There’s nowt wrong wi’ Lancashire. The people are grand, the scenery is champion and the food just the stuff to warm the cockles of anybody’s heart. In fact, the County Palatine has every reason to stand proud and celebrate its history and culture by taking one day a year to let the rest of the country know the land ‘up north’ can compare favourably with anywhere else in Britain.
In 1996 Lancastrians decided that it was about time they did something to mark the anniversary of the day in 1295 the county sent its representatives down to London to be part of Edward the First’s new Model Parliament. Not that Edward was the kind of monarch to lose sleep over the question of his subjects’ democratic rights. Oh no. The warrior king’s main reason for creating his parliament was to set up a body which would be responsible for collecting more and more taxes to swell his coffers. Military campaigns, such as those against the Welsh and the Scots, were expensive pastimes and Edward expected his remote northern shire to make its full contribution to his costly military campaigns.
But whatever the historical significance of the 27th November, it is as good a day as any for the good folk of Lancashire to celebrate what their county has to offer. For a start, there is the natural beauty of the area, particularly if you include the ‘real’ Lancashire that existed before the politicians decided to hive off the southern tip of the Lake District. Then there is the fertile soil ‘twixt Ribble and Mersey’ that produced singers, writers, artists and inventors who made an enormous contribution, not just to the county, but to economic and cultural life of the country as a whole.
England would have remained a much poorer nation had it not been for the roles played by such mighty industrial and commercial cities as Manchester and Liverpool in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Liverpool provided the country’s umbilical cord to trading destinations all over the globe and Manchester bred some of the finest industrialists the world has ever known. In short, had it not been for the powerhouses of certain areas of Lancashire, the Industrial Revolution might never have transformed the country, and the world, the way it went on to do.
So, all in all, Lancastrians have every right to hold their heads up high. And as the clock strikes 9 on the evening of Lancashire Day they can justifiably celebrate their heritage as they raise a glass to ‘The Queen, Duke of Lancaster.’
Find out more about what makes Lancashire special here.