Positioned on the shores of a glacial lake at the end of the last ice age, Pickering was in an ideal place for early settlers to benefit from the multiple natural resources of the moorlands to the north, the wetlands to the south, running water in the beck and the forests all around.

It had wood, stone, wildfowl, game, fish, fresh water and fertile easily worked soils.

The east–west route from the coast passed along the foothills of the North York Moors through the site at a place where the beck could be forded.

Legendary sources suggest an early date for the establishment of a town but traces of earlier settlements have been erased by subsequent development.

In 1267 the manor, castle and forest of Pickering were given by Henry III to his youngest son, Edmund, 1st Earl of Lancaster.

In the English Civil War, Parliamentary soldiers were quartered in the town and damaged the church and castle and Pickering was the location of a minor skirmish but not a pitched battle.

In 1789 the first Congregational Church was built in Hungate and for several years following 1793 a private residence was licensed for divine worship by protestant dissenters.

[3] In 1901 the Catholic priest Fr Edward Bryan came to the town and established a school, parish and, in 1911, St Joseph's Church, the work of the architect Leonard Stokes.

[citation needed] The economy of the town saw a turn around in the following decades with the greater mobility of the working population and a rise in tourism due to increasing car ownership.

It occupies a broad strip of land between the Ings and Low Carrs to the south of the main road and a ridge of higher, sloping ground which is surmounted by the castle to the north.

It is sited where the older limestone and sandstone rocks of the North York Moors meet the glacial deposits of the Vale of Pickering.

Located in the northern part of the UK, Pickering has a temperate maritime climate which is dominated by the passage of mid-latitude depressions.

[1] Pickering has two main shopping areas, Market Place, which is by far the larger, and Eastgate Square, which is a mixed housing and retail development.

[citation needed] Pickering is an important tourist centre and there are banking, insurance and legal services in the town as well as an outdoor market each Monday.

The Lockton natural gas field was discovered under the North York Moors National Park by the Home Oil Company of Canada in 1966.

Gas from the gathering station was piped at 1,075 psi (74 bar) via an 18-inch (460 mm) diameter underground pipeline nine miles (14.5 km) to a treatment plant in Outgang Lane on the outskirts of Pickering.

[17] Hot water from the treatment plant was circulated in small-bore pipes alongside the pipeline to reduce heat losses and potential hydrate formation, an ice-like substance that can cause blockages.

At the Pickering treatment plant raw gas was routed through a slug catcher and inlet separator to remove liquid hydrocarbons and water.

Gas flowed to two parallel vetrocoke absorbers where it was washed with a counter-current aqueous solution of soda ash and arsenic compounds to convert the hydrogen sulphide to elemental sulphur.

[17] Over three years it had produced 11.3 billion cu ft (320 million m3) at standard conditions, only 4.5% of the estimated recoverable reserves.

A selection of photographs from the Sidney Smith collection held in the museum are displayed around the building, particularly in the photography and model rooms.

The signs of the past are evidenced in burial mounds, linear earthworks of unknown purpose and the remains of a rabbit warrening industry can be found in the wood.

The national park authority works to promote enjoyment and encourage understanding of the area by the public and balance it with conservation.

This includes producing information and interpretation, managing public rights of way and access areas, car parks and toilets and having a Ranger Service.

Before the station became a terminus, the double-track railway took up the space now occupied by The Ropery (a road) and the car park to the east.

North of the church at the top of the hill is Pickering Castle, which was built in the late 11th century to defend the area against the Scots and Danes.

The sloping Market Place between the church and the beck is lined with two- and three-storey buildings dating from a variety of periods.

[25] Pickering Church has an Anglo-Saxon foundation, but the earliest phases of the present building date to the 12th and 13th centuries, with substantial additions in the 14th and 15th.

[27] Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, on Potter Hill, was designed by the architect Leonard Stokes in 1911, on the instructions of the parish priest, Fr Edward Bryan.

[citation needed] Bus services operated by Yorkshire Coastliner connect to York via Malton, Whitby and Thirsk.