IT all began in 1975 as a protest against boundary changes, but since then Yorkshire Day has gone from strength to strength. No longer just a defiant act of demurral, the occasion celebrates all that is great about God’s own country.

And haven’t we had a lot to cheer about this year? The Tour de France will stand out as the most amazing memory, but the weather has been great all summer long and when the sun shines there is nowhere on earth to compare with this county.

Which is something more and more people have been discovering since watching the Grand Départ on TV and deciding to see what the fuss is all about for themselves.

Yorkshire Day celebrations were full and varied; from tea parties to ferret races and members of the Yorkshire Ridings Society marked the occasion, as they always do, by walking York’s Bar Walls while carrying the White Rose flag. In fact it was fluttering just about everywhere, including above the Mansion House.

But the reason behind the occasion wasn’t forgotten. At 11.39 am, to coincide with the number of years since the first written reference to the Ridings in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles, Yorkshire’s Declaration of Integrity was read in the four languages used here since that time. Latin, Old Norse, Old English, and Modern English. Part of the narrative states: “The address of all places in these Ridings is Yorkshire.”

Woe betide anyone who forgets it.