Welcome To the Driffield Town Council

DRIFFIELD - CAPITAL OF THE WOLDS

LOCAL EVENTS

A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRIFFIELD

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Driffield, a rural market town in the East Riding of Yorkshire with about 12,000 inhabitants is known as the Capital of the Wolds. The East Yorkshire Wolds being a crescent shaped ridge of chalk hills stretching from North Ferriby on the River Humber to Filey on the Yorkshire Coast. The Wolds Hills rising to just over 800 feet have very pleasant dry valleys and the area is a mecca for walkers, the ultimate local walk being the National Trail, "The Wolds Way".

Tourists will find much of interest in Driffield, an ideal centre to explore the surrounding area with two stately homes open to the public being within a few miles of the town. Sledmere House, the home of Sir Tatton Sykes, whose ancestors did much to improve the agriculture of the area. The parks and gardens were landscaped by Capability Brown. Burton Agnes Hall an Elizabethan mansion with fine gardens, with both hall and gardens open to the public. Nearby is Bridlington with its fishing harbour and well known Flamborough Head with superb chalk cliffs and internationally known bird reserve at Bempton. Cruckley 60 acre animal farm has over 50 varieties of farm animals and is much enjoyed by young visitors.

Driffield is a market town serving a number of attractive villages found in the Wolds and also in the plain of Holderness. The coast is only about 12 miles away. There is a street market on Thursdays and a Saturday Market at Cross Hill. Also we have a Farmers Market on the first Saturday of the month. As you approach the town the 500 year old tower of All Saints Church marks the town like a beacon welcoming travellers from all directions and the earliest portions date back to 1100. The town has a beck running through the centre which feeds the canal set up by Act of Parliament in 1767 and opened to barges in 1772. Riverhead with its nearby old warehouses and newly restored town lock is popular with youngsters fishing, walkers and photographers. Further down the canal good fishing is available.

Photo of River Head provided by ©Paul Credland

The Town hosts several annual events including the Festival and Parade in July, the largest one day agricultural show in the country in July. Traction Engine Rally in August and other notable events. Regular auctions of antique furniture and their artefacts are held in the local salesroom off Exchange Street. Being a market town there are many inns, public houses and restaurants. The SpreadEagle in Exchange Street has tales of Susannah Goor who built the pub and was a well known fortune teller and reputed witch. She died there in 1862 after stories of her flying on a blazing broomstick.

This takes visitors on a walk around the town visiting the highlights of Driffield including the canal, market place where John Wesley once preached in 1772, Moot Hill the site of an early C13 castle and medieval moated manor house, and other historic areas. Nearby Little Driffield is a charming village with pond and where a burial tablet in the village church marks the death in AD 705 of King Alfrid of Northumbria after a battle in nearby Scarborough.

Also Charlotte Bronte is recorded as having stayed in the old Bell Hotel, the Town's main hotel and once an old coaching Inn. Driffield is also known for its England and Yorkshire Cricketer John Thomas Brown (1869 - 1904) and for its internationally renowned colour printer Benjamin Fawcett who produced many well known bird prints, many today hanging on the walls of the town's Bell Hotel.

Driffield is twinned with St Affrique in Southern France.

All Photo's on this page are provided by Paul Credland