Rillington & Sherburn

Rillington and Sherburn are neighbouring villages in the Ryedale area of North Yorkshire, set within the Vale of Pickering. The settlements are organised around parish councils and local community buildings such as a village hall and a primary school. Housing and farmsteads line a network of minor roads and lanes; local services include a small shop and community-run activities that reflect the parish scale rather than tourism. The villages sit on largely arable land and the pattern of fields and hedgerows is visible from the lanes that link the two centres.

The surrounding landscape is a shallow glacial basin of the Vale of Pickering, with soils and underlying sediments that have guided farming choices for generations. A fine network of public footpaths and bridleways crosses the parishes, and drainage ditches and small tributaries direct surface water toward the River Derwent catchment. You can pass from village street to open field and within a short walk encounter the regular field boundaries and old drainage channels that mark how the land has been managed here.