Gazetteer of
British Place Names

The North Riding of Yorkshire is one of the Three Ridings of Yorkshire. The ridings are the fundamental geographical and cultural divisions of the shire, the creation of the Norse period from which Yorkshire itself arose. The three ridings surround the City of York, their boundaries meeting at the walls of the city: thus York within the walls is the only part of Yorkshire outside any of the ridings. The North Riding stretches north from the walls of the City of York to the banks of the River Tees.

Place Type: Division
Historic County: Yorkshire
Lat, Long: 54.320728,-1.409695
Grid Reference: SE384918
Country: England

GBPNID: 306054
Entry Type: Main listing (P)
URL: https://gazetteer.org.uk/place/North_Riding,_Yorkshire_306054

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In the eastern part of the North Riding are the hills of the North York Moors. The Cleveland Hills in this area plunge down to the sea at Whitby, a town of history, fishing and bracing holidays. The Cleveland coast is marked by the high cliffs that give it its name, Boulby Cliff being one of the highest in England. Wooded valleys, the wykes, tumble down from the high moors to the sea. In between pretty fishing villages such as Robin Hood's Bay and Staithes nestle under the cliffs.

The mouth of the Tees, at the very northern bounds of Yorkshire, is an industrial centre. The main town being Middlesbrough, a port and factory town that grew from nothing in the nineteenth century but from which now a small conurbation has grown, stretching down to the seaside town of Redcar. The industry on the Tees took wing from the coal of County Durham and the iron ore mined in the northern hills of Cleveland. The Tees marks the boundary with County Durham.

The western part of the Riding is in the Pennines, with wild, often breathtaking scenery. Here (in the Lune Forest in Upper Teesdale) Mickle Fell stands at 2,591 feet, the highest point of Yorkshire. Southward are the Yorkshire Dales, rightly renowned for their beauty. In Swaledale are the old town of Richmond and the immemorial garrison town of Catterick.

In Wensleydale runs the River Ure, noted for waterfalls, the forces, and delightful villages. In the upper part of Wensleydale is Hawes, a fine walking centre and just the first of a string of jewels on the Ure. Lower down are the haunting ruins of Jervaulx Abbey, originally named "Ure Vale".

Between the Pennines and the North York Moors is the Vale of York, a broad, low fertile land fed successively by the Swale, the Ure and the rivers of the West Riding and running down to York and the Humber plains.