County town: York
Yorkshire was established as a shire by the 10th century, incorporating the former Danelaw territory of Deira and parts of Bernicia. It was divided into three Ridings — North, East, and West — each administered separately, with York as the capital.
Yorkshire is England's largest historic county, encompassing an extraordinary range of landscapes: the moors and dales of the Pennines, the Vale of York, the chalk Wolds, and the Humber estuary. York itself, a Roman fortress and colonia, a Viking capital (Jorvik), and a medieval city of international importance, is one of England's greatest historic cities. The Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors are national parks of exceptional character. The West Riding's industrial valleys — Halifax, Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield — were transformed from the 18th century into the engine room of the textile and steel industries. The abbeys of Rievaulx, Fountains, Kirkstall, and Whitby are among the finest medieval ruins in Europe.
Yorkshire was surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086, William the Conqueror's great census of England. The survey recorded 2,034 settlements in the county, with details of their lords, landholders, population, and resources.
Browse 2,034 Domesday settlements in YorkshireEngland's 39 historic counties, established between the 9th and 12th centuries, are the framework through which English local history, legal records, and landscape have been organised for a thousand years. Most survive today as ceremonial counties, their boundaries deeply embedded in place identity.
This page introduces the historic county of Yorkshire. A full Aubrey report for a location within it pulls together everything the record actually holds about that ground, from the geology beneath it to the last coin dropped in a field:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Read in-depth research reports on notable historical places across the UK — explore →
Yorkshire contains 2,816 scheduled monuments — sites of national importance protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
Browse scheduled monuments in EnglandAn Aubrey report for a specific location in Yorkshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.