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Vale of Pickering
The Vale of Pickering is an area of very flat ground bounded to the north by the North York Moors, and to the south by the Howardian Hills and the Yorkshire Wolds. It is occupied by scattered farms, with villages strung along the higher ground at the Vale's edges. During the last ice age the river drainage of the area flowing toward the north-east was blocked by ice, leading to flooding and the formation of a large lake (Lake Pickering). Rising water levels eventually breached a gap between the Howardian Hills and the Yorkshire Wolds, with the lake drained by rivers which now flowed to the south-west. The remaining marshy land was drained in the 18th and 19th centuries to reveal fertile soils, with two-thirds of the Vale now under arable cultivation. The current drainage, by a multitude of ditches and streams feeding into (principally) the rivers Derwent, Rye and Hertford, must be carefully managed to balance the requirement of drained land for agriculture while holding back water to avoid downstream flooding.
Ford, J.R., Hughes, L., Burke H.F. and Lee, J.R. 2015. The Vale of Pickering: an initial summary of the Quaternary/superficial geology and data holdings. British Geological Survey Open Report, OR/15/064. 21pp. Link
Natural England, 2015. National Character Area profile 26: Vale of Pickering. Link.
Vale of Pickering Internal Drainage Board. Link.
Wikipedia: Vale of pickering. Link.
Ford, J.R., Hughes, L., Burke H.F. and Lee, J.R. 2015. The Vale of Pickering: an initial summary of the Quaternary/superficial geology and data holdings. British Geological Survey Open Report, OR/15/064. 21pp. Link
Natural England, 2015. National Character Area profile 26: Vale of Pickering. Link
.Vale of Pickering Internal Drainage Board. Link
.Wikipedia: Vale of pickering. Link
.by Tim Heaton
Created: Wed, 9 Apr 2025, Updated: Mon, 21 Apr 2025
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