
Yorkshire A to Y
Gazetteer
East Riding unitary authority area X

With an area of around 930 square miles it covers an area about 60% bigger than the neighbouring Ryedale district of North Yorkshire.
It covers several towns and hundreds of villages in an area stretching between the Yorkshire Wolds, the Humber estuary and the Yorkshire coast.
While East Riding is one of the largest unitary authorities in England, in 2023 the Government plans to stretch such government even further and make North Yorkshire the largest unitary authority with an area 3½ times the size of the East Riding.
East Riding is the local government area which most closely matches one of Yorkshire's historic Ridings, although there were a considerable number of boundary changes when those Ridings came to an end in 1974.
The East Riding was initially split into districts of the Government's unsuccessful mix of Yorkshire and parts of Lincolnshire across the Humber estuary in a new county of Humberside. Except for police and fire services, that only lasted until 1996 when things were changed again and three Humberside districts, one of them named East Yorkshire, and half of another were merged into a new East Riding unitary authority.
The East Riding area we have today excludes the relatively small City of Hull area, which has its own unitary authority. Today's East Riding includes areas of the former West Riding around Snaith and Goole and has lost to North Yorkshire some of the historic East Riding's northernmost parts around Norton upon Derwent and Filey.
East Riding covers a large part of the sea coast of Yorkshire as well as most of the northern shore of the Humber estuary. The coastline includes two of Yorkshire's three heritage coasts at Flamborough and Spurn. Seaside resorts along the coast include Bridlington, Hornsea and Withernsea.
Although mostly an agricultural area, its sheer number of towns and villages make it Yorkshire's 6th most populated district or unitary authority area with a population of around 342,200 in the 2021 Census. Its population size ranks only after four of the five metropolitan districts of West Yorkshire (all except Calderdale), and Sheffield metropolitan district, one of four in South Yorkshire.
The East Riding's county town is Beverley where its County Hall is located. The largest town in the East Riding is Bridlington.
Below the unitary authority tier of local government, East Riding has widespread coverage of town and parish councils, a total of 168 in all.
Places in the East Riding unitary authority area are:



















































Great Driffield see


































































































We continue to add more villages to our A to Y gazetteer and the above may not yet list all places in East Riding unitary authority area