Yorkshire
| Yorkshire | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Country | England |
| Borders | Cheshire County Durham Derbyshire Lancashire Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire Westmorland |
| Population | 5,218,838 |
Yorkshire is a county in northern England, and is the largest county, divided into three 'Ridings' (OE thridings, 'thirds'), as well as its most populous with a population of over 5 million. Although officially a county, owing to its size as well as its distinctive cuisine, dialect, literature, as well as its history, having been important to the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans, it can be thought of as a cultural region of England as well.
The county has varied geography from the hills and mountains of the Pennines, the bleak moors of the North York Moors, to the flatlands of the Vale of York and the fen country of the Humberhead Levels. The county town is York, a cathedral city with Roman roots. Among Yorkshire's other cathedral cities are Bradford, Ripon (one of England's smallest cities) and Wakefield. Whilst not a cathedral city, Beverley also boasts an impressive 12th century Gothic minster. Its largest city is Leeds, with other notable settlements being Doncaster, Huddersfield, Hull, Middlesbrough, Rotherham and Sheffield. For statistical purposes, the county is largely grouped with northern Lincolnshire as part of the Yorkshire and the Humber statistical region, although other parts of the county lie in North East and North West England.
The county has several conurbations, especially in the south of the county. The largest is the West Yorkshire built-up area, which is centred on Bradford, Leeds and Huddersfield, with other major settlements being Dewsbury, Halifax and Wakefield, and has around 1.8 million people. The Sheffield urban area has around 700,000 people, with the southernmost part being in Derbyshire. The Teesside built-up area, in which the largest town is Middlesbrough, straddles the River Tees between the far north east of Yorkshire and County Durham, and has around 400,000 people.
Yorkshire borders County Durham to the north, the North Sea to the east, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire to the south east, Derbyshire and Cheshire to the south west, as well as Lancashire and Westmorland across the Pennines to the west.
For local government, the county Yorkshire is administered by multiple council areas (see section) some of which, namely East Riding of Yorkshire Council and North Yorkshire Council, feature "Yorkshire" in their name. It also lends its name to the counties for the purposes of lieutenancy East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, although these do not cover the entire county and include areas of other counties as well.
Historically, the symbol of Yorkshire was the white rose.
Contents
Name
The name Yorkshire is from Middle English Yorke schyre, which displaced the form Everwhich schire, which was derived from Old English Eoforwicscir. In any case, the names mean "county of York"; "York" is derived from the Old Norse name for the city Jorvik (which, by folk-etymology, means "stallion bay"), a Scandinavianized form of the Old English name Eoforwic (literally, "boar village"), ultimately an adaptation of the Latin name Eboracum.
Geography
Large parts of the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire is dominated by the Pennines, by far the longest chain of hills in England, which stretch north to Northumberland and south to Staffordshire. Yorkshire's long western border with Lancashire cuts through the heart of the Pennine chain, as do its borders with Cheshire and Westmorland and part of the border with Derbyshire. The tallest highest point in Yorkshire is Mickle Fell, which has a height of 2,585 ft (788 m) and lies within southern Teesdale in the far north of the North Riding. Lower-lying land is found in the East Riding, around the River Humber and the far-east of the West Riding around Goole. The East Riding is the only part of Yorkshire to posses no mountains (hills exceeding 2,000 ft in height) at all, although it does have an upland area, the Yorkshire Wolds, the most northerly range of chalk hills (known as "downs" in southern England) in Great Britain, in which the highest point is Bishop Wilton Wold at 814 ft (248 m).
Subdivisions
The county is divided into three Ridings. The term "Riding" is ultimately derived from the Old Norse þriðjungr ("third part"). The Ridings are:
The Ridings are further divided into wapentakes, which are essentially analogous to hundreds in other counties such as Lancashire.
History
The immediately pre-Roman inhabitants of what is now Yorkshire were the Celts. The Celtic language of Great Britain was Common Brittonic, which is the ancestor of modern the Brittonic Celtic languages Breton, Cornish and Welsh. Although the city of Eboracum was founded by the Romans in 71 AD, when a military fortress was constructed in the present-day city centre, its likely that the Celtic Britons had a settlement in the area; the name appears to be from Proto-Celtic *Eburakon ("place abounding in yew trees"), from which the name "York" (via various Old English and Old Norse adaptations) ultimately derives. In c. 150 AD, Ptolemy recorded two tribes of ancient Britons in present-day Yorkshire. The Brigantes controlled much of the modern-day north and North Midlands of England, with their capital being Isurium Brigantium (Aldeborough), with the Parisi occupying an area similar to the East Riding of Yorkshire and their capital was most likely Petuaria (Brough, 12 miles west of Hull).
The fortified city Eboracum (York) was the capital of Brittania Inferior, a Roman province established in c. 200 AD and covering much of what is now Northern England and the Midlands. There are numerous Roman forts in Yorkshire, which would later be denoted in Old English by the ending -ceaster, surviving as -caster, with examples being Doncaster and Tadcaster.
Following the departure of Romans from Britain in the early 5th century, several Romano-British Celtic kingdoms emerged in Yorkshire; Ebrauc was the region around York, Deifr (or Deira) comprised the lands along the coast to the north and east of York, while Elmet was further west and centred on what is now Leeds (Loidis). Modern-day Yorkshire forms a part of the region known to historians as Yr Hen Ogledd (Welsh for "the old north"), which comprises the British Celtic kingdoms of the immediately post-Roman years in northern England and southern Scotland.
The first Germanic peoples, who brought to Britain the Old English language, arrived in what is now England and Scotland in c. 450 AD. The old British Celtic kingdom of Deifr became the Anglian kingdom Deira in the third quarter of the 5th century, with this ultimately being unified with the more northerly kingdom Bernicia (centred on Northumberland and south east Scotland) to form the kingdom of Northumbria in the 7th century. By this time, the name Eboracum (modern-day York) had been adapted into the Old English Eoforwic. The Celtic kingdom Elmet was annexed into the kingdom of Northumbria on Easter in 627 AD. They were subsequently known as Elmetsæte or "Elmet-dwellers" (the suffix -sæte also being found in the modern English county names Dorset and Somerset).
Following the first Scandinavian Viking raid on Northumbria in 793 AD, an army of Vikings from Denmark invaded the south of Northumbria and conquered York in 866 AD. Eoforwic was once again adapted, this time into Old Norse Jorvik, from which the present-day name "York" ultimately derives. Jorvik became the capital of a Scandinavian kingdom of the same name. Yorkshire formed the heartlands of this Scandinavian kingdom.
The first known documentary reference to Yorkshire was in the reign of Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042-1066). Eoforwicscir was recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1060, the first document for formally distinguish men of York from the Northumbrians.
At the time the Domesday Book was taken in 1086 on the order of William the Conqueror, Yorkshire was far larger and included areas of present-day Lancashire and Westmorland.
Administration
Local government
Yorkshire, as of 2024, is administered by numerous council areas, like most English counties. The most extensive is North Yorkshire Council (England's largest council area), with the second being East Riding of Yorkshire County Council, although neither are co-extensive with the North or East Ridings of Yorkshire. The extreme north of the county is covered by Durham County Council, whilst the far north west around Sedbergh is under Westmorland and Furness Council. The Forest of Bowland forms part of the Lancashire County Council area. Other council areas that cover (either partially or wholly) areas of Yorkshire are Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC), Bradford Council, Calderdale MBC, City of Doncaster Council, Hull City Council, Kirklees Council, Leeds City Council, Middlesbrough Council, Oldham MBC, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, Rotherham MBC, Sheffield City Council, Stockton-on-Tess Borough Council, City of York Council and Wakefield Council.
Between the years 1889 and 1974, much of Yorkshire's land area was administered by three administrative counties or council areas; East Riding County Council, North Riding County Council and West Riding County Council. The council areas had similar boundaries to the Ridings of Yorkshire after which they were named, although some urban areas had county borough councils independent of those.
Statistical
Much of Yorkshire is in the statistical region Yorkshire and the Humber, although this also includes areas of Lincolnshire as well as some even smaller parts of Derbyshire and Lancashire, and excludes many northern and western areas of Yorkshire. Such areas of Yorkshire are statistically classed as part of the North East and North West of England.
Sport
The principle sports in Yorkshire are soccer (football) and rugby league, with the traditional game of Yorkshire being cricket, though in recent years the county side has lagged. Similarly, Yorkshire football teams no longer occupy their former prominent positions in the football leagues.
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Yorkshire people are supposed to be dour and of few words, careful with money but loyal friends once their reserve has been penetrated. A traditional rhyme runs:
- Yorkshire born, Yorkshire bred
- Strong in't arm and thick in't head
Yorkshire is associated with the Yorkshire Pudding, and with the Yorkshire Ripper, the serial killer Peter Sutcliffe (b. 2 June 1946) of Bradford who murdered thirteen women in northern England between 1975 and 1980.
