Pickering is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, on the border of the North York Moors National Park. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is at the foot of the moors, overlooking the Vale of Pickering to the south.
Pickering Parish Church, with its medieval wall paintings, Pickering Castle, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and Beck Isle Museum have made Pickering popular with visitors. Nearby places include Malton, Norton-on-Derwent and Scarborough.
History
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.The Evolution of an English Town, a history of Pickering since pre-historic times. Gordon Home. There is evidence of Celtic and Roman era habitation in the areas surrounding Pickering but little remains in the town. Legendary sources suggest an early date for the establishment of a town but traces of earlier settlements have been erased by subsequent development.
The name Pickering possibly derives from the Old English piceringas meaning 'the people of Picer'. The town probably existed throughout the Anglo-Saxon period of British history. According to the Domesday Book there was enough arable land for 47 ploughs, meadows and extensive woodlands.
After the conquest
After 1066 when William I became the King, the town and its neighbourhood were in the possession of the crown. A castle and church were built at this time and the medieval kings occasionally visited the area. After the Harrying of the North by the Normans, the value of the village fell from £88 to £1. In 1267 the manor, castle and forest of Pickering were given by Henry III to his youngest son, Edmund, 1st Earl of Lancaster.See the Yorkshire History website under 'Pickering'. The estate was confiscated by the King and then returned. Eventually, it passed to Henry, Duke of Lancaster who became King Henry IV of England. It has belonged to the monarch ever since.
In 1598 the streets of Pickering were: East Gate, Hall Garth, Hungate, Birdgate, Borrowgate (the present Burgate) and West Gate. Many older small houses were built at this time, some of stone with thatched roofs. The stocks, shambles and the market cross stood in the centre of town in the Market Place. The castle fell into disrepair yet the town flourished. 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 the 1650s George Fox, the founder of Society of Friends, or Quakers, visited the town to preach on at least two occasions. Nicholas Postgate, the Catholic martyr, lived for a time in Pickering. He was hanged, drawn and quartered in York in 1679.
18th century Pickering prospered as a market town and agricultural centre. It had watermills and several inns and was a centre for mail coach traffic and trade. At this time the beck was an open sewer and it remained so until the early part of the 20th century.
Many townspeople adoptioned Non-conformist religious sects and were visited by John Wesley on several occasions, the first in 1764 and the last in 1790. The Quakers held meetings in a cottage long before they built Pickering Quaker Meeting House in Castlegate in 1793. 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.
19th century Non-conformism flourished in Pickering during the 19th century and meeting houses and chapels were enlarged. The Pickering Methodist Circuit was formed in 1812, and the current Pickering Methodist Church was built in 1885. There were both Wesleyan and Anglican schools in the town from the middle of the century.
The Whitby and Pickering Railway was opened in 1836, entering Pickering station from the north. At first the trains were horse drawn, with a stagecoach connection from Pickering to York. In 1845 the York and North Midland Railway built its line from York to Scarborough, with a branch from Rillington Junction to Pickering, and acquired the Whitby line, which was rebuilt for use by steam locomotives. In 1875, the Gilling and Pickering line opened, connecting Pickering to Kirkbymoorside, Helmsley and Thirsk. In 1882, the Forge Valley line opened, connecting Pickering to Scarborough via Thornton-le-Dale. The lines from Rillington, Kirkbymoorside and Thornton-le-Dale all entered Pickering from the south, joining together at Mill Lane Junction.A History of the Whitby and Pickering Railway. Potter 1905
The local Health Board (the forerunner of the Urban District Council) was formed in 1863. A Gas and Water Company provided gaslight and piped drinking water. The shop fronts were closed in and glass windows were used to display goods for sale.
20th century
At the 1901 census, Pickering had 3,491 people and by 1911 this had risen to 3,674 who were living in 784 households. There were more than 60 shops. In the early 20th century the growth of non-conformist religious sects, particularly Methodism, generated a political spirit of Liberalism and Pickering built a great Liberal tradition.Pickering through the Ages. K Snowden. 1997 Castleden
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. It contains a font by the celebrated sculptor Eric Gill.
In 1919 an old mill was converted to the Pickering Memorial Hall in memory of the local men killed in the First World War. This hall, now modernised, serves as a community centre. The Castle Cinema was built in 1937 in Burgate. Electricity had arrived a few years earlier.
The years from 1920 to 1950 saw a decline in Pickering's role as an agricultural market town. In addition, railway closures started in 1950, with the closure of the line to Thornton-le-Dale, and in 1953, with the closure of the line to Kirkbymoorside. In 1965 the line from the junction at Rillington via Pickering to Whitby closed to passengers as a result of the Beeching axe, with freight continuing until the following year. The line south from Pickering station was lifted and its site is now occupied by a street and car park (The Ropery), but the line north was eventually saved by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and reopened as a heritage railway in 1973.
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. Tourism is a major occupation since the reopening of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway as a restored steam railway and the filming of the television series Heartbeat on the moors. In 1991 the population was 6,269.
Geography Situation
Pickering is situated at the junction of the A170, which links Scarborough with Thirsk, and the A169 linking Malton and Whitby. 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. The limestone rocks form the hill on which the higher parts of the town and the castle are situated.Pickering Town Guide. Plus Publishing
Pickering Beck is a watercourse that runs north to south through the centre of the town. It rises on the moors and drains southwards through Newton Dale before reaching Pickering. It is prone to flooding at times of exceptional rainfall when areas of town close to the beck become flooded. The town centre lies east of the beck, though the population is almost equally divided between its east and west wards. Pickering has developed around the old Market Place but the majority of houses are now in the residential estates off the main A170 road.
Physical geography To the north of Pickering is the high moorland of the North York Moors, rising from above sea level at its southern edge to over on Urra Moor. It is dissected by a series of south-flowing streams which include Pickering Beck. Most of the moorland consists of Jurassic sandstone with occasional cappings of gritstone on the highest hills.
To the south these rocks are overlaid with oolitic limestone which forms flat-topped tabular hills with an escarpment to the north and gentler slopes to the south. Ice action in the last glaciation deepened pre-existing valleys, and determined the line of the rivers and streams. Newtondale to the north of Pickering was cut by meltwater from ice in Eskdale gouging a deep channel as it flowed southwards to the lake which filled the Vale of Pickering. This lake was blocked by ice and glacial deposits near the coast so it drained through the Kirkham Gorge towards the River Ouse.
South of Pickering, extensive marshes have been drained and exploited as fertile agricultural land.
Climate Located in the northern part of the UK, Pickering has a temperate maritime climate which is dominated by the passage of mid-latitude depressions. The weather is very changeable from day to day and the warming influence of the Gulf Stream makes the region mild for its latitude. The average total annual rainfall is 729 mm with rain falling on 128 days of the year. January is usually the coldest month and December the wettest. The warmest month is August and the driest is February.
Flooding
Pickering Beck has a history of flooding, which occurs on average every five years. However, out-of-bank flows are experienced on some sections of the watercourse annually. These areas include Potter Hill and the grassed area upstream of Pickering Bridge. The flood in March 1999 caused widespread damage to the town. Flooding in 2007 again caused extensive damage to properties in Beck Isle, Park Street, Market Place and the Ropery.Pickering Flood Alleviation Scheme. Environment Agency.UK
Since 2007, Pickering has planted trees and built 167 retaining dams above the town to keep back water.
Demography According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 Pickering had a population of 6,846 people in 3,071 households. There were 3,213 males and 3,633 females. The mean age of the population for the East Ward was 45.30 years and for the West Ward it was 43.47 years. Both of these ages are significantly higher than the national mean age of 38.6 years. In the census year 25.39% of Pickering's population was over 65 years compared with 15.89% nationally. There were 1,183 people below the age of 16 and 886 over the age of 75. The census for 2011 only showed a marginal difference in population at 6,830.
Governance Pickering is in the Thirsk and Malton parliamentary constituency, which is represented in the UK Parliament by Kevin Hollinrake of the Conservative Party.
From 1974 until 2023 Pickering was part of the district of Ryedale in the county of North Yorkshire. Since 2023, it has been part of the unitary authority area of North Yorkshire. Pickering is represented on the North Yorkshire Council by Joy Andrews of the Liberal Party.
As a town and civil parish, Pickering also has a town council, with 12 elected councillors and 4 members of staff. It is responsible for a number of local services.
Economy