If one county deserves its very own day, it’s Yorkshire. On 1st August each year, the UK’s biggest county comes together to celebrate all that’s brilliant about the region. In honour of Yorkshire Day 2014, we set about finding some dazzling facts and truths about God’s Own County, to demonstrate exactly why Yorkshire merits its own diary date. So let’s get to it.
Top 10 amazing facts about Yorkshire
Ilkley Moor- Via Flickr
Yorkshire’s unofficial anthem is On Ilkla Moor Baht ‘at, which to non-Yorkshire folks translates as On Ilkley Moor without a hat. There are worse places to be hatless I suppose…
Yorkshire contains two national parks, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. Between them, the parks cover a land area of 3,203 square kilometres and comprise 1,049 scheduled ancient monuments and 79 conservation areas.
The UK experienced its largest recorded earthquake at Dogger Bank in 1931. The quake measured 6.1 on the Richter scale and caused widespread damage to Yorkshire coastal towns like Filey and Bridlington.
Yorkshire Coast- Via Flickr
If Yorkshire was an independent country, it would have finished an impressive 12th in the league table at the 2012 Olympics. The county’s sportsmen and women racked up 7 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze medals over the course of the games.
Did you know, Guy Fawkes, instigator of the 1605 gunpowder plot, was born in the city of York in 1570?
The popular coastal town of Scarborough in North Yorkshire became Britain’s first seaside resort in 1626, after a damsel discovered a spring in the town which supposedly had health-giving properties. Mystical water or not, the tourists have returned ever since.
The Shambles- Via Flickr
Roman Emperor, Septimus Severus, ruled his entire empire from York for two years before his death in 211AD. His body is said to be buried beneath the old city- who needs Rome eh?
England’s tallest bloke, William Bradley, was born in the East Yorkshire town of Market Weighton in 1787. By 20, he was well over seven feet tall and was known throughout the country as the Yorkshire Giant.
Brompton, North Yorkshire, has a spot reserved in the history books thanks to Sir George Cayley, an aviation pioneer and all round aerodynamics guru. In 1853, this Yorkshire-born genius invented the world’s first glider. Other inventions conceived in Yorkshire include stainless steel, road cat’s eyes and the steam locomotive.
William Wilberforce, a key figure in the abolition of slavery in the UK, was born in the city of Hull in 1759. Today, his legacy can be seen across the globe, with universities and schools from the USA to Africa named after the Yorkshiremen.
By Jonathan Tuplin
Jonathan is a lover of books, music and good food. Originally from Yorkshire, there's nothing he likes more than a cycle in the country. One of his favourite spots in the UK is Tenby, where he spent many a happy holiday as a child.
