Vale of Pickering

There is a heritage railway from Pickering to Grosmont with connections to Whitby, which operates steam and old diesel engines in the tourist seasons.

As part of the United Kingdom, the Vale of Pickering generally has cool summers and relatively mild winters.

The latitude of the area means that it is influenced by predominantly westerly winds with depressions and their associated fronts, bringing with them unsettled and windy weather, particularly in winter.

For its latitude this area is mild in winter and cooler in summer due to the influence of the Gulf Stream in the northern Atlantic Ocean.

At the western part of the area the River Rye and its numerous tributaries flow eastwards and join the Derwent to the north of Malton.

The Derwent then flows southwards through Malton and the Kirkham gorge to eventually join the River Ouse at Barmby on the Marsh.

The carrs, marshes, ings and wet meadows have now all been drained by humans and, as well as the rivers, the landscape is crossed by a network of canalised drainage ditches and canals which regulate the water table.

There are flat open pastures, areas of intensive arable production and more varied undulating, enclosed landscapes which creates diversity within the vale as a whole.

The most important remaining settlement of this period is that at Star Carr,[4] where archaeologists have found evidence of a permanent house 10,500 years ago on the shore of what was then a shallow lake, as well as "a wooden platform extending 18–20 feet over the surface of the lake itself[5][6] near Scarborough, where, due to waterlogged conditions, a considerable quantity of organic remains as well as flint tools, have survived.

The site, on the eastern shores of glacial Lake Pickering, was surrounded by birch trees, some of which had been cleared and used to construct a rough platform of branches and brushwood.

[7] On the southern edge of the vale lies West Heslerton, where recent excavation has revealed continuous habitation since the Late Mesolithic Age, about 5000 BC.

[8] The development of farming during the succeeding Neolithic period is evident in the distribution of earth long barrows throughout the area.

In 2011 excavations close to the present village of Sherburn on the southeastern edge of the vale uncovered the remains of a large Anglo Saxon settlement.

These villages result from the relatively late enclosure of the carr lands following their drainage at the beginning of the 19th century.

Long narrow lanes and tracks with wide grass verges link these settlements and solid well managed hedges.