Dearly beloved…..
Gathered here tonight
May we reflect –
Before we have a bite -
That whoever we are
(of poverty or wealth)
Providing we’ve our marbles,
And reasonable health,
That our life be ICONIC
If we can say our birth
Was in The Ridings
Of this particular part of Earth!

It is a passport for life
A kind of genetic I.D.
That says…decent….and honest…..
Hard work and integrity!
Traits of a Yorkshireman
That set us all apart
From the softy and the Southerner
The traitor and the tart…..

Adam was a Yorkshireman
As, of course, was Eve
Jesus was born
And (I’m led to believe)
That Moses and Samson
Were found in the dark
On the Marshes near Goole
In the bar on Noah’s Ark!

For history began in Yorkshire -
With Daedalus….and Icarus too
They flew down the A1 with Hadrian
Before the link to the M Six Two!
Fast forward a few centuries
Through John Harrison and Captain Cook
Mention Wilberforce ‘the Slaviour’
And the odd Bronte and Herriott book….
Touch on the Tetleys and the Taylors
And the Smiths (Sam’s and John’s)
And you realise this county
Is wall to wall with Icons!

A county built on enterprise
From James Hanson to Monty Burton
The home of Reckitt’s Blue
And the eponymous Roseby’s curtain.
We could buy and sell Lancashire
From Blackpool to Bury –
With our Healey’s, Sykes and Wilkinsons
And our Bramall’s (Tony and Terry!)
We see through darkness
With our Percy Shaw’s Cat’s Eyes

We saw the Prince of Darkness
In that traitor – Dennis Wise!
We could outclass Australia
With just Closey and Dickie Bird
And next to Hockney and Ashley Jackson
Michelangelo’s a poor third!

We are the home of the Jowett Javlin
And of the Blackburn Beverley
We are the root of the Bird’s Eye pea
And somehow – rather cleverly –
We single-handedly created, the world’s
Two most perfect men.
A Whiteley ‘who could do it twice nightly’
And the God of Grocers – Sir Ken!

I could, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Go on…..and on…..and on
For everyone in this green and
pleasant land
Is deservedly an Icon…..
But whether you just live here
Or it is the place of your birth
Let’s all thank God tonight for….
The Greatest County on earth!

AMEN
Jonathan Hick