About East Riding of Yorkshire

Country: England
Region: Yorkshire and The Humber
Established: 1889
Largest town: Hull, (267k pop.)
Area: 2,479 km2 (957 sq mi)
Population: 600,259
Admin HQ: Beverley (30k pop.)

East Riding of Yorkshire is a county in Yorkshire and the Humber

It is bordered by North Yorkshire to the north, West Yorkshire to the west, Lincolnshire across the Humber river to the south and the North Sea to the east. With over 85-kilometre (53 miles).

During the Palaeolithic period humans followed the animal herds across the land between continental Europe and Britain. As conditions improved and vegetation was able to support a greater diversity of animals, the seasonal movement decreased and humans settled in more fixed localities.

Yorkshire became a major focus for human settlement during the Neolithic period as they had a wide range of natural resources. The oldest monuments found on the Wolds are the Neolithic long barrows and round barrows. Two earthen long barrows in the region are found at Fordon, on Willerby Wold, and at Kilham, near Driffield, both have been radiocarbon dated to around 3700 BC.

During the Bronze Age about 1,400 round barrows existed in the area. Many can still be seen today. The area became the kingdom of the tribe known as the Parisi.

The Romans invaded in AD 71 where they built roads and built several Roman villas to create agricultural estates to farm grain.

Between 500 BC and AD 500, due to a fall in sea level. The lower-lying land was used for stock breeding. During the last years of Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxon raiders were troubling the area. After the Romans, the Brythonic-speaking area became known as Deira.

By the second half of the 5th century, the Angles caused a shift to Old English. Deira merged into Northumbria and village names containing the Anglian elements -ing, -ingham or -ham.

As Christianity arrived in the area from the 7th century, several cemeteries show that pagan burial practices were being abandoned.

In AD 867, led by Halfdan, the Great Danish Army captured the Anglian town of York. The remnants of the army settled from AD 876 and their leader Halfdan shared out the land into the Kingdom of Jorvik, Danelaw then the Norse North Sea Empire. Scandinavian settlement names started to be found, such as -by and -thorpe. Scandinavian rule in the area came to an end in AD 954 with the death of Eric Bloodaxe.

After the Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror in AD 1066, land across England was granted to followers of the new Norman king and ecclesiastical institutions. When some of the northern earls rebelled, William retaliated with the Harrying of the North (pillaging and slaughtering) which laid waste to many northern villages. The land was then distributed among powerful barons, such as the Count of Aumale in Holderness and the Percy family in the Wolds and the Vale of York. They continued to improve and drain their lands throughout the Middle Ages to maximise the rents they could charge for them.

In the mid-16th century Henry VIII of England dissolved the monasteries, resulting in the large areas of land being sold into private ownership.

In the 18th century a canal network was formed. This helped towards drainage in low lying and ill drained areas.

The construction of the canals in the 18th century and the rain network in the 19th century greatly improved the movement of goods to markets and ports. They also increased holiday makers to costal resorts.

The East Riding of Yorkshire coastline suffers from the highest rate of coastal erosion in Europe. Approximately 2 metres a year. The coastline has retreated noticeably in the last 2,000 years, with many former settlements now flooded, particularly Ravenser Odd and Ravenspurn, which was a major port until its destruction in the 14th century.

Erosion is an ongoing concern in the area. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council has been carrying out cliff erosion defences since 1951.

The Humber Bridge connects the East Riding with North Lincolnshire.

The East Riding is characterised by a high employment rate and a relatively low unemployment level. Unemployment levels tend to fluctuate over the course of the year with lower levels during the summer months due to increased employment in the tourism and food production sectors.

Britain's largest white horse in surface area is on Roulston Scar. It was designed and financed by Thomas Taylor, a Victorian businessman, and was cut in 1857. He had seen the famous white horse in southern England and wanted to create a similar horse in his home village. The White Horse is 314ft long and 228ft high.

The village schoolmaster, John Hodgson, marked out the figure of a horse on a hillside high above the village. A team of thirty-one volunteers did the cutting. When the shape of the Horse was complete, they deposited 6 tons of lime on the naturally greyish rock beneath to whiten it.

Walking on the horse is now strongly discouraged.

Unlike the horses in the South of England which are cut into chalk and are naturally white and virtually self-preserving, the Kilburn white horse is cut into limestone, which needs artificial whitening. This was first done using gallons of whitewash, but now local chalk chippings are used.

During World War II the Horse had to be covered over to stop it becoming a target by German bombers!