A society dedicated to celebrating and promoting the 92 historic counties of the United Kingdom and the important part they play in our culture, heritage and geography.
Yorkshire Day celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in spectacular style on 1st August 2025. Launched in 1975 by our old friends the Yorkshire Ridings Society, after fifty years the event continues to grow in size and its coverage year on year. This year saw major TV coverage from ITV’s This Morning, BBC’s One Show and from GB News. #YorkshireDay was trending No. 1 on X throughout the day. The civic parade and service were held in Bradford and Ilkley. Throughout the county, Yorkshire men and women found an astonishing variety of ways to celebrate ‘God’s Own County’. We try our best to give a flavour of it here 🙂
The Official Civic Celebration of Yorkshire Day 2025, organised by the Yorkshire Society, gets underway at Bradford City Hall.The Yorkshire Day 2025 Civic Parade in Ilkley.Colson Smith interviews the Ilkley Town Cryer for ITV’s This Morning.The Yorkshire Day Thanksgiving Service, Ilkley.Dignitaries gather for the Yorkshire Day Civic Lunch at the Winter Garden, Ilkley.Ashlands Vets get into the Yorkshire Day spirit. Yorkshire Pudding Race at Queen Ethelburga’s School in Green Hammerton.The Sun Inn in Dent dressed for Yorkshire Day 2025. The Stone Close Tea Room in Dent with the flags out for Yorkshire Day 2025.The White Rose proudly flown at Howgills Accommodation and Cobble Country in Sedbergh. GB News reports on the celebrations of ‘God’s Own County’ in Ilkley.BBC Leeds staged a Yorkshire Day face-off between Leeds Rhino’s Ronnie the Rhino and Bradford Bull’s Bullman.Yorkshire Day 2025 celebrations at Junction 32, Castleford.Residents at the Manor House, Knaresborough enjoy Yorkshire Day 2025.Members of the Band of the Royal Yorkshire regiment perform “On Ilkla Mooar Baht ‘at” for Yorkshire Day 2025.The Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity in Otley.Yorkshire Day 2025 celebrations in Friarwood Valley Gardens in Pontefract.The Hill Street Centre, Rawmarsh celebrate Yorkshire Day 2025.Residents at Holyrood House Care Home, Knottingley enjoy a Yorkshire tea on Yorkshire Day 2025.Funs and games for Yorkshire Day 2025 at Sewerby Hall.Yorkshire Day 2025 at Wainhouse Tower near Halifax.Yorkshire Man dives into a giant Yorkshire pudding with gravy at York Maze on Yorkshire Day 2025.Yorkshire Day Quiz in the Malt Shovel in Harden.The Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity in Knaresborough.Yorkshire Day 2025 at MHA Assisi Place, Leeds.The Mayor of Thornaby-on-Tees reads the Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity from the Town Hall on Yorkshire Day 2025.The Vitello Lounge, Ilkley celebrates Yorkshire Day 2025.Minibugs Nursery, Ovenden enjoying Yorkshire Day 2025.
The Association of British Counties wishes to thank the countless Yorkshire men and women who have, over the last fifty years, worked hard to make Yorkshire Day the mass celebration that it has become. The first Yorkshire Day back in 1975 was not only a great day for Yorkshire but the start of our broader fight to sustain and enhance the identities of all our historic counties and their role in our nation’s history, geography and culture. It sprang from the Yorkshire Riding Society’s realisation that our counties could and must continue as important cultural and geographical entities, even if no longer needed for administration. Fifty years on, the sheer scale and variety of the Yorkshire Day celebrations continue to show us the way that our counties can and must remain sources of pride, affection and enjoyment to new generations.
Yorkshire Day Roll of Honour (L to R). The late Colin Holt – the father of Yorkshire Day; his wife Hilary Holt receives the Saddleworth Duck Race Prize from Roy Bardsley, Chairman of Saddleworth White Rose Society, watched on by Chris Abbott, Colin’s successor as Chairman of the Yorkshire Ridings Society – all sadly no longer with us; very much still with us, and still fighting the good fight, are Gavin Gibb and Michael Bradford, seen here either side of the town cryer at the 2019 celebrations in York.
2 thoughts on “Fifty Years of Yorkshire Day 1975-2025”
Good to see Yorkshire daygetting so much media coverage this year.
Despite me being born a true Lancashire and a firm believer that there are no such places geographically as; greater mananchester,Merseyside,cumbria…Yorkshire and other counties suffered the same confusion in 1974,when the powers that be at Whitehall,Westminster made their beaueratic changes on the great British public – and the media’s response has been a source of confusion for over 50 years now!
Thank goodness there are events like Yorkshire day to tremind (some) people of the existence of historical/traditional counties,which still exist to this day.
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2 thoughts on “Fifty Years of Yorkshire Day 1975-2025”
Good to see Yorkshire daygetting so much media coverage this year.
Despite me being born a true Lancashire and a firm believer that there are no such places geographically as; greater mananchester,Merseyside,cumbria…Yorkshire and other counties suffered the same confusion in 1974,when the powers that be at Whitehall,Westminster made their beaueratic changes on the great British public – and the media’s response has been a source of confusion for over 50 years now!
Thank goodness there are events like Yorkshire day to tremind (some) people of the existence of historical/traditional counties,which still exist to this day.
I love all of the UK but Yorkshire is truly the most wonderful place on the planet.
Happy Yorkshire Day to one and all.