Once the village children’s favourite place to play, the Gayle millpond – known as the washdub – becomes the place for a reflection on dialect, as the series draws to a close for now.  Series Two special guests Rob and Val Ward remember the washdub as a place of meeting.  There’s a reminder of how dialect sounded, with another archive clip of Lizzie Dinsdale.  From the 1977 tapes, Kit Calvert tells how some people regarded dialect as wicked.  And Helen Guy of the Keld Resource Centre shares her experiences of using Dales dialect among workmates in Newcastle.  Presented by Andrew Fagg from Gayle washdub and published on Friday 17 February 2023.

Series Two special guest Val Ward reads the dialect verse of the late road sweeper George Calvert from Gayle.  Three poems are featured: ‘Kit Storra’; ‘Mi Granfatther’; and ‘T’Paper Lad’, which was written in tribute to John Mason. Special guest Rob Ward also remembers the village allotments and George ‘Laps’ Alderson.  Presented by Andrew Fagg from Gayle chapel, where George Calvert said people would sing ‘wi’ a gusto ‘et mead yer throats thrive’. Published on Friday 3 February 2023.

Series Two special guest Rob Ward says, ‘There’s no fish in’t beck’.  The sad recent demise of brown trout in Upper Wensleydale prompts a diversion from dialect into fishing.   Three more voices from 1977 are heard: Fred Nuttall recounts the formation of Hawes and High Abbotside Angling Association; Jessie Blades speaks of her family’s fame at fly dressing and their work as bailiffs; and Chris Heseltine talks vividly about grobbling (tickling) trout.  Presented by Andrew Fagg from the River Ure, Hawes Bridge and Gayle Beck, this episode was published on Friday 20 January 2023.

After a noisy introduction at Gayle Bridge, this episode opens with a little more of Rev James Alderson, including a short study of his 1980 Dales dialect primer.   Presenter Andrew Fagg then stands by the black-painted railings of Foss Head Farm house in the village of Gayle to cue in a 1977 recording of the late Hannah Metcalfe (nee Alderson).  The Metcalfe name and family is described.  The late Taylor Dinsdale, interviewed by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby, comes next.  Hear him speak about bynames in Gayle, as well as life before flushing toilets. Taylor Dinsdale is described by special guest Rob Ward.  Published on Friday 6 January 2023.

Presenter Andrew Fagg is by the beck in Gayle village to introduce the late local historian Rev James Alderson and the late Lizzie Alderson.  There is a touching story about a petted pig, along with excerpts from a lecture given by Rev James in the early 1980s at the Grassington Festival.  Both characters are remembered by special guests Rob and Val Ward.   The work of Trevor Sharpe and Bradford Youth Service in the gathering of the original interviews, more than 40 years ago, is further explained.  

Presenter Andrew Fagg introduces Series Two on Dales dialect, with special guests Val and Rob Ward.  He visits Hawes Methodist Cemetery and makes the case for dialect.  Enter then the remarkable voice of the late Lizzie Dinsdale, in a recording made in the 1970s but until now hidden away.   She gives her recipe for havercake and speaks about doing a 'man's part' at hay time.  

Voices From The Dales is returning for a second series - on dialect - on Friday 2 December 2022.  This is our one-minute  trailer.   Series Two will have at  a least six episodes of the usual 15 minute length, to be published fortnightly.  Do come and meet the people of the village of Gayle and the little town of Hawes next door.  Presented by Andrew Fagg.

Hear the voice of the bog as recorded by composer Sarah Smout in this one-off episode about the restoration of a vast area of peatland in the Yorkshire Dales called Fleet Moss.  Peat Restoration Officer at the Yorkshire Peat Partnership Jenny Sharman speaks about how she has developed a ‘real love’ for Fleet Moss as as a ‘black, broken land’ has once again become a place with ‘a wealth of life’.    The episode also features Bishopdale landowner and grouse shooting enthusiast Rob Brown speaking about the recovery of the nearby Stake Moss peatland.  And there is great archive clip from 1963 of Grassington farmer Oswald Jacques on cutting and drying peat for domestic use.   The episode is presented by Andrew Fagg on Fleet Moss and was largely recorded in July 2022.

In Part Six, hear children from nearby Settle Primary School interview their grandparents.  93 year old Edna Thornton, from the village of Austwick to the south of Ingleborough mountain, remembers the days when the milkman delivered milk directly into a jug on her doorstep each morning.   Two granddads from Settle are asked about the changes they have seen in the natural environment.  Meanwhile builder Kevin Woods, who from his home looks at Ingleborough’s peak, reflects on a lifetime of restoring traditional buildings in a way which doesn’t rob birds of their nest sites.  ‘We’ll do owt we can for nature,’ he says.  Presented by Andrew Fagg and Anna Greenwood.

Ingleborough is limestone – or karst – country.  It is world famous for its caves.   Part Five features Avelina Wright from the local Cave Rescue Organisation.  ‘We don’t only pull humans out of holes,’ she says.  Such was the pull of the caves for Lincolnshire woman Leann Rennie, she upped sticks and moved to the area.   ‘There’s everything here that adventurous people like,’ she says.  Her husband, Tam Rennie, also speaks of caving, while also giving an insight into his day job as signalman at Blea Moor on the Settle-Carlisle railway.  ‘You don’t have to talk to anyone, it’s just bells,’ he says, glorying in the isolation.  Presented by Andrew Fagg and Anna Greenwood.