100-775: A feature of the geology of England , the Stafford Basin extends beneath much of the Midlands county of Staffordshire . It is a depositional basin which was initiated during the Permian period and continued to receive sediment during the Triassic period and probably thereafter. Part of a more extensive set of linked basins, it connects with the Cheshire Basin to the northwest, the Worcester Basin via
200-604: A subduction zone on the margin of the Gondwana continent. Some material may have accreted from volcanic island arcs which formed further out in the ocean and later collided with Gondwana as a result of plate tectonic movements. The igneous activity had started by 730 million years ago and continued until around 570 million years ago, resulting in a region of volcanic islands within a shallow sea. The remains of these islands underlie much of central England with small outcrops visible in various places. Around 600 million years ago,
300-798: A cottage industry, centred on the old market towns moved to the West Riding where entrepreneurs were building mills that took advantage of water power gained by harnessing the rivers and streams flowing from the Pennines . The developing textile industry helped Wakefield and Halifax grow. The 19th century saw Yorkshire's continued growth, with the population growing and the Industrial Revolution continuing with prominent industries in coal, textile and steel (especially in Sheffield , Rotherham and Middlesbrough ). However, despite
400-536: A line running from Bristol to London. In the Ribble valley, Lancashire in north west England the resulting drumlins are clearly visible. Cromer Ridge in East Anglia is a terminal moraine . Indeed, most of East Anglia is covered with glacial till which has produced its rich loamy soils. This unconsolidated material (it is not stuck tightly together) is very easily eroded hence the rapid rate of retreat of
500-586: A separate kingdom. The Wessex Kings of England were reputed to have respected the Norse customs in Yorkshire and left law-making in the hands of the local aristocracy. In the weeks leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 AD, Harold II of England was distracted by pushing back efforts to reinstate the kingdom of Jorvik and Danelaw. His brother Tostig and Harald Hardrada , King of Norway , having won
600-583: A third of the population. When King Richard II was overthrown in 1399, antagonism between the House of York and the House of Lancaster , both branches of the royal House of Plantagenet , began to emerge. Eventually the two houses fought for the throne of England in a series of civil wars, commonly known as the Wars of the Roses . Some of the battles took place in Yorkshire, such as those at Wakefield and Towton ,
700-551: A trio of very prominent and popular summits (the Yorkshire Three Peaks ) which can be climbed in a challenging single day's walk. The highest point in the Yorkshire part of the Peak District is Black Hill (height 582 metres (1,909 ft)) on the border with historic Cheshire (which also forms the historic county top of that county). The hill ranges along the eastern side of Yorkshire are lower than those of
800-608: A vast expanse of the Yorkshire lowlands with the Pennines forming a backdrop. It was called the "finest view in England" by local author and veterinary surgeon James Herriot in his 1979 guidebook James Herriot's Yorkshire . The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds runs nature reserves such as the one at Bempton Cliffs with coastal wildlife such as the northern gannet , Atlantic puffin and razorbill . Spurn Point
900-516: Is a narrow 3-mile (4.8 km) long sand spit . It is a national nature reserve owned by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and is noted for its cyclical nature whereby the spit is destroyed and re-created approximately once every 250 years. There are seaside resorts in Yorkshire with sandy beaches; Scarborough is Britain's oldest seaside resort dating back to the spa town -era in the 17th century, while Whitby has been voted as
1000-403: Is an area of Northern England which was historically a county . Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its original county town , the city of York . The south-west of Yorkshire is densely populated, and includes the cities of Leeds , Sheffield , Bradford , Doncaster and Wakefield . The north and east of
1100-812: Is ascribed to a river flowing north from the Worcester Basin through the Stafford Basin and on into the Cheshire and East Irish Sea basins during the early Triassic. In contrast the Bridgnorth Sandstone Formation of this area is of aeolian origin , the equivalent of the Collyhurst Sandstone of the Cheshire Basin. The known Permo-Triassic stratigraphic sequence overlying Warwickshire Group strata
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#17327878499301200-504: Is not, as is sometimes claimed, the highest waterfall in England ( Hardraw Force in Wensleydale , also in Yorkshire, has a 30 metres (98 ft) drop for example). However, High Force is unusual in being on a major river and carries a greater volume of water than any higher waterfall in England. The highest mountains in Yorkshire all lie in the Pennines on the western side of the county, with millstone grit and limestone forming
1300-574: Is now York and renamed it Jórvík , making it the capital city of a new Danish kingdom under the same name. The area which this kingdom covered included most of Southern Northumbria, roughly equivalent to the borders of Yorkshire extending further West. The Danes went on to conquer an even larger area of England that afterwards became known as the Danelaw ; but whereas most of the Danelaw was still English land, albeit in submission to Viking overlords, it
1400-409: Is recognisable in the landscape of its counties , the building materials of its towns and its regional extractive industries . The bedrock consists of many layers formed over vast periods of time. These were laid down in various climates as the global climate changed, the landmasses moved due to continental drift , and the land and sea levels rose or fell. From time to time horizontal forces caused
1500-645: Is represented in gravel beds around rivers such as the Thames . As the ice caps retreated northwards, more fluvio-glacial deposition occurred for example in the Vale of York No rocks earlier than the Proterozoic occur at surface within England. The Proterozoic lasted from (2,500–541 Ma ). The early geological development of the Avalonia terrane , including England, is believed to have been in volcanic arcs near
1600-487: Is sometimes referred to as "God's own country". Yorkshire is represented in sport by Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Yorkshire Rugby Football Union . There are several ways of defining Yorkshire, including the historic county and the group of four modern ceremonial counties. The county boundaries were reasonably stable between 1182, when it ceded western areas to the new county of Lancashire, and 1889 when administrative counties were created, which saw some adjustments to
1700-759: Is still being debated. As the Jurassic period started, Pangaea began to break up and sea levels rose, as England drifted on the Eurasian Plate to between 30° and 40° north. With much of England under water again, sedimentary rocks were deposited and can now be found underlying much of southern England from the Cleveland Hills of Yorkshire to the Jurassic Coast in Dorset , including clays , sandstones, greensands , oolitic limestone of
1800-620: Is supported by the fact that yew trees were once abundant in the area around York, and that the city was known for its skilled bow makers who used yew wood to make their bows. This became 'Eboracum' to the Romans , 'Eorfowic' to the Angles and then, most famously, 'Jorvik' to the Vikings . Secondly, and much less reliable, is that it may come from the Old English word "Eow", which referred to
1900-601: Is the area around Malham in the Yorkshire Dales with its limestone pavements , sink holes and shake holes . Gaping Gill contains a waterfall disappearing underground into the Carboniferous limestone. The formation of Carboniferous Limestone was followed by the deposition of dark marine shales , siltstones and coarse sandstones of the Millstone Grit , notably in the area later uplifted to form
2000-531: Is thought that the country was eventually abandoned as the ice sheet reached its peak, being recolonised as it retreated. By 5,000 years ago it is thought that the British Isles were warmer than they are at present. Among the features left behind by the ice are the glaciated U-shaped valleys of the Lake District and erratics (blocks of rock) that have been transported by ice, including some from
2100-466: Is thus (uppermost, youngest at top): Geology of England The geology of England is mainly sedimentary . The youngest rocks are in the south east around London , progressing in age in a north westerly direction. The Tees–Exe line marks the division between younger, softer and low-lying rocks in the south east and the generally older and harder rocks of the north and west which give rise to higher relief in those regions. The geology of England
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#17327878499302200-550: The Battle of Fulford . The King of England marched north where the two armies met at the Battle of Stamford Bridge . Tostig and Hardrada were both killed and their army was defeated decisively. Harold Godwinson was forced immediately to march his army south, where William the Conqueror was landing. The King was defeated in what is now known as the Battle of Hastings , which led to the Norman conquest of England . The people of
2300-603: The Brigantes (known to be in the north and western areas of now Yorkshire) and the Parisi (present-day East Riding ). The Brigantes controlled territory that later became all of Northern England and more territory than most Celtic tribes on the island of Great Britain . Six of the nine Brigantian poleis described by Claudius Ptolemaeus in the Geographia fall within the historic county. The Parisi, who controlled
2400-588: The Bristol Channel floods in 1607. The British Isles continue to be subject to several very minor earthquakes each month, and occasional light to moderate ones. During the 20th century 25 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.5 to 6.1 on the Richter scale were felt, many of them originating within England itself. Notable was the Colchester earthquake in 1884 and the 2002 Dudley earthquake . Avalonia
2500-690: The Cadomian Orogeny (mountain building period) created mountains in what would subsequently become England, along with much of north west Europe . The Phanerozoic comprises the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras, each of which are represented in English geology. The Palaeozoic comprises six periods from the Cambrian to the Permian (539–252 Ma). In the early Cambrian period
2600-616: The Cotswold Hills , corallian limestone of the Vale of White Horse and the Isle of Portland . A particularly interesting Jurassic site is on the North Yorkshire coast between Staithes and Port Mulgrave . The burial of algae and bacteria below the mud of the sea floor during this time resulted in the formation of North Sea oil and natural gas , much of it trapped in overlying sandstone by salt deposits formed as
2700-688: The Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 led to a popular uprising known as Pilgrimage of Grace , started in Yorkshire as a protest. Some Catholics in Yorkshire continued to practise their religion and those caught were executed during the reign of Elizabeth I . One such person was a York woman named Margaret Clitherow who was later canonised . During the English Civil War , which started in 1642, Yorkshire had divided loyalties; Hull (full name Kingston upon Hull ) famously shut
2800-732: The Hampshire region around this time. Rifting occurred within and around England, prior to the breakup of the super-continent in the Jurassic period. Rock fragments found near Bristol appear to indicate that in 214 million years ago England was showered with a fine layer of debris from an asteroid impact at the Manicouagan Impact Crater in Canada (when both areas were parts of the Pangaea supercontinent), although this
2900-576: The Ipswichian Stage , during which hippopotamus are known to have lived as far north as Leeds . The most recent glaciations occurred during the Devensian Stage , which is thought to have started around 75,000 years ago, peaked around 20,000 years ago and ended a mere 11,500 years ago. The valleys of the Lake District and parts of the Pennines were further eroded by glaciers , with the ice sheet itself reaching south to Birmingham. It
3000-659: The Midlands and northern England. One of the best exposures of the Coal Measures is on the north east coast between Whitley Bay and Seaton Sluice . Around 280 million years ago, at the close of the Carboniferous period, the Variscan orogeny (mountain building period) caused major deformation in south west England. The general region of Variscan folding was south of an east–west line roughly from Avon to Kent , though lesser folding took place as far north as Derbyshire and Berwick-upon-Tweed . The main tectonic pressure
3100-717: The North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales National Parks , and part of the Peak District National Park. Nidderdale and the Howardian Hills are designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty , as is the North Pennines (a part of which lies within the county). Spurn Point, Flamborough Head and the coastal North York Moors are designated Heritage Coast areas, and are noted for their scenic views with rugged cliffs such as
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3200-648: The Oslo region and deposited on the coast of Yorkshire . Over the last twelve thousand years during the Holocene epoch the most significant new geological features have been the deposits of peat , as well as in coastal areas that have recently been artificially drained such as the Somerset Levels , The Fens and Romney Marsh . Since humans began clearing the forest during the New Stone Age , most of
3300-851: The River Derwent rises on the North York Moors, flows south then westwards through the Vale of Pickering then turns south again to drain the eastern part of the Vale of York. It empties into the River Ouse at Barmby on the Marsh . In the far north of the county the River Tees flows eastwards through Teesdale and empties its waters into the North Sea downstream of Middlesbrough . The smaller River Esk flows from west to east at
3400-578: The Roman Empire from Eboracum for the two years before his death. Another emperor, Constantius Chlorus , died in Eboracum during a visit in 306 AD. Thereafter his son Constantine the Great , who became renowned for his acceptance of Christianity, was proclaimed emperor in the city. In the early 5th century, Roman rule ceased with the withdrawal of the last active Roman troops. By this stage,
3500-669: The Silurian period, sandstones and mudstones were deposited in some parts of England. Volcanic ashes and lavas deposited during the period are still found in the Mendip Hills . Avalonia had now joined with the continent of Baltica , and the combined landmass collided with Laurentia around 425 million years ago, joining the southern and northern halves of the British Isles together. The resulting Caledonian Orogeny produced an Alpine -style mountain range. England lay on
3600-499: The governance section below. For most administrative purposes the county had been divided since the Middle Ages; the last county-wide administrative role was the Sheriff of Yorkshire . The sheriff had been a powerful position in the Middle Ages but gradually lost most of its functions, and by the twentieth century was a largely ceremonial role. It was abolished as part of the 1974 reforms to local government, which established instead high sheriffs for each modern county. Historically,
3700-419: The jet cliffs at Whitby, the limestone cliffs at Filey and the chalk cliffs at Flamborough Head. Moor House – Upper Teesdale, most of which is part of the former North Riding of Yorkshire, is one of England's largest national nature reserves . At High Force on the border with County Durham, the River Tees plunges 22 metres (72 ft) over the Whin Sill (an intrusion of igneous rock). High Force
3800-419: The volcanoes and mountains of England were eroded as the land became flooded by a rise in sea level, and new layers of sediment were laid down. Cambrian shales laid down in a shallow sea are exposed in the Midlands at Nuneaton . Much of central England formed a stable block of crust which has remained largely undeformed ever since. Five hundred million years ago, in the Ordovician period, southern Britain,
3900-424: The Bratch Graben to the south and the Needwood Basin to the east. It is flanked in part to the west by the Coalbrookdale Coalfield and to the east by the South Staffordshire Coalfield . The sedimentary sequence, principally sandstones and mudstones , within the basin is continuous with that of the adjoining basins in the rift complex. Deposition of the Chester Formation (formerly Chester Pebble Beds) for example
4000-478: The Houses of York and Lancaster respectively, were combined to form the Tudor Rose of England. This rivalry between the royal houses of York and Lancaster has passed into popular culture as a rivalry between the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire , particularly in sport (for example the Roses Match played in County Cricket ), although the House of Lancaster was based in York and the House of York in London. The English Reformation began under Henry VIII and
4100-476: The London area sinking at double the speed partly due to the continuing compression of the recent clay deposits. A contributory factor is the draining of many stretches of land. In addition, rises in sea level thought to be due to global warming appear likely to make low-lying areas of land increasingly susceptible to flooding, while in some areas the coastline continues to erode at a geologically rapid rate. Recent flooding events leave geological evidence such as
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4200-591: The Middle Ages the county was subdivided into smaller administrative areas; the city of York was a self-governing county corporate from 1396, and the rest of the county was divided into three ridings – North , East, and West . From 1660 onwards each riding had its own lord-lieutenant , and between 1889 and 1974 the ridings were administrative counties . There was a Sheriff of Yorkshire until 1974. Yorkshire gives its name to four modern ceremonial counties : East Riding of Yorkshire , North Yorkshire , South Yorkshire , and West Yorkshire , which together cover most of
4300-427: The North rebelled against the Normans in September 1069 AD, enlisting Sweyn II of Denmark . They tried to take back York, but the Normans burnt it before they could. What followed was the Harrying of the North ordered by William. From York to Durham , crops, domestic animals, and farming tools were scorched . Many villages between the towns were burnt and local northerners were indiscriminately murdered. During
4400-458: The Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") fought back, re-taking Yorkshire town by town, until they won the Battle of Marston Moor and with it control of all of the North of England . In the 16th and 17th centuries Leeds and other wool-industry-centred towns continued to grow, along with Huddersfield, Hull and Sheffield, while coal mining first came into prominence in the West Riding of Yorkshire . The wool textile industry, which had previously been
4500-477: The Pennine anticline . This sequence can be seen in the Yorkshire Dales with Ingleborough protruding up above the Carboniferous Limestone landscape below. Later, river deltas formed and the sediments deposited were colonised by swamps and rain forest . It was in this environment that the cyclic coal measures were formed. Coal can be found as far south as Kent with deposits stretching northwards to Tyne and Wear ; though coal has largely been mined in
4600-455: The Romans enabled her to keep control of the kingdom; however, her former husband staged rebellions against her and her Roman allies. At the second attempt, Venutius seized the kingdom, but the Romans, under general Petillius Cerialis , conquered the Brigantes in 71 AD. The fortified city of Eboracum (now York) was named as capital of Britannia Inferior and joint capital of all Roman Britain . The emperor Septimius Severus ruled
4700-515: The Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (252–66 Ma). As Pangaea drifted during the Triassic period, England moved away from the equator until it was between 20° and 30° north. Red beds, including sandstones and red mudstones form the main sediments of the New Red Sandstone. The remnants of the Variscan uplands in France to the south were eroded down, resulting in layers of the New Red Sandstone being deposited across central England, and in faulted basins in Cheshire . A basin developed in
4800-564: The Western Empire was in intermittent decline. After the Romans left, small Celtic kingdoms arose in the region, including the kingdoms of Deira to the east (domain of settlements near Malton on Derwent ), Ebrauc (domain of York) around the north and Elmet to the west. The latter two were successors of land south-west and north-east of the former Brigantia capital. Angles (hailing from southern Denmark and northern Germany, probably along with Swedish Geats ) consolidated (merging Ebrauc ) under Deira, with York as capital. This in turn
4900-476: The area that would become the East Riding, might have been related to the Parisii of Lutetia Parisiorum , Gaul (known today as Paris, France). Their capital was at Petuaria , close to the Humber Estuary. Although the Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 AD, the Brigantes remained in control of their kingdom as a client state of Rome for an extended period, reigned over by the Brigantian monarchs Cartimandua and her husband Venutius . The capital
5000-414: The area was invaded and conquered for short periods by England between 927 and 954 before eventually being annexed into England in 954. It was closely associated with the much longer-lived Kingdom of Dublin throughout this period. An army of Danish Vikings , the Great Heathen Army as its enemies often referred to it, invaded Northumbrian territory in 866 AD. The Danes conquered and assumed what
5100-731: The area was split between North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, which all kept the Yorkshire name. A large part of the east of the county went to the new county of Humberside , and an area in the north-east went to the new county of Cleveland . Some more rural areas at the edges of the historic county were transferred to County Durham, Cumbria , Lancashire and Greater Manchester , whilst South Yorkshire also included areas which had been in Nottinghamshire. Cleveland and Humberside were both abolished in 1996, since when there have been four ceremonial counties with Yorkshire in their names: East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, which together cover most of
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#17327878499305200-404: The areas uplifted in the Variscan Orogeny (southwest England and adjacent areas in the present-day English Channel). Later, much of England was submerged in shallow waters as the polar ice sheets melted and the Tethys Ocean and Zechstein Sea formed, depositing shale , limestone , gravel , and marl , before finally receding to leave a flat desert with salt pans . The Mesozoic comprises
5300-426: The booming industry, living conditions declined in the industrial towns due to overcrowding. This saw bouts of cholera in both 1832 and 1848. However, advances were made by the end of the century with the introduction of modern sewers and water supplies . Several Yorkshire railway networks were introduced as railways spread across the country to reach remote areas. Canals and turnpike roads were introduced in
5400-431: The boundaries with County Durham, Lancashire and Lincolnshire. After 1889 there were occasional adjustments to accommodate urban areas which were developing across county boundaries, such as in 1934 when Dore and Totley were transferred from Derbyshire to Yorkshire on being absorbed into the borough of Sheffield. More significant changes in 1974 saw the historic county divided between several counties. The majority of
5500-502: The coastline of this region. A similar situation exists in east Yorkshire in the Holderness district. The chalk outcrop at Flamborough Head in the north produces a headland relatively resistant to coastal erosion whilst the coastline south of this at such places as Mappleton and Hornsea with their soft glacial deposits are vulnerable. Former ice caps did not reach south of the line running from Bristol to London, so this area has only been impacted by fluvio-glacial deposition which
5600-408: The conquest, only Bridlington , Pocklington , and York continued at a prominent level. In the early 12th century, people of Yorkshire had to contend with the Battle of the Standard at Northallerton with the Scots . Representing the Kingdom of England led by Archbishop Thurstan of York , soldiers from Yorkshire defeated the more numerous Scots. The population of Yorkshire boomed until it
5700-504: The cooling rock provided the source of the extensive metalliferous deposits of the region (primarily copper and tin). Later weathering of the granite led to deposits of kaolin which has been excavated as it is an important source of china clay and ball clay used in the production of such products as porcelain and shiny printing paper. By the end of the period, England had a hot arid desert climate, with frequent flash floods leaving deposits that formed red beds, somewhat similar to
5800-408: The county are more sparsely populated, however the north-east includes the southern part of the Teesside conurbation, and the port city of Kingston upon Hull is located in the south-east. York is located near the centre of the county. Yorkshire has a coastline to the North Sea to the east. The North York Moors occupy the north-east of the county, and the centre contains the Vale of Mowbray in
5900-480: The county councils. During the Second World War , Yorkshire became an important base for RAF Bomber Command and brought the county and its productive industries into the cutting edge of the war, and thus in the targets of Luftwaffe bombers during the Battle of Britain . From the late 20th century onwards there have been a number of significant reforms of the local government structures covering Yorkshire, notably in 1968, 1974, 1986, 1996 and 2023, discussed in
6000-454: The east coast of North America and south-east Newfoundland broke away from Gondwanaland to form the continent of Avalonia . The Skiddaw slates of the Lake District consist of metamorphosed marine sediments laid down on the northern margin of Avalonia. Large quantities of volcanic lava and ash known as the Borrowdale Volcanics covered the Lake District, still seen in the form of mountains such as Helvellyn and Scafell Pike . In
6100-436: The edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and flows along Nidderdale before reaching the Vale of York and the Ouse. The River Wharfe , which drains Wharfedale , joins the Ouse upstream of Cawood . The Rivers Aire and Calder are more southerly contributors to the River Ouse and the most southerly Yorkshire tributary is the River Don , which flows northwards to join the main river at Goole . Further north and east
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#17327878499306200-399: The existence of many Celtic placenames in Yorkshire today, such as Kingston upon Hull and Pen-y-ghent . As well as the Angles and Geats, other settlers included Frisians (thought to have founded Fryston and Frizinghall ), Danes , Franks and Huns . At its greatest extent, Northumbria stretched from the Irish Sea to the North Sea and from Edinburgh down to Hallamshire in
6300-422: The families and subsequent descendants of Danish Vikings, the leadership of the kingdom nonetheless passed into Norwegian hands during its twilight years. Eric Bloodaxe , an ex-king of Norway who was the last independent Viking king of Jórvík, is a particularly noted figure in history, and his bloodthirsty approach towards leadership may have been at least partly responsible for convincing the Danish inhabitants of
6400-439: The gates of the city on the king when he came to enter a few months before fighting began, while the North Riding of Yorkshire in particular was strongly royalist . York was the base for Royalists, and from there they captured Leeds and Wakefield only to have them recaptured a few months later. The royalists won the Battle of Adwalton Moor meaning they controlled Yorkshire (with the exception of Hull). From their base in Hull
6500-504: The general lack of land-origin sand, mud or clay sediments around this time – some of the late Cretaceous strata are almost pure chalk. The Cenozoic comprises the Palaeogene , Neogene and Quaternary periods (66 Ma–present). In the early Palaeogene period between 63 and 52 million years ago, the last igneous rocks in England were formed. The granite Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel dates from this period. The Alpine Orogeny that took place from about 50 million years ago
6600-406: The geologically recent past. "Drift" geology is often more important than "solid" geology when considering building works, drainage, siting water boreholes, soil fertility, and many other issues. Glaciation and the resulting glacial and fluvio-glacial deposition has had a major impact on the landscape of England covering many areas with a veneer of glacial till in the lower lying areas north of
6700-441: The historic county. Yorkshire Day is observed annually on 1 August and is a celebration of the general culture of Yorkshire , including its history and dialect . Its name is used by several institutions, for example the Royal Yorkshire Regiment of the British Army, in sport, and in the media. The emblem of Yorkshire is a white rose , which was originally the heraldic badge of the British royal House of York . The county
6800-406: The historic county. There is a region called Yorkshire and the Humber which covers a similar area to the combined area of the four Yorkshire ceremonial counties, the exceptions being that the region excludes the parts of North Yorkshire which had been in Cleveland, but includes North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire (which had been in Humberside). Until 2009 some government powers in
6900-415: The land has now been deforested , speeding the natural processes of erosion . Large quantities of stone, gravel and clay are extracted each year, and by 2000 11% of England was covered by roads or buildings. At the present time, due to Scotland's continuing to rise as a result of the weight of Devensian ice being lifted, England is sinking. This is generally estimated at 1 mm (1/25 inch) per year, with
7000-421: The landscape would have been broadly recognisable today. The major changes during the Pleistocene epoch have been brought about by several recent ice ages . The most severe was the Anglian Stage , with ice up to 1,000 m (3300 ft) thick in the northwest which thinned considerably as it reached as far south as London and Bristol. This glaciation took place between about 500,000 to 400,000 years ago, and
7100-541: The late 18th century. In the following century the spa towns of Harrogate and Scarborough flourished, due to people believing mineral water had curative properties. When elected county councils were established in 1889, rather than have a single Yorkshire County Council, each of the three ridings was made an administrative county with its own county council, and the eight larger towns and cities of Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Sheffield and York were made county boroughs , independent from
7200-591: The later, Triassic New Red Sandstone . After the end of the Carboniferous period, an intrusion of quartz dolerite formed the Whin Sill . The River Tees flows over this at High Force on the Alston Block . Whin Sill is also seen again at Hadrian's Wall . The country rock is Lower Carboniferous limestone and shales. The Permian period was characterised for 30 million years by arid desert and erosion of
7300-453: The latter of which is known as the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. Richard III was the last Yorkist king. Henry Tudor , sympathiser to the House of Lancaster, defeated and killed Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field . He then became King Henry VII and married Elizabeth of York , daughter of Yorkist Edward IV , ending the wars. The two roses of white and red, emblems of
7400-484: The north and the Vale of York in the south. The west contains part of the Pennines , which form the Yorkshire Dales in the north-west. The county was historically bordered by County Durham to the north, the North Sea to the east, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire , Derbyshire , and Cheshire to the south, and Lancashire and Westmorland to the west. It was the largest by area in the United Kingdom . From
7500-707: The northern boundary of Yorkshire was the River Tees , the eastern boundary was the North Sea coast and the southern boundary was the Humber Estuary and Rivers Don and Sheaf . The western boundary meandered along the western slopes of the Pennine Hills to again meet the River Tees. In Yorkshire there is a very close relationship between the major topographical areas and the geological period in which they were formed. The Pennine chain of hills in
7600-752: The northern foot of the North York Moors to reach the sea at Whitby . To the east of the Yorkshire Wolds the River Hull flows southwards to join the Humber Estuary at Kingston upon Hull . The western Pennines are drained by the River Ribble which flows westwards, eventually reaching the Irish Sea close to Lytham St Annes . The countryside of Yorkshire has been called " God's Own County " by its inhabitants. Yorkshire includes
7700-643: The period its name. Around 360 million years ago during the Carboniferous period, England was lying at the equator, covered by the warm shallow waters of the Rheic Ocean . During this time Carboniferous Limestone was deposited, as found in the Mendip Hills , in the Peak District of Derbyshire , north Lancashire and the northern Pennines . The erosion of this landscape by carbonation has led to very distinctive scenery. Particularly notable
7800-587: The region to accept English sovereignty so readily in the years that followed. After around 100 years of its volatile existence, the Kingdom of Jorvik finally came to an end. The Kingdom of Wessex was now in its ascendancy and established its dominance over the North in general, placing Yorkshire again within Northumbria , which retained a certain amount of autonomy as an almost-independent earldom rather than
7900-535: The region were devolved to the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly ; since 2009 the region has been used primarily for presentation of statistics. Yorkshire is so named as it is the shire (administrative area or county) of the city of York , or York's Shire. The word "York" has an interesting etymology, first it is believed to have originated from the Celtic word "Eburakon", which means "Place of yew trees ". This theory
8000-671: The rivers in the Ouse system is the River Swale , which drains Swaledale before passing through Richmond and meandering across the Vale of Mowbray . Next, draining Wensleydale , is the River Ure , which the Swale joins east of Boroughbridge . Near Great Ouseburn the Ure is joined by the small Ouse Gill Beck, and below the confluence the river is known as the Ouse. The River Nidd rises on
8100-466: The rock to undergo considerable deformation , folding the layers of rock to form mountains which have since been eroded and overlain with other layers. To further complicate the geology, the land has also been subject to periods of earthquakes and volcanic activity. Overlain on this bedrock or "solid" geology is a somewhat variable distribution of soils and fragmental material deposited by glaciers ( boulder clay , and other forms of glacial drift in
8200-695: The seas fell to form the swamps and salty lakes and lagoons that were home to dinosaurs . After 20 million years during the Cretaceous period, the seas started to flood the land again until much of England was again below the sea, though sea levels frequently changed. Chalk and flints were deposited over much of England, now notably exposed at the White Cliffs of Dover and the Seven Sisters , and also forming Salisbury Plain . The high sea levels left only small areas of land exposed. This caused
8300-424: The skull of Swanscombe Man from 250,000 years ago, and the earlier Clactonian Man . Multiple glaciations occurred during Wolstonian Stage , between about 352,000 to 132,000 years ago. Thought to have peaked around 150,000 years ago, it was named after the town of Wolston south of Birmingham which is considered to mark the southern limit of the ice. The Wolstonian Stage was followed by interglacial climate of
8400-442: The south. Scandinavian York (also referred to as Jórvík ) or Danish/Norwegian York is a term used by historians for the south of Northumbria (modern-day Yorkshire) during the late 9th century and first half of the 10th century, when it was dominated by Norse warrior-kings; in particular, used to refer to York , the city controlled by these kings. Norse monarchy controlled varying amounts of Northumbria from 875 to 954, however
8500-632: The southern fringe of this range. In the Devonian period, northern England was a region uplifted by the Caledonian Orogeny. The uplifted regions were gradually eroded down, resulting in the deposition of numerous sedimentary rock layers in lowlands and seas. The Old Red Sandstone was deposited across much of central and southern England. Sea levels varied considerably at this time with the coastline advancing and retreating from north to south across England. The Old Red Sandstone of Devon gave
8600-566: The start of the Palaeogene, but lost them through erosion. By 35 million years ago, the landscape included beech , oak , redwood and palm trees, along with grassland . In the Miocene and Pliocene epochs of the Neogene period, further uplift and erosion occurred, particularly in the Pennines. Plant and animal types developed into their modern forms, and by about 2 million years ago
8700-781: The underlying geology and producing distinctive layered hills. The county top is the remote Mickle Fell (height 788 metres (2,585 ft) above sea level) in the North Pennines southwest of Teesdale, which is also the highest point in the North Riding. The highest point in the West Riding is Whernside (height 736 metres (2,415 ft)) near to Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales. Together with nearby Ingleborough (height 723 metres (2,372 ft)) and Pen-y-Ghent (height 694 metres (2,277 ft)), Whernside forms
8800-549: The west is of Carboniferous origin. The central vale is Permo-Triassic . The North York Moors in the north-east of the county are Jurassic in age while the Yorkshire Wolds to the south east are Cretaceous chalk uplands. Yorkshire is drained by several rivers. In western and central Yorkshire the many rivers flow into the River Ouse which reaches the North Sea via the Humber Estuary . The most northerly of
8900-466: The west. The highest point of the North York Moors is Urra Moor (height 454 metres (1,490 ft)). The highest point of the Yorkshire Wolds , a range of low chalk downlands east of York, is Bishop Wilton Wold (height 246 metres (807 ft)), which is also the highest point of the East Riding. The view from Sutton Bank at the southeastern edge of the North York Moors near Thirsk encompasses
9000-468: The winter that followed, families starved to death and thousands of peasants died of cold and hunger. Orderic Vitalis estimated that "more than 100,000" people from the North died from hunger. In the centuries following, many abbeys and priories were built in Yorkshire. Norman landowners increased their revenues and established new towns such as Barnsley , Doncaster , Hull , Leeds , Scarborough and Sheffield , among others. Of towns founded before
9100-465: The yew tree ( Taxus Baccata ). Yew trees were highly valued in ancient times for their durable wood, which was used for making bows, spears, and other tools. Over time, the word evolved into "York", and it eventually came to refer to the city of York in England. Either way, it is an evolved word for the magical 'Yew' tree. Early inhabitants of what became Yorkshire were Hen Ogledd Brythonic Celts (old north British Celts), who formed separate tribes,
9200-639: Was along old lines of weakness from the Caledonian and Variscan orogenies long before. The uplifted areas were then eroded, and further sediments were deposited over southern England, including the London Clay , while the English Channel consisted of mud flats and river deposited sands . Much of the Midlands and north of England may have been covered by Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits at
9300-598: Was an ancient microcontinent or terrane whose history formed much of the older rocks of Western Europe. The name is derived from the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland . England was almost entirely contained within the Avalonian block, as shown in the map, and thus shares its geolocation chronology. Yorkshire Yorkshire ( / ˈ j ɔːr k ʃ ər , - ʃ ɪər / YORK -shər, -sheer )
9400-574: Was between the north and west ridings Isurium Brigantum (near Aldborough ) civitas under Roman rule. Initially, this situation suited both the Romans and the Brigantes, who were known as the most militant tribe in Britain. Queen Cartimandua left Venutius for his armour bearer, Vellocatus , setting off a chain of events that changed control of the region. Cartimandua's good relationship with
9500-621: Was from the south or south-west. Towards the end of the orogeny the emplacement of a large batholith of granite occurred below what is now Devon and Cornwall . This granite is now exposed as Dartmoor , Bodmin Moor and several other exposures in Cornwall, including the Isles of Scilly . Granite tors form important elements in the landscape in these areas. Metamorphism of the country rocks and hydrothermal circulation of metal-rich fluids in
9600-509: Was grouped with Bernicia , another former Celtic - Brigantes kingdom that was north of the River Tees and had come to be headed by Bamburgh , to form Northumbria . Elmet had remained independent from the Germanic Angles until some time in the early 7th century, when King Edwin of Northumbria expelled its last king, Certic, and annexed the region to his Deira region. The Celts never went away, but were assimilated. This explains
9700-687: Was hit by the Great Famine of 1315. It did not help that after the English defeat in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the Scottish army rampaged throughout northern England, and Yorkshire was no exception. During The Great Raid of 1322 , they raided and pillaged from the suburbs of York, even as far as East Riding and the Humber. Some like Richmond had to bribe the Scots to spare the town. The Black Death then reached Yorkshire by 1349, killing around
9800-737: Was in the Kingdom of Jórvík that the only truly Viking territory on mainland Britain was ever established. The Kingdom prospered, taking advantage of the vast trading network of the Viking nations , and established commercial ties with the British Isles , North-West Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Founded by the Dane Halfdan Ragnarsson in 875, ruled for the great part by Danish kings, and populated by
9900-635: Was responsible for the diversion of the River Thames onto its present course. There is extensive evidence in the form of stone tools that southern England was colonised by human populations during the warm Hoxnian Stage period that followed the glaciation of the Anglian Stage. It is possible that the English Channel repeatedly opened and closed during this period, causing Britain to become an island from time to time. The oldest human fossils in these islands also date from this time, including
10000-657: Was responsible for the shaping of the London Basin syncline and the Weald anticline to the south. This orogeny also led to the development of the North Downs , South Downs and Chiltern Hills escarpments , and the near-vertical folds in south Dorset and the Isle of Wight . During the period England was uplifted leading to erosion and the formation of the Sub-Paleogene surface . Some of this uplift
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