The Great Wold Valley is the largest and broadest of the valleys cutting into the

Yorkshire Wolds The Yorkshire Wolds are hills in the counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in Northern England. They are the northernmost chalk hills in the UK and within lies the northernmost chalk stream in Europe, the Gypsey Race. ...

in northern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It carries the

Gypsey Race The Gypsey Race is a Winterbourne (stream), winterbourne stream that rises to the east of Wharram-le-Street and flows through the villages of Duggleby, Kirby Grindalythe, West Lutton, East Lutton, Helperthorpe, Weaverthorpe, Butterwick, Foxhole ...

, an intermittent stream, which runs from its source near Wharram-le-Street eastwards along and through the northern Yorkshire Wolds to reach the sea at

Bridlington Bridlington (previously known as Burlington) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is on the Holderness part (Flamborough Head to the Humber estuary) of the Yorkshire Coast by the North Sea. The town is ...

. It is known that the Great Wold Valley was an important place of worship during

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

times and there are a number of scheduled monuments in the valley. There are two dramatic right angle bends in the course of the Gypsey Race, one turning to the south at Burton Fleming then another turning eastwards again at

Rudston Rudston is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated between Driffield and Bridlington approximately west of Bridlington, and lies on the B1253 road. The Gypsey Race (an intermittent stream) r ...

. This intermittent and irregular watercourse is believed to be affected by a siphoning action in underground reservoirs and can come into flood apparently regardless of recent rainfall in the local vicinity. This seemingly 'magical' property is thought to be responsible for the number of significant Neolithic sites along its course, including the

Rudston Monolith The Rudston Monolith at over is the tallest monolith (standing stone) in the United Kingdom. It is situated in the churchyard in the village of Rudston () in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Description The stone is slender, with two large flat f ...

and the ancient burial mounds at

Willy Howe Willy Howe (also ''Willey-Hou'') is a tumulus in the Yorkshire Wolds, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. History and description Willy Howe is a large round barrow high, located between Wold Newton, East Riding of Yorkshire, Wold Newton and ...

Duggleby Howe Duggleby Howe (also known as Howe Hill, Duggleby) is one of the largest round barrows in Britain, located on the southern side of the Great Wold Valley in the county of North Yorkshire (historically the East Riding of Yorkshire), and is one of f ...

and Wold Newton. Howe, in this case a topographic name from

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

, originated with the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

word ''haugr'' meaning a small hill or a man-made mound or barrow.

Physical influences

The underlying bedrock of the valley is

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

which was laid down in the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

period. On the sides of the valley wind blown sand and

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

overlie the chalk and in the valley bottom alluvium covers undifferentiated deposits of fragmented chalk which were eroded from the hillsides in the

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

. In pre-glacial times the Great Wold Valley was the seaward outlet of the

River Ure The River Ure in North Yorkshire, England, is about long from its source to the point where it becomes the River Ouse. It is the principal river of Wensleydale, which is the only major dale now named after a village rather than its river. ...

from

Wensleydale Wensleydale is a valley in North Yorkshire, England. It is one of the Yorkshire Dales, which are part of the Pennines. The Dale (landform), dale is named after the village of Wensley, North Yorkshire, Wensley, formerly the valley's market tow ...

but the ice sheets in the

Vale of York The Vale of York is an area of flat land in the northeast of England. The vale is a major agricultural area and serves as the main north–south transport corridor for Northern England. The Vale of York is a broad area of flat land in northe ...

blocked and then permanently altered the course of the Ure.

Human influences

The historic landscape of the Great Wold Valley provides an important insight into the activities of prehistoric peoples in the Wolds. The valley was an important place of worship in prehistoric times and the valley houses a number of important scheduled monuments dating back to Neolithic times. Rudston is the centre of a prehistoric landscape and four Neolithic

cursus Cursuses are monumental Neolithic enclosure structures comprising parallel banks with external ditches or trenches. Found only in the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, relics within them indicate that they were built between 3400 and 3000 BC ...

converge on the village area. Argham Dyke, a prehistoric earthwork dating from the Bronze Age, crosses the area near Rudston. There is also evidence of

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

and Romano British occupation as revealed by aerial photographs showing traces of fields, trackways and farms. A Roman villa has been excavated to the south-west of Rudston. The present day field pattern is the result of parliamentary enclosure in the 18th and 19th centuries when large areas of common land were enclosed and a new system of land management was introduced. Farmers moved out of the villages onto scattered farmsteads linked to units of land. Nucleated farmsteads usually built of brick with slate or pan tiled roofs were constructed often located on high ground in the rolling farmland. These exposed locations were protected by the planting of shelterbelts of trees. Recreation and tourism enterprises including camping and caravan sites, hotels and fishing lakes, are to be found in the area of the valley close to Bridlington.

Ecological influences

Watercourses that are intermittent and irregular are locally referred to as 'gypsey springs'. They are found all over the Yorkshire Wolds. The Gypsey Race which passes through the Great Wold Valley is the best known of these watercourses. It is a chalk stream which supports large stands of bur-reed. West of Boynton, Boynton Willow Garth SSSI is an example of fen carr with a mosaic of habitats consisting of fen, scrub, woodland and running water. In the more open areas of the lower valley vegetation includes meadowsweet and great willowherb. Under the woodland canopies wood avens and enchanters nightshade are present. In the upper part of the valley the Gypsey Race begins at Duggleby Howe. This stretch of the valley is broad and flat bottomed with the valley bottom being around 50m above

ordnance datum An ordnance datum (OD) is a vertical datum used by an ordnance survey as the basis for deriving altitudes on maps. A spot height may be expressed as above ordnance datum (AOD). Usually mean sea level (MSL) at a particular place is used for the d ...

and the sides rising to 150m above ordnance datum. In places the stream disappears and land use is mainly arable farming with some areas of grassland. Hedgerows form field boundaries and provide wildlife corridors.Landscape Character Type 15:Wolds Valley Farmland

References

External links

{{coord, 54.1385, -0.3835, display=title, region:GB_scale:200000 Valleys of the East Riding of Yorkshire Valleys of Yorkshire Yorkshire Wolds