Ella Pontefract (1896 – 23 February 1945) was the writer of six books on the social history of the Yorkshire Dales related to disappearing rural traditions.

Pontefract and her partner Marie Hartley developed a rigorous transcription method for recording Yorkshire dialect, and vocabulary including the subtle distinctions between adjacent valleys.

[1] Pontefract was born in the textile valleys of Yorkshire into prosperous families[2]: 9  of Huddersfield and Penistone district.

Pontefract had her first breakdown due to high blood pressure and spent over a year in forced inactivity.

Hartley's curiosity also took them on several tours of the rest of Yorkshire where they got on just as well with steelworkers, deep-sea fishermen and textile weavers.

In 1939, when the Yorkshire Dalesman was founded by Harry Scott they contributed to its early numbers and helped to establish it.

But in 1941, when a sister took over nursing their mother, Pontefract and Marie moved into the 17th-century cottage they had been having restored up in Wensleydale at Askrigg.

These items of personal, domestic and working life in the Dales were used by Marie for her woodcuts and drawings.

After some time Marie Hartley wrote "Yorkshire Heritage"[2] a devoted memoir including many of Ella's later diary notes.