Lecture on 'The Pitman’s Pay' at Morpeth Town Hall

He will deliver the 24th annual Roland Bibby Memorial Lecture, hosted by the Northumbrian Language Society in memory of its founding chairman.

It was originally planned for 2020, but had to be rescheduled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The title of the presentation on Saturday, October 15 at Morpeth Town Hall is ‘The Pitman’s Pay’.

Dr Maguire, based at the University of Edinburgh, will discuss how the early 19th Century Tyneside dialect was written and pronounced – using as evidence Thomas Wilson’s fascinating poem.

Formerly a research assistant at Newcastle University, and now Senior Lecturer at Edinburgh University, Dr Maguire was a part of the team that analysed and digitised for a modern audience two important linguistics research projects of the late 20th Century, creating the Newcastle Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English.

He has more recently been involved in a survey of the various local names used across Britain for the little creature that is called a slater in Northumberland (a woodlouse in Standard English).

Admission is free to the general public, with doors opening at 1.30pm for a chance to browse the publications and merchandise stall, before the lecture starts at 2pm.

The talk will be fully accessible and it will take place in the Corn Exchange on the ground floor of the Town Hall.

Further details are available from Kim Bibby-Wilson on 01670 513308 or go online to northumbrianlanguagesociety.co.uk