YEP Community Forum: The best things about Yorkshire

Yorkshire Day is nearly here - so we asked our panel of Leeds residents what they love most about living in our county.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com - 20/07/2016 - Cricket - NatWest T20 Blast - Yorkshire Vikings v Durham Jets - Headingley Cricket Ground, Leeds, England - A general view of Yorkshire's Headingley stadium as Yorkshire take on Durham in the Natwest T20.Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com - 20/07/2016 - Cricket - NatWest T20 Blast - Yorkshire Vikings v Durham Jets - Headingley Cricket Ground, Leeds, England - A general view of Yorkshire's Headingley stadium as Yorkshire take on Durham in the Natwest T20.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com - 20/07/2016 - Cricket - NatWest T20 Blast - Yorkshire Vikings v Durham Jets - Headingley Cricket Ground, Leeds, England - A general view of Yorkshire's Headingley stadium as Yorkshire take on Durham in the Natwest T20.

Pam Dolan, 48, Garforth

Yorkshire has something for everyone. We have gorgeous rural countryside, quaint olde worlde towns and villages, a shopping metropolis and cities that more than match the capital, new iconic architecture. Oh and the community spirit and friendliness of Yorkshire folk is the best. There is nowt grim about up north!

Martin Walker, 48, Horsforth

Diverse cultures in our cities and towns. Diverse landscapes from the biggest hills in England, to the windswept Dales, to the Yorkshire Wolds, to the Jurassic coast. Hidden treasures, long history, battle sites, timeless tales, sporting triumphs, epic failures. All shaping the people and landscape!

Michael Askin, 71, Yeadon

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To feel patriotic gives an inner glow of belonging, but to realise that a recent genealogy study has shown that Yorkshire people are more British than anywhere else has added an extra dollop of pride. Humour and grit are added to the mix of characteristics, while we are sitting in the most beautiful scenery in the world.

Amy Green, 33, city centre

The best thing about living in Yorkshire is the people. You’re never more than an ‘ey up’ away from a conversation. We’re the friendliest county but we don’t suffer fools either. Couple that with our Yorkshire grit and determination and it really is the best place in the UK to live!

Ian Dowd, 37, Roundhay

The best thing about living in Yorkshire is the diverse mix of opportunities and activities available. We have thriving cosmopolitan cities like Leeds, which is a great business hub, with world class shopping, tourist attractions and a rich cultural history. Then amazing countryside as shown off during the Tour de Yorkshire.

Gordon Mayne, 67, Moortown

The warmth of welcome you get from Yorkshire folk; their generosity and of course the great Yorkshire countryside from which you are rarely far away, plus of course the pleasure of living in Leeds - the city recognised as the greenest city in Europe.

Dean Fallows, 45, Horsforth

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Yorkshire puddings, terriers and Dales. Emmerdale, a national treasure with all its tales. Green countryside and natural beauty extending for miles and miles. Kevin Keegan, Alan Bennett, Alan Titchmarsh, Patrick Stewart, just a few from our famous files. Approachable and friendly honest folk, who are willing to help and lead the way. Celebrating Yorkshire now and forever and even more so on Yorkshire Day.

Sophie Hale, 28, Wakefield

I love the Yorkshire accent. It is one of the most genuine, friendly and trustworthy of accents I’ve come across. Granted I’m totally biased being a born and bred Yorkshire lass but our accent has been proven to be all of the above so it’s not just me who thinks that.

When you’re having a bad day there’s nothing more warming than a Yorkshire smile and someone saying: “It be reight, love.”

James Kirk, 55, Middleton

For me personally, it’s all about the seaside. Yorkshire has some spectacular coastal towns, and to this day I still get the same buzz from visiting the East Coast as I did on family holidays when I was a child. Childhood memories never fade, a trip to the Yorkshire coast is like owning a private time machine.

Joanne St Lawrence, 73, Wortley

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When I first went to work in London in the early 1960s the first question everyone asked was ‘What does your father do?‘ I soon realised this was used to scale your worth - a bit like the ‘I look up to him’ sketch on the David Frost show. I used to say ‘I don’t know - he works in Bradford.’ When the Beatles got popular, though, everybody thought any northern accent was Liverpudlian and we were the hottest party guests. I love the fact that most Yorkshire people are open and friendly and will talk to anyone and only judge them on their true nature.

Denis Angood, 69, Bramley

One of the greatest things about God’s Own County is that you never tire of finding something new that He did. Something you have never seen or heard of before, so good that it takes you breath away and leaves you believing Yorkshire is the place to be.

Dennis Appleyard, 68, Crossgates

Huge range of high quality food and drink: restaurants range from Michelin starred to unbelievable inexpensive curry stops and we must brew more real ale than any other county! The fantastic scenery and lively cities, the people and the history! Truly God’s own county!

Lyn Facey, 63, East End Park

Yorkshire is God’s own county, its beautiful countryside and open spaces where nature flourishes and grows. The rich array of accents and voices saying unique words to describe things, such as a corser edge (kerbside) or laking out (playing outdoors) or eating spice(sweets), which indicates which part of Yorkshire you hail from.

Meryl Knapp, 75

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Yorkshire folk, moulded by the rocks and vales, mills, mines and furnaces, great entrepreneurs and innovators past and present, Salt, Burton, Moore and Hepworth, Bennett, Hockney, Gormley, Dench and Parkinson – so so many more – making Yorkshire the most interesting, varied and vibrant county in the land.