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The
textbook blurb :
North Yorkshire - a county in northern England, with an area of 8,309
square km. The county has eight districts: Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate,
Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough, Selby, and York. The county has two
distinctive upland areas. In the west are the Pennines, the major upland
region of northern England, reaching more than 670 m in the northwest at Pen-y-Ghent,
Whernside, Ingleborough, and Mickle Fell and being deeply dissected by
valleys (dales) of the Rivers Swale, Ure, Nidd, and Wharfe. In the east,
limestones and sandstones form the upland mass of the North York Moors of
Pickering. Separating these two regions is the Vale of York, a lowland with
glacial clay soils.
Prehistoric sites abound on the eastern
uplands. The Roman occupation was mainly military, based on the headquarters at
Eboracum (York), which was reached from the south by Ermine Street. Evidence
suggests the survival of a Romano-British kingdom, Elmet, in the south of the
county until the 7th century. York became the centre of a thriving Anglian
civilization in the 8th century, but this was destroyed by subsequent invasions
and occupation by Scandinavian peoples. In 1069-70, many settlements of the
county were laid waste by William I the Conqueror, following rebellions against
his rule. In the European Middle Ages, northern Yorkshire was very much a
peripheral region of England. Numerous castles signify the former power of
great landowning families. The remote, empty wastes attracted monastic orders,
and the Cistercian foundations at Jervaulx, Fountains, Rievaulx, and Byland
grew wealthy from the products of sheep farming. The area, frequently the scene
of rebellion and anarchy, played a significant part in the 15th-century Wars of
the Roses and the mid-17th-century English Civil Wars. The modern economy of
the county is primarily agricultural. The large landholdings of the Vale of
York are major grain producers, while dairy farming is especially important in
the wetter, western areas of the Pennine dales and lower slopes. Hill sheep
farming is characteristic of the moorlands of the Pennines and North York
Moors. Manufacturing, which has close links with agriculture, does not have an
important place in the economy and is restricted to the larger towns. York, the
principal urban centre, has a variety of light-engineering and food-processing
activities. The towns of Harrogate and Scarborough (frequent settings for
English political conferences and conventions) are also centres of a growing
tourist industry associated with the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors
national parks. The major rail and road links connecting London and Edinburgh
traverse the county. Pop. 722,300.
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Northumbria University Mountaineering Club |
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