Discover East Yorkshire and York with this Heritage Shell Guide. Here is an introduction to the towns, villages and buildings of the East Riding of Yorkshire, the City of Kingston upon Hull and the City of York. Written in the tradition of the famous Shell Guides, it is a glorious and insightful delve into the familiar, York and the little-known, East Yorkshire. Shell Guides were the brainchild of John Betjeman in the 1930s when people began to explore the country by car. They were designed to offer a frank and honest view of a county. As well as being an introduction and gazetteer the Heritage Shell Guide Trust has introduced maps and colour illustrations to these legendary guides. As well as York's remarkable heritage, this guide also celebrates East Yorkshire including: Dramatic chalk cliffs near Flamborough teem with bird colonies; The rolling Wolds, much painted by David Hockney; The ghostly marshland landscape of Spurn Head which guards the Humber estuary; Historic buildings of the maritime city of Hull and town of Beverley; York's famed Gothic Cathedral, fortress gates and narrow medieval streets. These are just a few of the highlights of a region just waiting to be explored! Let your Heritage Shell Guide to East Yorkshire and York help you uncover the beauty of this dramatic landscape. Shell County Guides: their history - The original series was the brainchild of John Betjeman. He thought there was a market for a plain-speaking guide - the 1930s was a new era when people began to explore the country by car. So, he approached the head of publicity at Shell, Jack Beddington; Beddington had artistic friends like Rex Whistler and Graham Sutherland who thought Betjeman's plan was excellent. The first Guide was Cornwall in which Betjeman frankly said Newquay had "20th century style...corrugated rows of villas, enormous hotels, flashing shops and Pierrots..." so readers knew what they were getting! His authors were artists, playwrights and academics like Norman Scarfe (Suffolk) who had a great affection for their county. He advised Juliet Smith (Northamptonshire) to pick out the buildings she liked, and "don't be afraid of saying that a place is hideous!" Ultimately the policy was a little gentler: to take the visitor by the hand and show them what was worth seeing in a place. In 1937 Betjeman linked up with John Piper who was erudite, unflappable, calm and business like; they wrote Shropshire together. In 1960 Piper became joint editor and in 1967 editor of the series. His ability to paint buildings with latent emotion was matched only by accomplishment in making stained glass for colleges, churches and cathedrals. But he favoured monochrome for photography which leached interest in the face of colour. Shell ended the series in 1984. One of Piper's favourite photographers, Peter Burton, produced a Shell-style North Yorkshire in 2001. This led to the formation of the Heritage Shell Guide Trust to continue the work Shell so nobly began, now funded by donations.

Map reverse carries an illustrated gazetteer of sites of interest: approx. 6,600 wordsMap cover carries inside a brief history of Hull: 1,300 words. Illustrations: coloured engravings and early views of buildings, monuments and street scenesA full colour map, based on an Ordnance Survey map of 1928, with buildings and sites of interest picked out. Few cities have experienced Hull's uninterrupted position as one of Britain's leading centres of population and economic activity over nine centuries. The variety and richness of its architecture are too often overlooked. The map shows the main medieval and post-medieval buildings in this remarkable and interesting city, the second-most historic city of Yorkshire. The map's cover has a short introduction to the city's history, and on the reverse an illustrated and comprehensive gazetteer of Hull's main buildings and sites of interest, from medieval monasteries to cinemas and theatres, and the huge fortified citadel.

A full colour map, based on a digitised OS map of Beverley of about 1908, with its medieval, Georgian and Victorian past overlain and important buildings picked out. Beverley is one of England's most attractive towns with two of the country's greatest medieval parish churches, the Minster and St Mary's, and a wealth of Georgian buildings. The medieval town had three main foci: to the south the Minster, the probable origin of the town in the Saxon period, with Wednesday Market; to the north Saturday Market and St Mary's church; and to the south-east a port at the head of the canalised Beverley Beck linking to the River Hull. In the 14th century the town was one of the most populous and prosperous in Britain. This prosperity came from the cloth trade, tanning and brickmaking as well as the markets and fairs, and the many pilgrims who flocked to the shrine of St John of Beverley. By the end of the Middle Ages, the town was in decline, not helped by the dissolution of the great collegiate Minster church in 1548. Beverley's fortunes revived in the 18th century when it became the administrative capital of the East Riding of Yorkshire and a thriving social centre. The gentry, who came here for the Quarter Sessions and other gatherings together with their families, patronised the racecourse, assembly rooms, theatre and tree-lined promenade. It was they and the growing number of professionals who built the large Georgian houses, often set in extensive grounds, many of which survive. In contrast the townscape and economy of Victorian Beverley was dominated by several thriving industries, notably tanning, the manufacture of agricultural machinery and shipbuilding. The map's cover has a short introduction to the town's history, and on the reverse an illustrated and comprehensive gazetteer of Beverley's main sites of historic interest.

An authoritative and comprehensive account of an important area centred upon Great Driffield. Great Driffield, a thriving market town serving an extensive agricultural hinterland, stands at the junction of the Yorkshire Wolds and Holderness. The centre of an important Anglo-Saxon manor, in royal hands in the early middle ages, the main settlement was transformed from a large village into a boom town following the opening of a canal in 1770 that linked it to the expanding markets of Hull and the West Riding; its social, religious and political lifeflourished in the Victorian period particularly. This volume covers its history and that of its adjoining rural townships of Little Driffield, Elmswell and Kelleythorpe, from the Neolithic period to the beginning of the twenty-first century; it provides the first detailed account of the town's trades and industries, as well as exploring landownership, local government, and social, religious and political life. The editors are former staff of the University of Hull.

Hull is one of the great historic trading centers of northeast England. Severely hit by industrial decline, it has recently begun to see substantial regeneration. Exciting new architectural projects reflect the fierce pride of the community and relate closely to the city's magnificent maritime history. Filled with numerous maps, plans, and superb, specially taken color photographs, this new Pevsner guide is an indispensable visitor's companion to Hull.

The latest Yorkshire volume provides an authoritative and comprehensive account of an important area centred upon Sledmere. This volume covers seven parishes and some sixteen ancient settlements on the eastern dip-slope of the Yorkshire Wolds. Its rich and varied past extends from the important Iron Age settlements with their well-known chariot burialsto the great estate - at its high point one of the largest in England - built up by the Sykes family in the 18th and 19th centuries and centred upon the village of Sledmere. The volume includes a substantial introduction coveringthe history and archaeology of the area as a whole and analysing the impact of the Sledmere estate on local villages, churches and farmsteads. There are also detailed sections on the landscape and topography, economic, social andreligious history of the parishes and their settlements. The villages covered by the volume are Cowlam, Duggleby, Fimber, Fridaythorpe, Helperthorpe, Kirby Grindalythe, East and West Lutton, Sledmere, Weaverthorpe and Wetwang. DAVID and SUSAN NEAVE are former staff of the University of Hull.