Did You Know?

It is an inland and in relative terms upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in moors of the Pennines and has a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972.

West Yorkshire, metropolitan county of northern England, comprising five metropolitan boroughs: Calderdale, Kirklees, and the city of Bradford in the west and the cities of Leeds and Wakefield in the east.

In the 18th and 19th centuries abundant waterpower and, later, steam power based on locally mined coal stimulated the growth of industry in West Yorkshire the traditional textile towns in the hilly western area, including Huddersfield, Halifax, and Bradford, are no longer major textile producers, and mining in that part of the county has ceased. Today in those areas, including the boroughs of Calderdale and Kirklees, engineering, paper and packing, and light manufacturing are among the most important activities.

When the French carried out their first guillotine execution in 1792 they were only 506 years behind West Yorkshire. The Halifax Gibbet, a very similar device, is said to have despatched one John of Dalton in 1286. Even if that event is open to dispute, it is certain that by 1541 felons in the town died on the contraption, a replica of which can be seen - appropriately - on Gibbet Street there.

The first British town to be twinned with another in Europe was Keighley in West Yorkshire? This holds true for formal and informal arrangements: in 1905 Keighley organised something similar to twinning with Suresnes and Puteaux in France; and in 1920 it twinned with Poix-du-Nord in the same country 

Middleton Colliery Railway on the outskirts of Leeds in West Yorkshire is the oldest continuously operated railway in the world? Its construction began in 1755. Originally it had wooden tracks on which horses hauled coal-wagons; but in the first decade of the 19th century it gained iron rails

Leeds has since attracted investment from financial institutions, to become a recognised financial centre, with many banks, building societies and insurance companies having offices in the city. Wakefield has also attracted many service-based industries, in particular call centres. Two of the big four supermarkets are from West Yorkshire. Morrisons is based in Bradford, while Asda is based in Leeds. Netto have their British headquarters in South Elmsall.

The Rhubarb Triangle is wholly in West Yorkshire and still produces the vegetable in considerable quantities. Twelve farmers who farm within the Rhubarb Triangle applied to have the name "Yorkshire forced rhubarb" added to the list of foods and drinks that have their names legally protected by the European Commission's Protected Food Name scheme. The application was successful and the farmers in the Rhubarb Triangle were awarded Protected Designation of Origin status (PDO) in February 2010.

Several films and television series have been filmed in West Yorkshire's historic areas, particularly around the town of Huddersfield. For example, portions of the BBC television series Happy Valley were filmed in Huddersfield; in addition to exteriors, some of the studio filming was done at North Light Film Studios at Brookes Mill, Huddersfield. As well, interiors for the BBC's Jamaica Inn, for the BBC's Remember Me and for ITV series Black Work, were also filmed at the studios.