We received a web enquiry regarding the Lancashire/Yorkshire boundary, as follows:
“Although subsequent Google searches of mine have failed to bring up anything about it, I seem to recall reading several weeks ago that, with the permission of Lancashire County Council, signs welcoming motorists to Yorkshire had been erected that were a few miles from where administrative Lancashire ends and administrative North Yorkshire begins. I also seem to recall being a little surprised by this, considering how eager Lancashire County Council once appeared to be for the people of Earby, Barnoldswick etc. to start thinking of themselves as Lancastrians.
Would you be able to confirm that my memory isn’t playing tricks on me and that signs as described above do indeed now exist in that area? If so, are signs informing folks that they are about to enter Lancashire to be seen around there too, despite the fact that they would be well within LCC’s territory? (I’m aware that Yorkshire and Lancashire signs have been put up in the metropolitan borough of Oldham, by the way. Good to hear, that was.)
Unlikely though it is to happen anytime soon, the idea of Yorkshire becoming a sovereign state is an intriguing one nonetheless, and I must ask (with reference to the article titled Yorkshire Independence: The Myths and Realities): Why would a newly established nation of Yorkshire almost certainly be neutral and hence have to close NATO’s military bases there, bearing in mind NATO is an international organization that an independent Yorkshire might do well to be a member of?”, Jon.
We would like to thank Jon for his enquiry and respond below:
We are delighted to report that signs marking the true boundary of Yorkshire have indeed been erected within the Local Government Area (LGA) currently administered by the confusingly named, ‘Lancashire County Council’. “Confusingly named” because the area includes parts that are not of the County of Lancashire, such as Bowland and West Craven and excludes parts that are of the County of Lancashire, such as Manchester, Liverpool and Barrow-in-Furness!
You may be aware that on Yorkshire Day last year we launched our “Yorkshire Boundaries Campaign” where we wrote to all Councils administering parts of Yorkshire not within the Lieutenancies of East, West and South Yorkshire or the LGA of North Yorkshire. These include: Redcar; Middlesbrough; Yarm (Stockton Borough Council); Startforth (Durham County Council); Sedbergh (Cumbria County Council); Saddleworth (Oldham Council) and Fockerby (North Lincolnshire Council) as well as those parts administered by ‘Lancashire County Council’, such as Slaidburn, Earby and Barnoldswick. The purpose of the letter was to bring to their attention Government Guidance for Local Authorities to recognise and respect traditional counties which includes marking the boundaries of such counties situated within their area of administration. Although some of those Councils have refused to mark these boundaries whilst others have required more ‘persuasion’ to do so, we are, overall, pleased with the positive responses received. These we have shared with the Yorkshire Ridings Society, of whom our Chair is also a member, to work collaboratively in securing the installation of Yorkshire boundary signs and we are pleased to announce that several of these are now in place around Yorkshire’s true boundary with several more in the pipeline.
For more on more information on this Campaign, see:
Regarding Yorkshire becoming a sovereign state,that is not and has never been an ambition of YDM! We want Yorkshire to be devolved as a single, integral entity (per the boundaries referred to above) via a directly elected Parliament with powers inferior to no other part of the UK and elected by Single Transferrable Vote. We want that to eventually become the basis of Yorkshire governance within a federalised England as part of the United Kingdom.
YDM