Vale of York & Vale of Mowbray (1 x PiP)

The view from Sutton Bank is to the west and the market town of Thirsk, about 6 miles/9.5 km away (hidden by the haze). The Vale of York (left of picture) becomes the Vale of Mowbray to the north of Thirsk (right of picture) The road leading into the picture is the A170 which runs from Thirsk to Scarborough via Pickering, a distance of 47 miles/76 km.

The Vale of York is often said to stretch from the River Tees in the north to the Humber Estuary in the south. More properly it is just the central part of this area which is truly the Vale of York, with the Vale of Mowbray to its north and the Humberhead Levels to its south. It is bounded by the Howardian Hills and Yorkshire Wolds to the east and the Pennines to the west. The low-lying ridge of the Escrick moraine marks its southern boundary. The city of York lies in the centre of the area.

The Vale of Mowbray (sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Vale of York) is a stretch of low-lying land between the North York Moors and the Hambleton Hills to the east and the Yorkshire Dales to the west. To the north lie the Cleveland lowlands and to the south, in the region of Thirsk, the Vale of Mowbray becomes the Vale of York proper.



At Sutton Bank the A170 road runs up the bank with a maximum gradient of 1 in 4 (25%), and includes several tight bends as well as a hairpin bend. The road rises 520 feet (160 m) in under 1 mile (1.6 km) in this section.