Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is on a quest to find the National Park’s greatest cultural icons and is calling a public vote to help decide.

As part of 60th anniversary celebrations for the passing of the Countryside Act which lead to the creation of national parks, there is a nationwide search underway for cultural figures, one living and one deceased, for each of the 14 parks.

For the Yorkshire Dales National Park, the Authority has created a shortlist of four figures for each category and is asking the public to vote for their favourite at www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/culturalicon. Voting will close at 12noon on 4 September.

To be eligible each nominated figure must be connected to the National Park in some way either having been born there, lived within its boundary, or have been influenced by the landscape, people or cultural heritage.

The nominated cultural icons are

Deceased category

• Adam Sedgwick [1785-1873] - Son of the Dales and one of the fathers of modern geology.
• Alf Wight [1916-1995] – Known as James Herriot his books recorded Dales country life and a transitional period in both the veterinary and agriculture practices.
• Arthur Raistrick [1896-1991] - Inspired interest in the Dales landscape through writing and lecturing and helped to establish National Parks and the Pennine Way.
• Marie Hartley [1905-2006] - As artist, historian and collector, she recorded the lost life of the Dales.

Living category

• Alan Bennett – Bennett is a satirist of contemporary England and has often turned his attention to the Dales, and its folk, in his writing.
• Bill Mitchell – Is a journalist and author writing with warmth, wit, compassion and scholarship about the Dales and the idiosyncrasies of human nature. He is the President of the Yorkshire Dales Society.
• David Hockney – Hailed as one of England’s modern artistic geniuses, he has often found inspiration from and captured the Dales in many mediums.
• Mike Harding – A fervent campaigner on all kinds of green matters and passionate defender of the Dales. He also has a wide range of talents from being a photographer to folk musician.

The winning icons will be announced on the webpage www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/culturalicon on Monday 7 September and will join other iconic figures from UK national parks at www.nationalparks.co.uk to help celebrate the golden jubilee of national parks.