Culture of Yorkshire

The culture of Yorkshire has evolved over the county's long history, taking influences from various sets of cultures who have controlled the land throughout its history including the Celts (Brigantes and Parisii), Romans, Angles, Vikings, Normans and much more.

Yorkshire people have a strong sense of regional identity and are sometimes viewed to identify more strongly with their county than they do with their country. The Yorkshire people have their own distinctive dialect, which some have argued is a fully fledged language in its own right.

Traditions and stereotypes

The people of Yorkshire are immensely proud of both their county and their identity, embracing the popular nickname of God's Own County given to Yorkshire. It is sometimes suggested that Yorkshiremen identify more strongly with their county than they do with their country.

Yorkshire people are often stereotyped as being warm and friendly but "bloody minded", stubborn (also known as "Yorkshire-stubborn") and argumentative. Indeed throughout the history of the county, going back to the time of the tribal Brigantes, through the Norman period and Wars of the Roses, people from the county have rebelled, commonly not embracing non-Yorkshire or non-Nothern associated rulers over them.

One social stereotype of a Yorkshireman had a tendency to include such accessories as a flat cap and a whippet, this alludes to rural life. While the stereotype might not always ring true, the county certainly has an illusrtious rural history, many of the now prominent West Yorkshire cities grew thanks in part to the wool industry. Another stereotype often heard in connection with Yorkshire workers is the proverb "where there’s muck, there’s brass", this is in regards to the large coal mining industry which was widely spread in Yorkshire. Muck and brass are Yorkshire colloquialisms for soil and money respectively.

Tyke is now a colloquialism used to identify the Yorkshire dialect, as well as the term some Yorkshiremen affectionately use to describe themselves, especially in the West Riding. Originally "tyke" was used as a highly derogatory adjective, meaning "a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement"; Londoners used the term against Yorkshiremen, despite the negative connotations it was adopted taking on new meanings.

In the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, they set a segment on birth where title card read, "The Miracle of Birth, Part II — The Third World". The scene then opened into an ordinary British mill town street, subtitled, "Yorkshire."

Among Yorkshire's unique traditions is the Long Sword dance, a traditional dance not found elsewhere in England. The most famous traditional song of Yorkshire is On Ilkla Moor Baht'at ("On Ilkley Moor without a hat"), it is considered the unofficial anthem of the county. In celebration of its culture Yorkshire Day is celebrated annually on 1 August since 1975. Amongst the celebrations there is a Civic gathering of Lord Mayors, Mayors and other Civic Heads from across the county and convened by the Yorkshire Society.

Cuisine

The cuisine of Yorkshire and that of North England in general is known for using rich tasting ingredients, especially in regards to sweet dishes, which are widely affordable for the majority of people who live there. Below is a list of foods which either originated from Yorkshire or are heavily associated with it.

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Yorkshire puddings, served as part of a traditional Sunday roast.

• Yorkshire pudding - far and away the most well known element of Yorkshire food, it is commonly served with roast beef and vegetables to form part of the standard Sunday roast, which itself grew from the county. It is created from batter and in most cases that it is eaten, the dish includes gravy.
• Yorkshire curd tart - a curd tart recipe which has been around since at least the 1750s, unique because of its use of rosewater.
• Parkin - a sweet ginger cake which is different from standard ginger cakes in that it includes oatmeal and treacle as part of the traditional rescipie.
• Liquorice sweet - the plant was thought to have been brought over by returning Crusaders or Dominican monks in the 14th century, a place named Pontefract in Yorkshire became synonymous with it as local man, George Dunhill, in the 1760s thought to mix it with sugar, creating what was known locally as Pomfret Cakes, but is now well known as just liquorice.
• Wensleydale cheese - a cheese associated with Wensleydale in North Yorkshire, the local pastures give the cheese the unique flavour for which it is renowned
• Ginger beer - a beverage flavoured with ginger, it has existed since the mid 1700s.

Confectionery industry

From the 1700s onwards, Yorkshire and in particular the city of York grew up many chocolate factories or companies, forming a highly important part of the confectionery industry with now globally known products.

• Rowntree's (York) - invented Kit Kat, Smarties, Aero, Fruit Pastilles, Black Magic and Polo.
• Terry's (York) - invented Terry's Chocolate Orange, York Fruits, Neapolitans and Terry's All Gold.
• Thorntons (Sheffield) - involved in the field of luxury chocolate such as elaborate truffles.

Sport

Yorkshire has played a highly important role in the development of sports, some forms of which have gone on to have world wide notoriety. Sport holds a significant role in the overall modern day culture of the county, the main sports are football, cricket and rugby league.

Herbert Sutcliffe, batsman.

Cricket

Yorkshire County Cricket Club represent the historic county in first-class cricket, they compete in the County Championship against 17 others, playing at their home ground of Headingley, Leeds. Yorkshire are by far the most successful in the history of the championship, they have won the title on 30 separate occasions; their nearest competitor in terms of titles achieved is Surrey who have only won it 18 times in comparison. They participate in a derby with Lancashire County Cricket Club known as the Roses Match, named after the Wars of the Roses.

The first cricket club from Yorkshire is thought to have been Sheffield Cricket Club, who founded in 1751. Some of the players from Yorkshire have become highly acclaimed in the general history of the sport, these include; Herbert Sutcliffe, Sir Leonard Hutton, Wilfred Rhodes, George Herbert Hirst, Fred Trueman and Geoffrey Boycott. Outside of the county club and their achievements, Yorkshiremen have also made a distinct mark on cricket in general; Thomas Lord was the man who founded Lord's Cricket Ground in London. In terms of umpires, the man regarded as the most famous and a figure synonymous with cricket, Dickie Bird, is from Barnsley.

Football

Main article: Football in Yorkshire

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Gordon Banks performing the Save of the Century after a shot from Pelé.

Yorkshire is officially recognised by FIFA as the birth-place of club football, as Sheffield FC who were founded in 1857 are certified as the oldest association football club in the world. South Yorkshire hosted the first ever inter-club match and the first ever local derby on 26 December 1860; between Sheffield FC and Hallam FC. South Yorkshire is also home to what is recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the Oldest Ground in the World, Sandygate Road. The Sheffield rules code was highly influential to the development of the FA's Laws of the Game, which is now the world wide standard code for the game and happened to be drafted by Ebenezer Cobb Morley from Hull.

Yorkshire clubs compete in the English football league system. While they are by no means the most dominant footballing county, Yorkshire has produced several national league winners, some of whom have won the title more than once, including; Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds United, Huddersfield Town and Sheffield United. Some players from Yorkshire have gone on to become some of the most highly regarded in the history of the game, this includes World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks and two time European Footballer of the Year award winner Kevin Keegan.

Rugby

Main article: History of rugby league

Harold Wagstaff - Prince of the Centers.

Originally Yorkshire clubs formed part of the Rugby Football Union which covered all of England under the same code and they competed in competitions such as the Yorkshire Cup. The sport was popular amongst the working-class of the North, whilst in the South it was a middle-class mans game. This proved a problem in the pre-professional era for the Yorkshire clubs, as the working-class were limited by the need to earn a wage and did not have as much recreational time; it was against the rules for clubs to pay players at that time.

In 1895 the rugby schism took place, creating the sport of rugby league in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire. The association they founded, based in the North is what is today known as the Rugby Football League. Although in the modern day some Yorkshire clubs play rugby union, league is the main rugby focus for the county; of the 24 clubs who have competed in the Super League, 11 are from Yorkshire.

The five most decorated Yorkshire clubs in terms of league titles are Huddersfield Giants, Hull FC, Bradford Bulls, Hull KR and Leeds Rhinos. In total six Yorkshiremen have been inducted into the prestigious Rugby League Hall of Fame in the form of; Harold Wagstaff, Jonty Parkin, Roger Millward, Neil Fox, Billy Batten and Ellery Hanley.

Others

In other sports, people from that county have also had success. "Prince" Naseem Hamed from Sheffield, was one of the most famous boxers of the 1990s; he won world championships in the Bantamweight (EBU) and Featherweight (IBF, IBO, WBC and WBO) divisions.

Yorkshire has produced several noted athletes; 100 meter runner Dorothy Hyman won three gold medals in the Commonwealth Games and one in the European Championships, middle-runner Peter Elliott also won gold at the Commonwealth Games. Adrian Moorhouse was a gold medal winning Olympian in swimming, earning victory at the 1988 Summer Olympics, he also won gold at three European Championships and three Commonwealth Games.

Popular culture

Music

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Jarvis Cocker, singer for the Pulp.

Yorkshire has played a significant part in popular music, starting with the unconventional Arthur Brown in the 1960s. During the following decade David Bowie, himself of a father from Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, hired three musicians from Hull in the form of Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey; together they recorded Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, an album that went on to become widely considered as one of the greatest and most influential of all time.

Perhaps the most significant time for Yorkshire music so far was the local post-punk scene of the 1980s, where the county produced several significant bands who went on to achieve wide spread acclaim and success, including; The Sisters of Mercy, The Cult, Gang of Four, The Human League, New Model Army, Soft Cell, Chumbawamba and The Mission.

Pulp from Sheffield had a massive hit in the form of Common People during 1995, the song focuses on working-class Northern England life. The 2000s saw popularity of indie rock and post-punk revival bands from the area with the Kaiser Chiefs and the Arctic Monkeys, the latter of whom hold the record for the fastest-selling debut album in British music history with Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.

Film and television

The two longest British television shows filmed in (and based around) Yorkshire are sitcom Last of the Summer Wine and soap opera Emmerdale. In particular Last of the Summer Wine is noted for holding the record of longest-running comedy series in the world.