08/02/2023
Ay up folks, its Yorkshire Day! A celebration every year on 1st of August of this wonderful, diverse and culturally rich part of England.
Yorkshire ties as my favourite part of in England From its wild moorlands of Bronte country, to its bustling industrial mill towns of Leeds and Halifax, to its beautiful seaside towns and fisherman’s villages, the rolling hills and drystone walls of the Yorkshire Dales and beyond it isn’t hard to see why Yorkshire has earned the moniker “God’s own country” by its proud inhabitants. So to celebrate this wonderful place here’s a few facts about York’shr.
Yorkshire is the largest county in the UK and covers a large part of Northern England, that’s a whopping 2.9 million acres- ee ba gum!. It is BIG, so big that over the years it was often subdivided into smaller jurisdictions for admiration purposes, most notably the areas of North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. While each of these regions certainly has its own distinct geography, accent, culture and history to explore, Yorkshire as a whole has always continued to be recognised as a geographic territory and cultural region. Yorkshire may be big now but it used to be bigger! Until 1974 it covered parts of what are now County Durham, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and the Tees Valley. Yorkshire also has nearly a third of the total area of National Parks in England (the North York Moors, most of the Yorkshire Dales and part of the Peak District) covering a fifth of the region’s land area.
Yorkshire also lays claim to being home to some of Britain’s ‘oldest’ things including the oldest known city in Britain, Ripon, which was granted a charter by at least 886. Scarborough on the coast was Britain’s first seaside resort, established in 1660 after the discovery of the ‘healing’ spring waters which later would form the spa. The oldest registered visitor attraction in England is Mother Shipton’s Cave and Petrifying Well in Knaresbough, North Yorkshire which has been welcoming tourists since at least 1630. Sheffield FC is the oldest football club in the world founded in 1857. The county is also home to Britain’s oldest pub (and perhaps the oldest pub in the world), The Bingley Arms in Bardsey dates from AD 953 to the days of the Vikings and has been serving beer for over 1,000 years. Speaking of pubs, Yorkshire is also home to England's highest pub, The Tan Hill Inn which sits 1,732 ft above sea level at a point where the counties Yorkshire, Durham and Cumbria meet. You might recognise it from the Christmas Waitrose advert where everyone got snowed in!
As well as the ‘oldest’, Yorkshire lays claim to some other great feats! The county has over 2,600 ancient monuments of national importance (14% of the English total), 800 conservation areas and 116 registered parks & gardens. The North York Moors Railway is the longest steam operated railway in the UK, with over 18 miles of track running through the countryside from Pickering to Whitby. The city of York has the longest city walls in England, at three miles long, and they enclose an area of around 263 acres. York Minster is the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe, it took 252 years to build in its present form and contains 128 medieval stained glass windows and York’s Shambles is considered to be the best-preserved medieval str**t in Europe.
The emblem of Yorkshire, the white rose of the House of York is instantly recognisable for many and flies on flags across the county. The county is well known for its distinct culture, from its dialect to its food. This county gave us Parkin, Yorkshire curd tarts, Wensleydale cheese, Pontefract cakes and by far its most outstanding contribution to English culture; the Yorkshire pudding which makes up THE MOST IMPORTANT part of our Sunday dinner!
The unofficial anthem of Yorkshire is the popular folk song On Ilkla Moor Baht ‘at (“On Ilkley Moor without a hat”) which showcases some of the distinct words and pronunciations the region is known for. The dialect is old and has roots in Old English and Old Norse, being known as Broad Yorkshire or Tyke. Known for expressions like ayup, r**t good, put ‘wood int ‘ole (close the door), shut thee cake oyle (shut your mouth) this county is still a glorious bastion of r**t proper English as it was meant to be, home to northern and regional diversity that is fast disappearing. I will leave you to puzzle over this poem by about Yorkshire by Eric Scaife;
We’re a rare strange bunch ‘at live up ‘ere
But we’ve gradely grub an’ champion beer
An’ mony a famous name thou’l see
On Yorksheer own proud family tree.
Oor sportin’ ways are second ter none
Oor art an’ culture speak as yan
Us Yorksheer fowk ev Yorksheer ways
An’ when we say we laiks we plays.
Oor language is t’ English true
Oor thee, thou, tha’s are nothin’ new
Wi’ glottal stops an’ aitches dropped
The G at end is allus cropped.
So com’ thi ways to oor grand county
An’ sample sum o’ Yorksheers bounty
Oor ales are grand, oor looance too
An’ friendly fowk to welcome thoo.
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So today lads and lasses ‘sit thi sen darn’, put yus feet up, hav’ a proper brew of Yorkshire tea and enjoy some of my favourite photos I have taken around Yorkshire. Please share your memories, hidden gems and photos of Yorkshire as well. Happy Yorkshire Day!
