How to explain the sentence "I was sat next to them"?

Question

I am studying linguistics in northwest England and I find many people use the sentence

I was sat next to them.

Normally people say "I sat next to them" and I kind of understand that the use of "was" here is to highlight the action that happened in the past. The expression "was+verb+ed (not passive)" is 'wrong' in grammar but is this a normal phenomenon that is accepted by most people? Also, is this related to the use of "was like"? And could you tell me if there is any research about it?

It's a non-grammatical (colloquial / dialectal) alternative to I was seated* next to them* (or I was sitting* next to them*). — FumbleFingers, Jan 09 '22 at 12:12
Does this answer your question? Is "I am sat" bad English? Also Is there any difference between "I'm sat" and "I'm sitting"? and Could you please help and explain to me how to correct the seemingly incorrect passive voice sentence pattern? — FumbleFingers, Jan 09 '22 at 12:13
@FumbleFingers It might be worth mentioning "He sat me [down/there/preposition]" which can certainly be related to "I was sat [down] [by him]" — Andrew Leach, Jan 09 '22 at 12:30
@AndrewLeach: I suppose that comes down to saying if we interpret *I was sat there* as a "dialectal" version of *I was seated there, it's a matter of opinion / specific context whether that's a passive* construction (I was put there by some unspecified "usher") or simply an adverbial / adjectival usage on a par with *I was happy there. But if we understand it as equivalent to I was sitting there, only the second of those two should apply. Which I hope* should be covered by at least some of the duplicates I linked to, but I haven't looked yet. — FumbleFingers, Jan 09 '22 at 12:43
In a school classroom "I was sat there" means that I was required by the teacher to sit there. This could be long-term as a result of the teacher's seating plan, or short-term, often for disciplinary reasons. It has an overtone of the pupil's reluctance. Pupils are no longer commonly sat in the corner, though they may be sat next to the teacher. — Peter, Jan 09 '22 at 13:10

How to explain the sentence "I was sat next to them"?

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