DURING some recent research, I was reminded that the local language of the people of this region including Durham, Northumberland, the North York Moors and areas of Scotland, differs from that of the West Riding, Lancashire, the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. People in parts of the Yorkshire Wolds also speak in way that differs from natives of the North York Moors.

Those differences may be in the local accent, the pronunciation of words, the use of different terms to describe things, the dialect of the region and even variations in the sense of humour. Certainly, a strong dialect or accent can be incomprehensible less than a 100 miles away, but it is significant that the regions to which I refer are all in the north-east.

I quote from “A Dictionary of the Dialect of the North Riding of Yorkshire” by Sir Alfred Pease Bt., MA. It was published in 1928 by Horne and Son of Whitby.

Writing of the North Riding dialect, he said: “Our dialect descends from the ancient language of Northumbria and has a separate pedigree from that of English. Its base is largely Scandinavian, perhaps about 25 per cent, but there is present a large proportion of early Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon elements with a considerable sprinkling of Norman, Medieval English and Celtic.”

Sir Alfred stressed that dialects of North-East England differ from those in the North West of England. The North Riding dialect contains a very large proportion of actual words from ancient Northumbria which itself has Scottish influences.

There are several very good dictionaries containing thousands of local words, but I have selected Kirk House as an example because I have recently being researching bridge chapels. The name kirk house refers to domestic accommodation adjoining or within the structure of a church or chapel. It also applied to bridge chapels because the small chapel included primitive accommodation for a priest.

The word “kirk” is used throughout the north-east of England and into Scotland where it indicates a church or chapel. In Scotland’s case, it also means the entire Church of Scotland, as well as individual churches and chapels. A Kirkmote was a synod or perhaps a smaller meeting in the church or vestry.

Kirk also appears in many North Yorkshire place names such as Kirkbymoorside or Oswaldkirk, and areas such as Kirkdale or Kirkgarth (a churchyard) but also in surnames like Kirk, Kirkman and Kirker. It also appears in professions like Kirkmaster (churchwarden) or kirkman, a priest or church worker.

Kirkhouse as a single word is also a family surname once widely used in Scotland, but a similar word in two parts became Kirk House. In some areas, this has been shortened to Kirkus which can appear as a surname.

This is supported by A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames by CWE Bardsley. It states that the surname Kirkus as used in north-east England, Scotland and Scandinavia, is derived from Kirkus meaning a parsonage or Kirk House as used in north-east England, Scotland and Scandinavia.

The Scottish pronunciation sounds like Kirkus which, in fact, is the name of a house or parsonage adjoining or close to a church; kirkus is also used for a structure near the church gate, which is erected to supply refreshments at weddings, christenings, funerals and so forth.

However, while researching the life of the Yorkshire moorland martyr, Nicholas Postgate, I came across a reference to a kirk house. It may be significant that Dom Bede Camm in his “Forgotten Shrines” (1910) writes that Nicholas Postgate was born at Kirkdale House in the parish of Egton.

In fact, the Postgate family home was a house in the parish of Egton - at Kirkdale – I think it should have been referred to as the Kirkdale house as other families called Postgate lived in Eskdale at the Eskdaleside house or Sleights house.

However Bede Camm added something of great importance and significance.

This is what he wrote, “Kirkdale, or Kirk House, our martyr’s birthplace, stood near Egton bridge. A writer described it in the year 1838 as “now literally a cattle-shed” and Camm then added, “It must have been a poor cottage in spite of its high-sounding name”.

Clearly, Bede Camm’s research had relied on long standing local rumours, not facts. The Kirk House which he described was in fact the old bridge chapel that had been demolished by floods c.1381 - so it could not have been the martyr’s birthplace.

In fact, the martyr’s family home has been established as being at Kirkdale Banks, Egton, in a house with no name. There is ample evidence to support this. Furthermore, few houses then carried names because only some five per cent of people could read and write although some local homes were described, not named, eg Corner Cottage, Riverside House, Oak Tree House, Bridge End, etc.