The History & Culture of Yorkshire
The White Rose is the official emblem of Yorkshire, in its most common form it is shown as a White Rose with dark blue background (see left). After years of unofficial use the Flag Institute finally recognised the Yorkshire Rose on July the 29th 2008. Since then Yorkshire Day has been celebrated every year on the 1st of August.
Yorkshire was so named as it is the Shire (which means administrative area or county) of the City of York i.e. "York's Shire." Yorkshire is a division of land and Shire is an old English word for share, whilst York comes from a name (Jorvik) originally given to it by the Vikings.
Historically the River Tees was the Northern most boundary of Yorkshire, the North Sea coastline was the Eastern boundary and Southern boundary ran along the Humber Estuary, River Don and the River Sheaf. The western boundary ran down the western slopes of the Pennines before meeting the River Tees.
A Monarchy was formed in Jorvik (now know as York) shortly after the invasion of the Vikings and the original creation of Yorkshire. The Viking control of Yorkshire came to an end in 954 after a ferocious battle with the Kingdom of England and the last Viking King to reign over Yorkshire was killed and England's conquest was successful.
The Brigantes and the Parisii were two early inhabitants of Yorkshire, both of these were Celt tribes with the Brigantes being the largest of the Celts tribes in the whole of England. The Celts tribes successfully colonised Yorkshire until power was later seized by the Romans who took control over large parts of Northern England. There are many great architectural examples of roman ruins throughout Yorkshire, as well as many long straight roads to be thankful for! Once again small Celtic kingdoms appeared around Yorkshire after the Romans left, just as they had before. The Danes were next to invade as they conquered what is now known as modern day York and named it Jorvik, making it the capital city of their newly acquired Danish kingdom. The new Danish Kingdom covered most of Yorkshire and included large parts of Southern Northumbria.
In the years that followed the construction of many Priories and Abbeys began and new towns sprung up as the Norman landowners wanted to increase their wealth. New towns included Barnsley, Doncaster, Hull, Leeds, Scarborough, and Sheffield. Some of the towns which were founded before the invasion continued to grow, including Bridlington, York and Pocklington. Yorkshires population continued to grow steadily until the Great Famine of 1315 which result in the death of thousands of people.
In 1399 the King of England, King Richard II was overthrown and as a result an intense rivalry emerged between the House of Lancaster and the House of York, this resulted in several civil wars as the two houses battled for the throne, famously known as the War of the Roses.
The Yorkshire Rose (White Rose on a Blue background) and Lancashire Rose (Red Rose on a white background) were later combined, forming the famous Tudor Rose of England. Thankfully nowadays the rivalry is somewhat more sporting between the counties, with an annual Roses Match played in county cricket and the Roses tournament between the Universities of Lancaster and York.
During the 16th and 17th centuries industry based towns such as Leeds, Huddersfield, Hull & Sheffield continued to grow and during the following century Harrogate and Scarborough flourished on the back of their Spas with many people flocking their believing the natural mineral water had special curing properties.
The 19th century saw Yorkshire's unrelenting growth as the industrial revolution continued, with the main industries being coal, textiles and steel. However despite this growth in industry and population the living conditions did not keep up and Yorkshire began to see the introduction of slum houses and overcrowding, as a result of this there were outbreaks of cholera. By the end of the 19th century the introduction of water supplies and modern sewer systems meant living conditions started to improve again as a result of the safer sanitation.
Rail networks expanded across the county reaching more remote areas which helped spread the wealth created by the industrial revolution and smaller towns started to flourish. In 1889 new County Councils were formed although the larger towns were not included as they became County Boroughs and included a large chunk of the population.
The largest city in Yorkshire is Leeds and is the main centre of business, commerce and trade. Traditionally Leeds industries were based on textile and coal mining however in recent times it has become increasingly reliant on its service based sector with new industries such as web design, finance, call centres & media. The second largest City in Yorkshire, is Sheffield in South Yorkshire know as the "Steel City" due to its worldwide reputation for steel production. As the steel industry declined over the past few decades, Sheffield has successfully attracted other forms of business including an increasing amount of retail business which was give a huge boost by the development of the Meadow Hall shopping centre in 1993 on the site of one of the former steel works. Another success story for Sheffield industry is that of specialist engineering which it has now become world renowned. The Welding Institute and the Advanced Materials Research Centre have also help bring significant investment to the City as well as Yorkshire.
Another sector of Yorkshire economy which is booming is tourism. Yorkshire is lucky enough to have three National Parks within its boundaries; The Yorkshire Dales, The North York Moors and the Peak District. All of which attract millions of visitors to the area each year. Tourism is also thriving in the historic City of York, the spa town of Harrogate, and the seaside resort of Scarborough and Whitby. A further tourism boom is taking place in Leeds and Sheffield with more and more people taking city breaks. Kingston-upon-Hull is Yorkshire's largest port, steeped in manufacturing and fishing, which have sadly have both declined over recent years. However investment and regeneration of Hull city centre, including popular tourist attractions such as The Deep have helped add a much needed boost to the local economy. Yorkshire still has a healthy agricultural sector, although much more diversified than it once was, tourism certainly adds it fair share of contribution and support to local business.
Yorkshire folk are fiercely proud of their history, heritage, county and their unique local culture, so much so, it is sometimes believed they identify more so with their county than they do with their country, and in fact like to refer to their place of birth as 'Gods own Country'!. Yorkshire even has is own distinctive regional dialect known as 'Tyke', which the more hardened of Yorkshire men and women may even argue is a language within its own right! Yorkshire also has its very own unique set of colloquialisms such as Aye (yes), chuffin eck (surprised), Nowt (nothing), Now then (informal hello). Another local Yorkshire tradition not found anywhere else in England is the local dance which is known as the Long Sword Dance.
Many castles were built throughout Yorkshire during the Norman-Breton period, several of these are still standing and some as ruins. These include Pickering Castle, Bowes Castle, Richmond Castle, Skipton Castle, and York Castle. The ruins are great tourist attractions with some now becoming English Heritage sites to help preserve them for generations to come. There are also several stately homes in Yorkshire which are open to the public and are well worth a visit just to see how the other half live! Homes include: Castle Howard, Harewood House and Allerton Castle.
Within the county there are numerous Grade I listed buildings some of these include important public buildings, such as; Sheffield Town Hall, Leeds Town Hall, The Yorkshire museum, Guidhall York and Ormesby Hall. The National Trust also manages and conserves several properties and ruins; these include many religious sites and buildings of high architectural interest, the most famous of these being 'York Minster' which is the largest Cathedral in Northern Europe.