TURNS out they never should have got rid of it. First thing you used to see on crossing the Tees over Yarm bridge from County Durham was a handsome metal sign. Crowned by a shield bearing white roses, it announced, in firm capitals: NORTH RIDING YORKSHIRE.

Identical signs marked other key gateways into the historic county. I particularly remember one on the old A1 at Boroughbridge. Probably the loneliest stood at the head of Wensleydale, by the A684 near the Moorcock Inn. If you are nosey enough to peer through a thick hedge, a surviving example can be seen today, displayed on the garage of a house at Lastingham, in the North York Moors.

The signs vanished in Prime Minister Ted Heath’s radical re-jigging of local authorities in 1974. But discontent has simmered in many places ever since. And now hopes are high that Yarm, lumped for local government purposes with Stockton, County Durham, will get some new version of its old sign, perhaps to be unveiled on Yorkshire Day, August 31.

Thornaby, another North Riding town annexed by Stockton, might also regain its county heritage. Backed by – inevitably - the Yorkshire Ridings Society, which has valiantly been battling to keep the Ridings alive since Heath’s 1974 upheaval, the idea arises from the grass roots – the two towns’ parish councils. But the parent Stockton council, which could so easily treat the initiative as an act of rebellion, and play dog-in-the-manger, deserves great credit for, apparently, not showing the cold shoulder. Hints are that its consideration of the signs next month will bring co-operation.

But it’s a pity that the Yorkshire Devolution Movement has, er, moved in to support the signs campaign. Yorkshire might well have a case for devolved government, though, even as a Yorkshireman, I judge the idea ludicrous, but, as the Ridings Society is keen to stress, that has nothing to do with recognising the real counties.

Confusion between local government and the historic counties has already led most people to believe that Ted Heath’s administrative counties have replaced the old ones. Teesdale’s south bank is thus wrongly considered part of County Durham though it has never been removed from the North Riding, which itself has never been abolished.

It is the misconception that the ancient counties have disappeared, or their boundaries have changed, that badly needs rectifying. In this region Redcar, bundled into Ted Heath’s Cleveland, has led the way in prominently asserting its true county identity. First came signs provided by the Ridings Society. Now, the council has installed its own, more elaborate, “Yorkshire” signs.

If Stockton approves signs for Yarm and Thornaby, perhaps these will trigger yet more along the Tees. Middlesbrough should be first in line. And a North Riding sign on the Yorkshire side of what is still known as the County Bridge between Startforth and Barnard Castle would be another priority.

Historically, the Tees is one of England’s most defining boundary rivers. Throughout its length it used to be wonderful to feel you were moving from one county to another whenever you crossed the river. Even gazing across imparted that sense of somewhere different.

And the great truth is that that has never ceased to be so, though, sadly, very few people now realise it.