TWO new road signs, letting people know they have arrived in God’s Own County, have helped celebrate Yorkshire Day.

The temporary signs, put up by Welcome to Yorkshire, appear near the M1 and M62, welcoming those travelling in the county by road from the south and west.

Sir Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “We often receive letters from the public asking why we have no ‘Welcome to Yorkshire’ signs as people enter our great county and Yorkshire Day is the perfect opportunity to change this.

“Wouldn’t it be brilliant to see them on roads all around the county permanently, giving our millions of visitors a proper Yorkshire welcome and leaving them in no doubt that they’ve arrived in God’s own County?”

Welcome to Yorkshire is also marking the day with a huge take-over of digital screens across the county and beyond with celebratory Yorkshire Day messages.

Elsewhere in the county, the mayor of Ripon hosted dignitaries from around the UK’s largest county to celebrate Yorkshire Day.

Councillor Pauline McHardy said the event, held for the 43rd year, saw a procession of mayors and lord mayors parade through the county’s smallest city.

It concluded outside Ripon Cathedral, the venue for a commemorative festival service.

Cllr McHardy said: “It’s the country’s biggest county, it’s absolutely beautiful and has plenty going on.

“I’d say that’s more than enough to be worth celebrating.”

Meanwhile Ben Davis, 31, from Harrogate, set off on an epic mission from Scarborough, running the perimeter of Yorkshire to raise money for the charity, Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) which is dedicated to preventing male suicide.

He will be running more than 450 miles in 18 days, the equivalent of a marathon a day, before returning to Scarborough.

Yorkshire Day was first celebrated in 1975 by the Yorkshire Ridings Society, formed a year earlier to protest against the local government reorganisation of the county’s traditional borders.

It is always held on August 1, a date that alludes to the Battle of Minden in Germany in 1759, which saw the army allow soldiers to wear roses in their caps.

Another tradition was also upheld, when members of the Yorkshire Ridings Society led a crowd of people around the city to read the Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity from the four historic entrances to the city at Bootham Bar, Micklegate Bar, Monk Bar and Walmgate Bar.

The declaration - which asserts Yorkshire’s traditional boundaries - is made in Latin, Old English, Old Norse and modern English - each of the languages used in Yorkshire since its Viking predecessor the kingdom of Jorvik was founded in 875AD.

The Deputy Lord Mayor also read a proclamation on the steps of the Mansion House at 1pm.

Staff from York’s Chocolate Story gave the statue of Constantine the Great a Yorkshire make-over with giant York chocolates and a flat cap. Constantine the Great was proclaimed ruler of the Roman Empire in York in 306 AD, uniting the whole of the Roman Empire.

York Maze, near Elvington, also marked the day with a flat cap flinging contest, alongside Yorkshire pudding tossing, straw bale rolling and “parkin parking”.