Did you know 1st August is Yorkshire Day? The event was first held in 1975 in Beverley as a protest against the reorganisation of local government in 1974, and the believed reason behind the chosen date is because on 1^st August 1833, The Slavery Abolition Act was passed – for which Yorkshire MP William Wilberforce had been instrumental in the campaign.

The reorganisation of local government involved the changing of the original boundaries and the introduction of county and district councils. Nowadays, The Yorkshire Society have an annual members’ meeting and a different place hosts the meeting each year – this year it’s to be held in York and last year was a virtual meeting due to Covid-19.

The Yorkshire Society

Prior to today’s Yorkshire Society, the first meeting of an iteration of this took place on 3rd December 1678. This meeting was for ‘Gentlemen and others in and near London who were born within the County of York’. In 1812, a society for the county formed in a London school for children of parents from the county. However, the formation of The Yorkshire Society as it is today wasn’t until 1980.

The society have a tradition of congregating in York to commemorate the day and recite ‘The Declaration of Integrity’, which reads:
“I, (name), being a resident of the (North/East/West Riding of Yorkshire (or City of York) declare:
That Yorkshire is three Ridings and the City of York, with these Boundaries of 1146 years’ standing; That the address of all places in these Ridings is Yorkshire; That all persons born therein or resident therein and loyal to the Ridings are Yorkshiremen and women; That any person or corporate body which deliberately ignores or denies the aforementioned shall forfeit all claim to Yorkshire status.
These declarations made this Yorkshire Day. God Save the Queen!”

At JB Springs, we’re proud to produce our compression springs, tension springs and torsion springs out of our purpose-built facility in North Yorkshire and have done so for over 128 years! Now to get our flat caps on and get the Yorkshire puddings in t’oven!