Actively working to preserve the integrity of Yorkshire
Even by 1682 there were many who would qualify (not to mention the multitude of outstanding figures - men and women - who came after). No doubt Hickes was thinking of the world famous John Wyclif from the North Riding, dubbed ‘The Morning Star of the Reformation’, attacking the 14th century church for its laxity and sending out his poor travelling priests, the Lollards, in protest; and Miles Coverdale (pictured right), like Wyclif, an early translator of the Bible into English.
In Elizabeth I’s time Martin Frobisher from Altofts, near Normanton, buccaneer, explorer and victorious captain against the Armada, had been knighted by a grateful Queen. Another of her favourites,the cartographer Christopher Saxton, from near Morley, had given Englishmen the first-ever county maps of England and Wales - being careful to observe on the Yorkshire sheet that his own shire was easily the largest and most populous of the lot. It was Saxton’s maps that led men to see the country through its counties and made them aware of their own county’s shape and distinctive attributes.
