Hardy Guide geology
A Guide to the Driffield Navigation Peter Hardy 1983.
page 6
The Geographical Setting.
Situated entirely in East Yorkshire the topography of the Driffield Navigation is of very recent geological origin. The Yorkshire Wolds, which form the main rainfall catchment area have an underlying bedrock of chalk. The earth movement which built the European Alps, 50 million years ago, had a ripple effect on the chalk beds which were uplifted and tilted roughly west/east. Subsequent erosion of these rocks has produced an escarpment overlooking the Vale of York (best seen at Garrowby Hill) and a gentle dip slope towards the Plain of Holderness at Driffield.
Until the retreat of the Quaternary Ice Age, 10,000 years ago, the foot of the Wolds marked the shore line of East Yorkshire. However, material held in the ice and deposited on retreat produced boulder clay which now forms the Plain of Holderness. Being created by depostion rather than erosion the features of a normal river valley are absent; instead many aspects of glacial deposition are prominent and of special interest to the geomorphologist.
The permeable Chalk Wolds form a natural underground reservoir for the clear streams which become definite water courses on reaching the boulder clay. It is at the confluence of two small streams that the River Hull is born, south of Driffield, to meander sluggishly across undulating Holderness to join the Humber Estuary at Kingston Upon Hull. The River Hull is thus the transport artery to the Navigation.
Different underlying rock structures have led to distinctive agricultural patterns. On the thin soil of the Chalk cereal crops are extensively harvested from prairie sized fields. In marshy Holderness smaller farms with dairy herds are more common.
The market towns are established above the former ill-drained Plain on the "spring" line between the Chalk and the clay with the villages situated on the higher deposits of boulder clay. As building stone is scarce reddish brown brick from boulder clay is the traditional building material and the rust red clay pantile roofs of the area are famous.
The only industries of note are serviced by agricultural products and are concentrated in Driffield.