Vale of Pickering

The Vale of Pickering is a low-lying, flat area of North Yorkshire, England, drained by the River Derwent and occupying the former bed of the post-glacial Lake Pickering. Bounded by the Yorkshire Wolds escarpment to the south, the Corallian limestone foothills of the North York Moors to the north, the North Sea coast to the east, and the Howardian Hills to the west, its level topography is covered by glacial drift over Jurassic sandstones and mudstones. The vale has supported continuous human habitation since the Mesolithic period and today is chiefly agricultural, with the rivers Derwent, Rye, and Hertford converging within it.