A day for Yorkshire: What's the harm in that?

Mayors and Civic dignitaries from across England's largest county parade through Sheffield to celebrate Yorkshire Day.

Anne Murphy had been given the honour of leading the Yorkshire Day parade of mayors, a tradition of three decades’ standing, through the city centre to the cathedral for a service of thanksgiving. The Sheffield Pipe Band cleared a path.

The dignitaries in their civic regalia had come from all three Ridings, but the significance was not universal.

“Is it St Patrick’s Day?” asked one shopper. “That’s an impressive wedding for somebody,” said another.

Mrs Murphy was more inclusive. “Happy Yorkshire Day to everybody in Yorkshire,” she said, before joining a conference call with ex-pats in New Zealand.

“It’s an opportunity for all the Yorkshire people to get together,” she added. “It’s a fabulous county and I don’t think there’s any harm in celebrating one day a year for Yorkshire.”

Yorkshire Day has been an event since being declared as such by the Yorkshire Ridings Society in 1975, and today the county was almost a sea of white rose flags as the marketing industry went into overdrive.

For traditionalists, there was the Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity in York, read in Old English, Latin, Old Norse and modern English. Family-friendlier fun was to be had at the city’s corn maze, where they tossed Yorkshire puddings, and in Otley, where 21 pubs changed their names to those of local celebrities.

Geoffrey Boycott, arguably the most famous one, was to be found at Wentbridge House, near Pontefract, as the special guest at a family fun day.