Yorkshire Wolds Totally Explained

Everything about Yorkshire Wolds totally explained

The Yorkshire Wolds are low hills in the East Riding of Yorkshire in North-Eastern England. The name also applies to the district in which the hills lie. On the western edge the Wolds rise to an escarpment which then drops sharply to the Vale of York. The highest point on the escarpment is Bishop Wilton Wold (also known as Garrowby Hill), which is 246 metres (807 feet) above sea level. To the north, on the other side of the Vale of Pickering lie the North York Moors, and to the east the hills flatten into the plain of Holderness. The largest town in the Wolds is Driffield, with other places including Pocklington, Thixendale and Kilham, the original Capital of the Wolds.

Geology and Natural History

The hills are formed from chalk, and make an arc from the Humber estuary west of Kingston upon Hull up to the North Sea coast between Bridlington and Scarborough. Here they rise up to form cliffs, most notably at Flamborough, Bempton Cliffs and Filey; Flamborough Headland is designated a Heritage Coast. On the other side of the Humber, the chalk formations continue as the Lincolnshire Wolds; in fact, one can view the Humber as cutting through a single formation. The Humber Bridge was built at the point due to its geological stability.
Most of the area takes the form of an elevated, gently rolling plateau, cut by numerous deep, steep-sided, flat-bottomed valleys of glacial origin. The chalk formation of the hills provides exceptionally good drainage, with the result that most of these valleys are dry; indeed, surface water is quite scarce throughout the Wolds. Typically the valleys are hard to see from above, creating the visual impression that the landscape is much flatter than is actually the case. The unusual topography results in an "upside-down" farming system - livestock (mostly sheep and cows) graze the valleys, with the hills above used for crops.

Climate

Located in the northern part of the UK, the Yorkshire Wolds have a temperate maritime climate which is dominated by the passage of mid latitude depressions. The weather is very changeable from day to day and the warming influence of the Gulf Stream makes the region mild for its latitude. The higher ground of the Wolds results in their being slightly cooler than the surrounding lowland areas and drifting snow is a problem in winter.The average total annual rainfall is 729mm with rain falling on 128 days of the year. January is usually the coldest month and December the wettest.The warmest month is August and the dryest is February.

Areas and notable settlements

The Northern Wolds and Flamborough Head

The Wolds reach the sea at Flamborough Head where the chalk cliffs plunge almost 500ft to the North Sea. To the south of Flamborough lies the resort town of Bridlington and to the north the sheer cliffs at Speeton overlook Filey Bay. Inland the high Wolds scarp overlooks the Vale of Pickering.
   The so called Great Wold Valley traverses the area. It is occupied by a small stream called the Gypsey Race. This stream empties its waters into Bridlington harbour. The valley of the Gypsey Race turns south and then east in two right angle bends, one at Burton Fleming, the other at Rudston. In dry conditions the stream frequently dries up in parts of its course and re-emerges downstream.
   Another notable feature of this area of the Wolds is Danes Dyke, a great ditch extending across Flamborough Head. The dyke consists of double ramparts, a ditch which is about sixty feet wide and twenty feet deep and a further rampart which rises to eighteen feet above ground level. The origin of this feature is obscure although it's certainly not Danish. Bempton Cliffs is a seabird colony and an R.S.P.B. nature reserve.

   Notable settlements include Flamborough village, North Landing and South Landing on Flamborough Headland. The village of Reighton which extends down the steep scarp face of the Wolds has many buildings made of the local chalk. Hunmanby was once a large market town and its buildings are centered on the old triangular market place. A series of villages lies at the foot of the northern scarp of the Wolds each having a parish which contains an area of chalk hillside, fertile benches and marshy land on the Vale of Pickering. Fordon is one of the smallest villages in England consisting of only a few farms and a small church some parts of which are of Norman construction. Wold Newton and Burton Fleming lie in the Great Wold Valley. A gigantic round barrow called Willy Howe lies between Wold Newton and Thwing and at Rudston On the Wold top there are many traces of pre-historic peoples such as the barrows at Willerby Wold and Sharpe Howes above Folkton. The 489th event took place on 20 March 2008.

The Western Wolds

From Garrowby Hill northwards to Ganton the high scarp of the Wolds swings in a crescent to overlook the Vales of York and Pickering. Villages tend to be clustered along the scarp foot or in the upper part of the Great Wold Valley. Rillington is an attractive village with a stream passing through and a nearby park at Scampston. At Knapton village there's a hall and park and above the village in Knapton Plantation is Staple Howe, an Iron Age site. Wharram Percy is one of the most notable deserted village sites in the U.K.

History and archaeology

The Wolds area is rich in archaeological remains. There is a profusion of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Romano-British sites extending across the entire Yorkshire Wolds area. Along with Wessex and Orkney, the Yorkshire Wolds is a key area for studying the development of the Neolithic period in the British Isles as it became a major focus for settlement in this era. Isolated farms rather than settlements of any size appear to have been the normal dwelling types however few have been located with any certainty and most evidence is of funerary sites and ritual monuments. Recently excavated long barrows at Fordon on Willerby Wold and at Kilham have been carbon dated to around 3700 B.C. A well-known round barrow of this period is the monumental Duggleby Howe, at the western end of the Great Wolds Valley, partially excavated in 1890 by J.R. Mortimer. A henge monument of the Neolithic has been identified at Maidens Grave Rudston and the Rudston Monolith has also been assigned to this period. An extensive Neolithic ritual complex, the main elements of which are four large cursus monuments and a henge, is situated near the eastern end of the Great Wold Valley.
More than 1,400 Bronze Age round barrows, comprising one or more burials and accompanied by items of grave goods, are known to exist on the Yorkshire Wolds. They occur either in isolation or, more commonly, grouped together to form cemeteries. Many of these sites, although they've been reduced in size by repeated ploughing, still form upstanding and, in some cases, prominent features in the present-day landscape.
The Romans arrived in this area around A.D.71.

Culture and media

The writer Winifred Holtby who was born at Rudston lived in the area and described the Wolds as "fold upon fold of the encircling hills, piled rich and golden."
The Yorkshire Wolds were a subject of BBC TV's Inside Out (North) programme on 2 February 2007.

Wolds Way

One of nine National Trails in England, the Yorkshire Wolds Way is a long-distance footpath which runs the length of the wolds from the Humber Bridge at Hessle to Filey on the coast. It is managed by the Countryside Commission.

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