East Yorkshire is a somewhat neglected area for touring. Yet, the villages in the chalk Wolds possess much charm and a lot of surprising history to reward those who would explore them. In my youth, I toured these villages many times both on foot and by bicycle. This route is a personal selection, roughly based, for the first half, on the ‘Wolds Way', which is a long distance footpath of about 80 miles, running mostly on the crest of the Wolds from the Humber Bridge to Filey Brigg cliffs.

Although some villages are reached by public transport, a car will be necessary to see most of them. The first place of note is Brough, which is a sizeable village. Historically, Brough was the ancient ferry crossing place of the Humber, developed by the Romans between Lincoln and York. They named it Petuaria and made it into a regional centre for the Parisi tribe. Many Roman remains have been found in the area. Brough also has a claim to fame in that it was here that the notorious highwayman Dick Turpin stayed under the alias of ‘John Palmer' in 1737. He was finally arrested at the ‘Green Dragon' inn at the neighbouring village of Welton and was...