Tongue and Talk: The Dialect Poets - East Lincolnshire

Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects Tongue and Talk: The Dialect Poets - East Lincolnshire exploring poetry from the county.

Alan Mumby, Chairman of Far Welter’d, the East Lincolnshire Dialect Society, explores dialect poetry written and spoken in his native county.

The Society’s name has Danish roots, referring to a sheep that’s fallen on its back and is struggling to recover - and Alan asks whether Lincolnshire dialect, so rarely featured in today’s media, is in similar distress.

Travelling to the tiny hamlet of Somersby, he visits the birthplace of the county’s most famous poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, whose little-known dialect poetry reveals his cherished memories of the villagers who he grew up with.

Many members of Far Welter’d are themselves poets – like Wolds farmer Andy Robinson (aka Billy Woldsworth) and George Danby, who farms on the Fens. Alan talks to them about their writing and how dialect varies throughout the area. While enthusiastic ‘yeller-belly’ Rod Stones discusses the influence of his Danish ancestors on the dialect he speaks today, and Maureen Sutton, Lincolnshire’s Poet Laureate, explores the changing perceptions of dialect in our modern world.

Presented by Alan Mumby

Produced by Catherine Harvey and Iain Mackness

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 2020.