ABSTRACT
Apart from some marginal gains and losses on its southern and northern fringes, the current Government Office Region of Yorkshire and the Humber (Figure 8.1) is in essence the latest incarnation of an ancient administrative division, the history and heritage of which remain a potent motivating and marketing force. Dating from Anglo-Saxon times in the sixth and seventh centuries, Yorkshire was formally adopted as a separate unit following the Danish and Norse settlement of the eighth century. Long renowned as the largest county in England until its dissolution under local government reorganisation in 1974, it was also distinct in being divided into three segments, or ‘ridings’ (derived from the Danish word treding, meaning a third part): East, North and West (Bentley, 1973). Its association with the House of York, the losing side in the fifteenth-century Wars of the Roses, later led to the adoption of the White Rose as the county emblem. This warring imagery has persisted through to modern times, with any sports match between football, cricket or Rugby League teams from Yorkshire and Lancashire referred to as a ‘Roses clash’.
