A few facts about Yorkshire

Although we have offices in London, New York and Singapore, the heart of 26 has always been located in Yorkshire. Here are a few facts about the place we call home…

• Yorkshire is the biggest county in the UK
• As the birthplace of athletes like Jessica Ennis and Nicola Adams, Yorkshire came 12th in the 2012 Olympics winner’s tables with 7 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze medals
• Yorkshire-born people have been the recipients of Nine Oscars and Seven Nobel Prizes
• Due to its vast expanses of unspoilt countryside, Yorkshire has been nicknamed ‘God’s own County’.
• Yorkshire contains two World Heritage Sites, two areas of outstanding natural beauty, and two national parks.
• Yorkshire was the birthplace of club football and rugby league, and is home to the world's oldest football club (Sheffield F.C.)
• Yorkshire is home to the world's largest Indian restaurant –Aakash in the town of Cleckheaton - and England’s oldest pub – The Bingley Arms.
• Sheffield-born chemist Helen Sharman became the first Briton in space and the first woman to visit MIR Space Station in 1991.
• Percy Shore, a Halifax-based inventor and businessman, developed the reflected road stud, otherwise known as the ‘Cat Eye’ which is now used on highways around the world.
• The 18th century physicist and chemist Joseph Priestly, who hailed from Batley in West Riding, is usually credited with discovering oxygen and isolating it in its gaseous state
• The abolition of slavery came about due to the relentless work of William Wilberforce, who was born in Yorkshire in 1759.
• The revolutionary Guy Fawkes, a participant in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and the inspiration behind Guy Fawkes Day (otherwise known as Bonfire Night), was born in York in 1570.
• Many world renowned artists, poets and craftsmen have hailed from Yorkshire, including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, David Hockney, Ted Hughes, John Hoyland and Simon Armitage.
• Three British Prime Ministers have hailed from Yorkshire; Charles Watson-Wentworth, Harold Wilson and Herbert Henry Asquith.
• The renowned explorer Captain James Cook and the pioneering aviator Amy Johnson were both Yorkshire-born.

Innovators, inventors, explorers, revolutionaries, artists, entrepreneurs, winners, trailblazers, pioneers and visionaries - it's fair to say that Yorkshire definitely has talent! Playing a small part in fostering the next generation of innovators is just one of the many reasons why, even as our operations spread across the globe, we'll always be proud to fly the flag for the county where it all began for us!