The West Riding of Yorkshire, through only one of the three Ridings, covers 2,800 square miles - it is , for instance, ninety miles long from Sedbergh and Howgill Fells, 2,000 feet up, to Doncaster, only a few feet above sea level. More than half its total area lies on the Pennines, but the eastern part of the county consists of the low-lying plain of the vales of York and Trent. The great topographical differences have ensured a diversity of scenery, climate and soil which is enjoyed by few other countries. Amidst all this variety, has made the scenery what it is today, from country village to industrial town. Dr. Rainstrick, in a miserly survey, shows how these landscapes were made, from the Bronze Age onwards, expands with detailed examples the growth of places such as Skipton, Bradford, Sheffield and Goole and ends with the new landscape of the twentieth century, with all the consequences both of modern technology and of the Countryside Act.
