You’re probably wondering how we came up with our list of “icons”. Each person has been chosen because they are either uniquely important or inspirational to the county and its people.

In order to qualify as a Yorkshire Icon, each nominee must have:

• been born in Yorkshire, or;
• lived in Yorkshire for a substantial part of their life, or;
• made a significant contribution to the lives of Yorkshire’s people.

From this starting point there has been no scientific method for making our list. The icons we have chosen include people from the fields of the arts, sports, politics, music, science, business and others.

We considered a number of factors, but particularly looked at those individuals who have excelled in their particular field and made a major impact on Yorkshire's great status as ‘God’s own county’!

As you can imagine, this has been a mammoth task and the list has taken us some time to compile! We will continue to update the website on a regular basis so please use the contact form to send us any comments or suggestions on who you think should be included as an icon.