"The Yorkshire people are by reputation robust in physique, though not especially handsome, efficient and vigorous in their undertakings, blunt in speech and rather well satisfied with themselves. They dislike excessive expressions of emotion and are cautious with strangers, but once they accept you they are staunchly if soberly faithful. They prefer practice to theory. Above all, they are extremely independant. An Abbot of York wrote to Henry VIII:

'There be such a company of wilful gentlemen within Yorkshire as there be not in all England besides.'

In Queen Elizabeth I's days the men of Halifax were spoken of as behaving:

'after the rude and arrogant manner of their wilde country.'

It would be rash to suggest that Yorkshire folk have changed much since those days, and this applies to the women as to the men.

A Yorkshire person has a strong backbone; lean on it but do not try to bend it."

- Phyllis Bentley

 
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This page added 16/6/2001   RG

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