Humberhead Levels

The Humberhead Levels is a national character area covering a large expanse of flat, low-lying land towards the western end of the Humber estuary in northern England.

The levels occupy the former Glacial Lake Humber, an area bounded to the east by the Yorkshire Wolds and the northern Lincolnshire Edge, a limestone escarpment, and to the west by the southern part of the Yorkshire magnesian limestone ridge.

This was the northern limit of an extensive lake which was impounded by the blocking of the Humber Gap by another ice front.

The lighter soils there were easier to drain with hand tools, and the area was extensively cleared for small-scale pastoral farming.

[2] The system of easily navigable rivers was used by invading late fifth- and sixth-century Angles and eighth- and ninth-century Vikings who were able to penetrate deep into the countryside.