Richard Oliver Heslop (1842 – 1916) was a British businessman, songwriter, poet, and lexicographer notable for his contributions to the documentation of the Geordie dialect of North East England. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, he worked in the family hardware firm Heslop, Wilson & Co., eventually becoming a senior partner. Heslop’s most enduring scholarly work is Northumberland Words: A Glossary of the Northumbrian Dialect (published in two volumes, 1893–1894), a comprehensive dictionary of regional words, phrases, and pronunciations used in Northumberland and the surrounding area. He also compiled A Dictionary of the Provincial Words in Use in the County of Durham (1904). In addition to his lexicographic efforts, Heslop wrote numerous songs and poems in the Geordie dialect, contributing to local newspapers and periodicals of the period. His work remains a primary source for researchers of Northern English dialects and cultural history.
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