Contact lancsocsecretary@gmail.com for more info
HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL DIALECT FESTIVAL from the Chairman.
The Lancashire Society launched this as an afternoon of competitions at the Fylde Folk Festival 2009, in the spot traditionally occupied by the Lancashire Dialect competitions. As the old LD Society event was attracting fewer and fewer entries, we thought that throwing it open to ALL English Dialects might have some merit and gain more support. It was a resounding success with representatives from Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Cornwall, Lincolnshire, The Lake District, Durham and Lancashire appearing and an opening address by a professor of linguistics/phonetics, John Wells
I decided to move it away from Fylde in 2010 and make it a stand alone day, (the spot at Fylde becoming a Lancashire Society Concert.) Another great success, with Devon, and the Black Country joining in. A small grant from our local Council Arts Development Officer helped offset the costs, and a non competitive evening concert was added. Professor Paul Kerswill provided the opening address and aided judging this time. We ended up with the name “National Dialect Day” and I felt that, to be truly “National” it should perhaps travel around the Country, becoming an annual event celebrating the diversity of England’s regional dialects and providing a promotional opportunity locally for the organising region.
And so last year we went to Louth as guests of the East Lincolnshire (Far Welter’d) Society. An excellent day which their Chairman, Alan, managed to tie in with the town’s Victorian Fair on the Sunday, making a nice weekend in a lovely town. Alan lifted the “promotional opportunity” onto a higher plain by getting BBC local radio and television involved. To hear a BBC Look North presenter actually say the words “National Dialect Day” gave me a nice warm glow and I felt we’d really arrived – the preservation England’s dialects was being taken seriously and the media loved it.
On the day the large room was comfortably full, Lincolnshire was out in force, Lancashire, Norfolk and Northumberland were there (this is beginning to sound like the guest list for Agincourt!) but from the rest of England – nothing. We had a great time but it could have been so much better. Just one representative from each area would have made all the difference.
This year we go to Northumberland, guests of the Northumbrian Language Society, Morpeth 20th October. You will be hearing from Kim Bibby-Wilson from the NLS as she gets the event publicity together. She already has plans to add a Friday evening traditional music concert to the proceedings to make a full weekend of it, with the competitions and dialect concert on Saturday.
The competitions, with trophies, are for WRITING in any English dialect; WRITING in the dialect of the host area (this time Northumberland); and PERFORMING in any English dialect (which enables competitors to bring old classics from their area). Poetry. prose or song, no more than 5 mins, are acceptable, presented “live” on the day before the judges. A final trophy is awarded for the most entertaining spot in the evening concert, made up of longer spots selected from the afternoon’s entrants and judged by the audience!
the Dialect Weekend, now known as National Dialect Festival (NDF) has carried on growing. Up to now the event has been held in THE BLACK COUNTRY; CORNWALL; LAKELAND (twice); LANCASHIRE (twice) and YORKSHIRE (twice) and this year (2025) we will be back in our spiritual home on the Fylde Coast of Lancashire at The Savoy Hotel, Blackpool from 17th to 19th October. Booking forms will appear on here in due course or contact Sid@sidcalderbank.co.uk.
