Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA
When Stewart Arnold first moved to Yorkshire 30 years ago, its county “day” – marked on 1 August – would come and go without much fanfare. “It’s only in the past five years or so that things have changed,” he said. “Now the local media has picked up on it and there are things going on up and down the county.”
The day is gaining prominence within the county, with local councils, schools, pubs, restaurants and cafes, staging their own events to celebrate.
The first Yorkshire Day is said to have been held by the Yorkshire Ridings Society in 1975 in protest against local government reorganisation the year before, which divided Yorkshire’s ridings between a number of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties.
From that point on members of the society would gather every year in York to read the Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity, which affirms Yorkshire’s historic boundaries and that “all persons born therein or resident therein and loyal to the ridings are Yorkshiremen and women”.
Arnold, who now leads the Yorkshire party, which campaigns for the county’s devolution, says the celebration has widened its appeal. “There has been a momentum over recent years. People see other people flying the Yorkshire flag and they think ‘oh, we can do that too’.”
Arnold said that unlike St George’s Cross, the white rose of Yorkshire did not connote the far right. “People feel comfortable using it.”
The official civic celebration marking Yorkshire Day, organised by the Yorkshire Society, will this year be held in Ripon. About 200 dignitaries are expected to attend the event, which will include a civic procession, service in the cathedral, and lunch of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and wilfra tart, a Riponian delicacy.
“It’s a PR exercise in many ways, but it’s also an affirmation of a county that has some very proud and old traditions,” said Mike Chambers, Conservative councillor for Ripon Spa. “It’s something that we should continue so that we can make our county even more recognised, not only in this country but around the world.”
One reason given for the recent upsurge in interest in the celebration was the Tour de Yorkshire cycling race, which began in 2015 following the successful visit of the 2014 Tour de France to the county. “When people were out on the streets there were as many Yorkshire flags as there were union [flags] and St George’s crosses,” said Arnold.
The recent campaign for devolution for Yorkshire and its population of 5.3 million – an idea backed by Jeremy Corbyn – and a general disaffection with Westminster, could also have contributed to the interest, said Philip Bell, CEO of the Yorkshire Society.
He said: “There is a sense across the whole of the north of England and Yorkshire especially that we are seen as second-class citizens compared to the rest of the UK and London in particular. On spend per capita we’re often at the bottom of the pile and there is that sense of injustice, which does feed a pride and resilience.
“I see Yorkshire as a nation within a nation. We have a flag. We almost have an anthem in [the song] On Ilkla Moor Baht ‘at – we could do with a proper one. There’s a certain thing that beats in your heart as a Yorkshire person and unless we hold it together as a nation and maintain the traditions like Yorkshire Day, there’s a danger it will disappear.”
