County in England

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is so proud of itself that it has its own national day, its own flag, and a pudding that is meant to come before the meat.

Key information

County: Yorkshire
Nation: England
Population: about 5.5 million across the historic county area, 2021 Census estimate
Area: About 6,000 square miles (15,500 square kilometres), England's largest historic county
Known for: Yorkshire pudding, rhubarb, the Dales and Moors, Roman York, cricket and rugby league
What locals are called: Yorkshire folk, Yorkshiremen and Yorkshirewomen (Tykes in dialect)
Famous people: Captain Cook, Emily Brontë, Judi Dench, Geoffrey Boycott
Football clubs: Leeds United, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Hull City, Bradford City, Huddersfield Town, Barnsley

About Yorkshire

The county that thinks it's a country

Yorkshire is England's biggest county by a distance, and it behaves accordingly. It has its own flag, a white rose on a blue background, and flies it every 1 August on Yorkshire Day, a celebration that began in 1975. The white rose is the emblem of the House of York, the side that lost out to the red rose of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses, then won the argument in the end by sheer stubbornness. Locals will happily point out that the Tudor rose is a merger, and that the white half is the important bit. The county was historically split into three Ridings: North, East and West. The word comes from the Old Norse for a third, a reminder that Vikings ran this place. They made York their capital, Jorvik, in the 9th century.

From Roman fortress to Viking boomtown

York began as Eboracum, a Roman legionary fortress, and it was here in 306 AD that Constantine was proclaimed emperor, the man who would go on to reshape Christianity in Rome. Not bad for a muddy northern outpost. The Vikings followed, and the archaeology of their city, uncovered in Coppergate in the 1970s and 80s, gave us a famous haul of well-preserved everyday objects. York Minster, one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in northern Europe, took roughly 250 years to build and still dominates the skyline. Medieval wealth came from wool, and the great abbeys of Fountains, Rievaulx and Whitby were built on it. Henry VIII's dissolution left them as spectacular ruins, and they remain some of the most striking in Britain.

Steel, wool and the machines that made modern Britain

Yorkshire's industrial story is one of grit and invention. Leeds, Bradford and Halifax turned wool into one of the world's great textile trades, and Bradford was once nicknamed Worstedopolis. Sheffield became renowned for steel and cutlery, and Harry Brearley's invention of stainless steel there in 1913 changed kitchens everywhere. Thomas Boulsover also invented Sheffield plate in the city in 1743, fusing silver to copper to make a cheaper alternative to solid silver. Hull became a major port, while Wakefield, Barnsley and Doncaster sat on the coalfields. Saltaire, near Bradford, was founded by Sir Titus Salt in 1851 as a model village for his mill workers and grew in stages into the 1870s. Its church opened in 1859, its hospital in 1868 and the Saltaire Institute, home to its library, in 1871. It famously had no pub. The Yorkshire coast gave the world Captain James Cook, who learned seamanship around Whitby before sailing to Australia and the Pacific.

Moors, dales and a very large sky

Parts of three national parks lie in Yorkshire: the Yorkshire Dales, the North York Moors and the Peak District. The Peak District reaches into South Yorkshire around western Sheffield and Langsett. The Dales have limestone scars, waterfalls such as Hardraw Force, and the three peaks of Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent, which hardy walkers try to climb in a single day. The Moors roll down to a dramatic coast at Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby, where Bram Stoker set part of Dracula after visiting in 1890. The abbey ruins above the town still make a fine gothic backdrop. Haworth, on the edge of the moors, was home to the Brontë sisters. Emily's Wuthering Heights gave the wild landscape a literary mood that has never quite lifted.

Why the pudding comes first

The Yorkshire pudding was traditionally served as a starter with gravy, a thrifty way of filling hungry stomachs before the pricier meat appeared. Plenty of Yorkshire families still insist on it. The first known recipe appeared in 1737 under the name dripping pudding. Then there is rhubarb. The Rhubarb Triangle between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell produces the forced variety, grown in dark sheds and picked by candlelight so the stalks come out tender and pink. It has protected status in Europe. Add Wensleydale cheese, which Wallace and Gromit helped rescue from near oblivion, parkin, Henderson's Relish in Sheffield, and a proper pot of Yorkshire Tea, and the county eats well.

Sport taken very seriously

Yorkshire County Cricket Club has won more County Championships than any other side, and the county's cricketing legends include Geoffrey Boycott, Fred Trueman and Len Hutton. A famous Yorkshire tradition holds that you must be born in the county to play for the team, though that rule was eventually relaxed. Rugby league is the sport of Leeds, Wakefield, Castleford, Hull and Huddersfield, which hosted the game's founding breakaway in 1895 at the George Hotel. Football is just as fierce, with the Sheffield derby between United and Wednesday among the oldest in the world. Sheffield FC, founded in 1857, is recognised as the oldest football club in the world. In 2014 the Tour de France began in Leeds, and crowds lining the Dales roads were enormous.

Yorkshire Pudding

Published 02 October 2026

Yorkshire pudding was designed to fill you up before the meat arrived, and a famous 2008 ruling said a proper one must stand at least four inches tall.

Food & Drink

The Sunday Roast