Page 3: The term 'Yorkshire' requires definition. Before 1066 Yorkshire was the only one of six modern counties of northern England to have been shired. It is first explicitly described as a shire in 1065.
F. R. Thorn, 'Hundreds and wapentakes', in Yorkshire Domesday, 40.
Page 3: Its western boundaries at, before and shortly after that date are uncertain. The area described under the heading Eurvicscire in Domesday Book, included a number of districts outside the three ridings: Amounderness, Cartmel, Furness, Kendale, parts of Copeland, Lonsdale and Cravenshire (that is, modern Lancashire north of the Ribble and parts of Cumberland and Westmorland). Whether these districts were included in 'Yorkshire' in 1086 is unclear. It is possible that they were only attached to the county for administrative convenience.
For a discussion of this problem, see D. M. Palliser, 'An introduction to the Yorkshire Domesday', in Yorkshire Domesday, 4-5; Thorn, 'Hundreds and wapentakes', 41, 55-60; Hey, Yorkshire, 4; D. R. Roffe, 'The Yorkshire Summary: a Domesday satellite', Northern History, 27 (1991), 257.
Page 6: There are indications in the Gough map that a road may also have extended northwards from York to Thirsk, Northallerton, Croft, Darlington, Durham, Chester le Street and Newcastle. Another important focus of communications Yorkshire was Doncaster. This settlement was situated at the point where the Great North Road crossed the River Don at its highest navigable point for coastal traffic. From Doncaster the Great North Road extended northwards to Pontefract, Wetherby, Boroughbridge, Leeming, Catterick and Gilling, before branching north-westwards across the Pennines via Bowes and Stainmore to Brough, Appleby, Penrith and Carlisle. Doncaster was also the starting-point of an important road running through Wakefield, Bradford, Skipton, Settle and Kirkby Lonsdale, where it was joined by a road which extended over the Pennines from Richmond. In addition to these main highways, it is almost certain that Yorkshire was criss-crossed by a series of ancient drovers' roads, along which livestock were driven between estates and markets.
Stenton noted that one of these roads connected Long Sutton (Lincs.) with Tadcaster (Yorks.) via Doncaster and Ferrybridge: 'Road system', 249-50. I am grateful to Professor Holt for drawing my attention to a drovers' road connecting the important Lacy demesne manors of Pontefract (Yorks.) and Clitheroe (Lancs.), which passed through Kirkstall, Eccleshill, Manningham, Haworth and Colne.
Page 7: The name York is derived from the Anglo-Scandinavian name Jorvic, and reflects the powerful influence of the Danes and Norsemen over Yorkshire in the centuries before the arrival of the Normans. After its capture by the Danes in 867, York was ruled until 954 by a series of Danish and Norse kings. They and their followers were responsible for changing the language spoken in Yorkshire and many of its place-names, and (probably) for establishing the three ridings and twenty-five wapentakes into which the county was divided for administrative purposes (Map 24).
The number of wapentakes includes five in the East Riding and two in the lands of Count Alan of Richmond, which although not specifically mentioned until the twelfth century, were probably already in existence at the time of the Domesday survey. See Roffe, 'Yorkshire Summary', 246, 248.
For the charters of most of the major secular lords of Yorkshire, reference must be made to the instrumental work entitled Early Yorkshire Charters. The first three volumes of this work were published between 1914 and 1916 by the antiquarian, William Farrer, who tended to date charters on intuitive grounds. Between 1935 and 1965 the historian Sir Charles Clay added another nine volumes, in which he printed transcripts of the charters connected with the Yorkshire lordships of Richmond, Paynel, Skipton, Warrene, Stuteville, Trussebut, Percy and Tison. Further charters relating to Anglo-Norman Yorkshire were printed by Clay in the Yorkshire Deeds series of volumes, published by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, and in two volumes devoted to the lands and rights of St. Peter's, York, entitled York Minster Fasti. Clay's work on Yorkshire charters also enabled him to publish a volume providing details on over thirty of the county's baronial and knightly families.
EYF.
In addition to the original sources, there is a considerable body of secondary material on the history of Anglo-Norman Yorkshire. Before 1800 very few works of importance were published on this subject. The only ones worthy of mention are the studies of York by Widdrington and Drake, Gale's account of the estates of Earl Edwin in Richmondshire and Burton's survey of Yorkshire monasteries.
T. Widdrington, Analecta Eboracensia, ed. Caesar Caine (London, 1897) (Widdrington wrote about 1660); F. Drake, Eboracum (London, 1736); R. Gale, Registrum Honoris de Richmond (London, 1722); J. Burton, Monasticon Eboracense (York, 1758).
The nineteenth century witnessed the publication of Allen's general history of Yorkshire, and a series of notable regional works by antiquarian scholars, including Whitaker's studies of Cravenshire and Richmondshire, Poulson's history of Holderness, and Hunter's account of south Yorkshire, which has been referred to as 'The foundation of the county's historical studies'.
T. Allen, A New and Complete History of the County of York, 3 vols. (London, 1828-31) T. D. Whitaker, The History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven in the County of York, ed. A. W. Morant (3rd edn, Leeds, 1878); idem, History of Richmondshire, 2 vols. (London, 1823); G. Poulson, The History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, 2 vols. (Hull, 1840-1); J. Hunter, South Yorkshire: The History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster, 2 vols. (London, 1828-31). The quotation is from Hey, South Yorkshire, 5.
