The Lancashire Day Proclamation is traditionally read out by Town Criers each year on Lancashire Day, the 27th November, to remind all who live within the ‘real’ boundaries of Lancashire that they are forever entitled to call themselves Lancastrians. It is also an opportunity to raise a toast to The Queen, The Duke of Lancaster.
The Lancashire Day Proclamation reads…
To the people of the city and county palatine of Lancaster
GREETINGS!
Know ye that this day, November 27th in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty, the seventieth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Duke of Lancaster, is
LANCASHIRE DAY
Know ye also, and rejoice, that by virtue of Her Majesty’s County Palatine of Lancaster, the citizens of the Hundreds of Lonsdale, North and South of the Sands, Amounderness, Leyland, Blackburn, Salford and West Derby are forever entitled to style themselves Lancastrians.
Throughout the County Palatine, from the Furness Fells to the River Mersey, from the Irish Sea to the Pennines, this day shall ever mark the people’s pleasure in that excellent distinction – true Lancastrians, proud of the Red Rose and loyal to our Sovereign Duke.
GOD BLESS LANCASHIRE
AND GOD SAVE THE QUEEN,
DUKE OF LANCASTER.
FORL
The Lancashire Day was chosen as the 27th November as the first elected representatives of Lancashire were called to Westminster by the King, Edward I, on this day in 1295 to attend what was to become known as ‘The Model Parliament’.
There are two Lancashire borders. There is the border of the ‘real’ county of Lancashire and there is the border of the area that is administered by Lancashire County Council. The two are not the same.
The border of the ‘real’ county of Lancashire was set in history and still exists intact today. This border stretches from the River Mersey in the South, to the River Duddon in the North and from the Pennines in the East to the Irish Sea coast in the West.
The border of the Lancashire County Council administrative region was established in 1974 and has been tweaked several times since. Whilst the road signs welcoming you to ‘Lancashire’, most of them are welcoming you to the area of land administered by the council, not the ‘real’ county of Lancashire.
This means that citizens living in Liverpool, Manchester, Salford, Warrington, Southport, Oldham, Wigan, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, St Helens, Blackburn, Blackpool, Coniston, Hawkshead and Barrow in Furness and areas surrounding them are all Lancastrians – despite the name of the council that administers their area.