A FREEDOM Parade is being held in Middlesbrough to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Yorkshire Regiment.
The parade will take place on Tuesday, June 21, starting at 10.30am at the Cenotaph on Linthorpe Road outside Albert Park.
The march, consisting of The 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, with the band from the Royal Armoured Corps, will proceed to Grange Road and Albert Road passing the saluting dais in Centre Square, where it will be dismissed.
Middlesbrough Mayor Dave Budd and Vice Lord-Lieutenant Major Peter Scrope will be invited to inspect the regiment.
The ancient ceremony of conferring the freedom of entry to a town upon a regiment has its origins in medieval days when fortified towns would fasten the town gates and man the defences in alarm at the approach of a body of troops.
Certain regiments, however, came to be trusted by the citizens of the towns through which they passed and in recognition would be accorded the “right, title, privilege, honour and distinction of marching through the streets of the town with drums beating, colours flying and bayonets fixes”.
This custom has survived as one of the most prestigious civic ceremonies today and many units of the British Army have freedom of entry to towns with which they have particularly close ties.
The Freedom of Middlesbrough was first conferred on the Green Howards in 1944 and transferred to today’s Yorkshire Regiment in 2006.
Veterans from both the Green Howards and the Yorkshire Regiment will be represented at the civic ceremony.
A rolling road closure will be in place for the duration of the parade. All members of the public are invited to attend and also have a go at an inflatable assault course and paintballing courtesy of the Yorkshire Regiment Support Team.