Facts About Yorkshire | Yorkshire Day
by Northern Life
Yorkshire has more Michelin Star restaurants than anywhere outside London
- Yorke Arms, Ramsgill near Harrogate
- The Pipe and Glass, South Dalton
- The Black Swan at Oldstead
- The Star Inn at Harome
- The Man Behind the Curtain in Leeds
More than just a pretty face, Ilkley, one of Yorkshire’s best kept secrets
Yorkshire boasts more top racecourses than any other region of the UK
- Ripon
- Catterick
- Beverley
- Thirsk
- Pontefract
- Wetherby
- York
- Redcar
- Doncaster
We visit the beautiful village of Middleham to discover its hidden secrets
Famous people from Yorkshire include:
- Dame Judi Dench
- David Hockney
- Peter Stringfellow
- Brontë sisters
- Henry Moore
- Barbara Hepworth
- James Martin
- Brian Blessed
- Sean Bean
- Ian McMillan
Some of the UK’s favourite places are in Yorkshire
- Bradford named Britain’s Curry Capital for six years in a row.
- The Star Inn at Harome named Best Gastropub in the UK in The Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropub 2017 Awards.
- Hebden Bridge, in Calderdale, crowned Best Small Market Town in Britain at Great British High Street Awards 2016.
- Pateley Bridge, in Nidderdale, also named Best Village.
- Leeds Kirkgate Market named Britain’s Favourite Market for a second year at 2016 National Association of British Market Authorities (NABMA).
- Robin Hood’s Bay beach named one of top 25 beaches in the world by Passport Magazine 2017.
- Harrogate, Britain’s happiest place 2013, 2014, 2015 (Rightmove)
- Skipton, Best place to live in Britain 2014 (Sunday Times)
- The Shambles – York, Britain’s most picturesque street (Google Street View Awards)
Seven Breath-Taking Photos That Show Why Yorkshire Is The Most Instagrammed Countryside In The UK
Yorkshire’s Top Five most visited free attractions 2015 (source: Visit England)
- Museums Sheffield: Millennium Gallery
- National Railway Museum
- Yorkshire Sculpture Park
- National Media Museum
- Leeds Art Gallery
Yorkshire’s Top Five most visited paid for attractions 2015 (source: Visit England)
- Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo
- Yorkshire Wildlife Park
- The Deep
- RHS Garden Harlow Carr
- Fountains Abbey
Our Top 5 Yorkshire walks from the Land Trust to celebrate National Walking Month this May
Yorkshire is the birthplace of many Olympic heroes including:
- Athlete – Hannah Cockroft
- Athlete – Jessica Ennis-Hill
- Boxer – Nicola Adams
- Cyclist – Lizzie Deignan (formerly Armitstead)
- Cyclist – Ed Clancy
- Triathletes – Alistair and Jonny Brownlee
And don’t forget cycling…
- Yorkshire hosted the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 2014 which generated £102 million for the county’s economy.
- The first ever Tour de Yorkshire took place in May 2015, attracting top riders including Sir Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy and Ben Swift.
- Tour de Yorkshire 2016 took place in April 2016 and attracted riders such as Sir Bradley Wiggins, Luke Rowe and Lars Petter Nordhaug. It generated almost £60 million for the economy.
- In 2016, the Asda Women’s Tour de Yorkshire become one of the most lucrative women’s cycle race in the world, offering financial parity as the men with a total of £50,000 to individuals and teams, and the same media coverage as the men.
- Tour de Yorkshire 2017 will go to Bridlington, Scarborough, Tadcaster, Harrogate, Bradford and Fox Valley, Sheffield and run from Friday, April 28 to Sunday, April 30. Last year’s winner, Thomas Voeckler, will return to defend his title.
- Yorkshire set to host 2019 UCI Road World Cycling Championships.
Yorkshire’s city life is pretty impressive too
- Leeds, York and the coastal resort of Scarborough are in the top ten most visited English Towns by UK residents. (UKTS 2008).
- York was voted as European Tourism City of the Year 2009.
- The Humber Bridge is the longest single-span suspension bridge in the UK, second longest in Europe and the fifth longest in the world.
- Bradford trumped Los Angeles, Cannes and Venice to achieve UNESCO City of Film status.
- Leeds is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK with a population of 771, 000, generating a fifth of the region’s tourism economy.
Food and drink is very important to Yorkshire
- Yorkshire & Humber have the largest concentration of food and drink businesses in the UK, contributing £1.7 billion to the regional economy.
- Yorkshire is famous for its rhubarb, boasting some of the largest producers in the UK. Placed between Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford they have become known world-wide as the rhubarb triangle. Forced Yorkshire rhubarb gained EU protected status in 2010.
- Yorkshire is home to over 80 real ale breweries producing almost a third of the UK’s beer, (Directory of UK Real Ale Breweries 2009) while Rotherham hosts the fourth largest beer festival in the country.
- Kelham Island Tavern in Sheffield was voted best UK pub of the year in 2009. (CAMRA Society for Real Ale).
Yorkshire is great for a family day out
- Scarborough is Britain’s first seaside resort and has been welcoming families for over 360 years.
- Pately Bridge near Harrogate is home to England’s oldest sweet shop, established in 1827 and still open today, displaying over 200 jars of sweets from pear drops to lollipops.
- Xscape in Castleford is the UK’s longest indoor real snow slope at 170 metres long with over 1500 tonnes of real snow as well as Europe’s tallest indoor ice-climbing wall.
- Eureka! in Halifax is the UK’s very first national children’s museum.
Yorkshire’s great outdoors really is great!
- Yorkshire has nearly a third of the total area of National Parks in England (the North York Moors, most of the Yorkshire Dales and part of the Peak District) covering a fifth of the region’s land area. (nationalparks.gov.uk).
- Yorkshire boasts two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering over 800 square kilometres of the region’s land area.
- The UK’s first ever National Trail, the Pennine Way, runs through Yorkshire and continues all the way up to the Scottish Borders, totalling 268 miles long.
- Around 17% of the Yorkshire region is designated green-belt land, compared to the average for England of 13%. Leeds, with greenbelt land covering over two thirds of its total area, and Sheffield, with a third of its area falling within the Peak District National Park, are two of the greenest cities in Europe.
- The Yorkshire Dales is home to England’s largest single drop waterfall, Hardraw Force, a reputed 100 foot drop, as well as Britain’s highest pub, the Tan Hill Inn, at 1,732ft above sea level.
- The highest point on the east coast of England is at Boulby, near Staithes in North Yorkshire, where the cliffs reach over 200 metres high.
- Flamborough Head has the biggest underwater chalk reef in Europe, extending underwater for up to 6 km out to sea, while The Deep in Hull is home to Europe’s only grey reef sharks.
Yorkshire has a strong heritage
- Yorkshire’s heritage is one of the most heavily invested among the UK regions, having received over £332 million in Heritage Lottery funding since 1994.
- Yorkshire has over 2,600 ancient monuments of national importance (14% of the England total), 800 conservation areas and 116 registered parks and gardens (each 8% of the England total). (Heritage Counts 2008).
- Yorkshire is home to two UNESCO World Heritage sites, including Studley Royal in North Yorkshire, one of the first to be designated in the UK, and more recently Saltaire Village in West Yorkshire (World Heritage).
- York Minster is the largest Gothic Cathedral in Northern Europe, took 252 years to build and contains 128 stained glass windows.
- Mother Shipton’s Cave and Petrifying Well, in Knaresborough North Yorkshire, is the oldest registered visitor attraction in Britain, opening for the first time in 1630. (VisitBritain).
- The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is the longest steam operated railway in the UK, with over 18 miles of track.
- Standedge Tunnel in Huddersfield is the highest, longest and deepest canal tunnel in the country, at around 3¼ miles long.
- The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway featured in the original film of The Railway Children.