On Friday, July 19, the Yorkshire Ridings Society hopes that hundreds of people will take part in a 640-mile walk round the old county boundary of Yorkshire.

The white rose flag of Yorkshire will be carried along the route, which starts and ends at Filey on the North-east coast. On Thursday, August 1 – Yorkshire Day – it will be taken to York. Roger Sewell, chairman of the society, explained the aim of the walk.

He said: “It’s to show people exactly where the Yorkshire boundary is because you cannot find it on the map. We are in the process of producing a map showing where the historic boundary and where administrative areas overlap.

“Traditional counties have not existed on Ordinance Survey maps since local government reorganisation in 1972 which was implemented on April 1, 1974. There are no roadsigns showing where Yorkshire’s boundaries are.”

Mr Sewell and his wife live in Goole, an old West Riding town that was moved into the administrative area of Humberside. The disparity between geography and administrative demography was touched on by ex-patriate Yorkshireman Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

He chose St George’s Day to wave a flag for England’s and traditional counties such as Cumberland, Westmorland, Hutingdonshire, Middlesex, that only exist as historical memories.

He said: “The tapestry of England’s counties binds our nation together. This Government has binned the arbitrary Government Office euro-regions, and instead, we are championing England’s traditional local identities which continue to run deep.

“Administrative restructuring by previous governments has sought to suppress and undermine such local identities. Today, on St George’s day, we formally acknowledge the continuing role of our traditional counties in England’s public and cultural life.”

Once upon a time, only boys born in the historic county boundaries of the Yorkshire Ridings qualified to play for Yorkshire County Cricket Club. After 1974, that ruling no longer made sense; besides, other counties were signing talented overseas players.

In 1992, the birth qualification rule was modified to include those educated within Yorkshire. This enabled Michael Vaughan to play, who later led England to Ashes success against the Australians.

Yorkshire’s first overseas player was teenager Sachin Tendulkar who, earlier this week, made one-day international cricket history by scoring a double century for India against South Africa.

But is Eric Pickles really proposing that the old country structure of England is restored? Roger Sewell said: “If you could work out what he means, it would be really good. He says he has adopted Essex as his county, but I’m not sure Essex has adopted him.”

Gary Verity, chief executive of tourist agency Welcome to Yorkshire, expressed enthusiastic support for the idea of Yorkshire reappearing on the map as a geographical entity.

He said: “Anything that gets behind Yorkshire would be warmly applauded. We are known for Yorkshire County Cricket Club. We’re going to have the Tour de France in Yorkshire. Brilliant.”

Before local government reorganisation brought in by Edward Heath’s Conservative Government, local government administrative county areas were closely based on traditional counties. That’s no longer so.

The Association of British Counties, which encourages the use of the historic counties in postal addressing, guide books, boundary signs and maps, says the tendency for media and publishers to use local government areas as a basis for local geography has obscured the identities of counties.

Rupert Barnes, vice-chairman of the Association, said: “The counties pre-date any transient lines drawn for convenience or administration and pre-date the kingdom itself, rooted in history and cultural identity, so that the ancient counties are of the people not of the state.

“The pattern of the counties brought down to us through the centuries is the pattern around which the nation has grown and grown great, and worthy of celebration.”

Hence the Yorkshire boundary walk planned for the summer by the Yorkshire Ridings Society. Roger Sewell believes that the re-drawing of the map by clever people to make areas similar in population has not really worked well.

“Where you pay your council tax, your water rates, has nothing to do with the county you’re from. Sheffield has spilled over into Derbyshire, but nobody finds it a problem.

“People don’t belong to an administrative area. I still belong to my county. The old county map gives people much more of a feeling of belonging to a place,” he added.