Beverley is a market town, civil parishes in England and the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, located between the River Hull and the Westwood. The town is noted for Beverley Minster and architecturally-significant religious buildings along New Walk and other areas, as well as the Beverley Racecourse and the market place; the town itself is around 1,300 years old. It is also home to the oldest Grammar school in the country, Beverley Grammar School.
The town was originally known as ''Inderawuda'' and was founded by Saint John of Beverley during the time of the Angles kingdom of Northumbria. After a period of Viking control, it passed to the House of Wessex, a period during which it gained prominence in terms of religious importance in Great Britain. It continued to grow especially under the Normans when its trading industry was first established. A place of pilgrimage throughout the Middle Ages due to its founder, Beverley eventually became a notable wool-trading town. Beverley was once the tenth-largest town in England, as well as one of the richest, because of its wool, and the pilgrims who came to venerate its founding saint, John of Beverley. But after the English Reformation, the regional stature of Beverley was much reduced.
For 22 years, Beverley was the administrative centre of the Districts of England of the Beverley (borough), and is now the County Town of the East Riding. It is located north-west of Kingston upon Hull, east of Market Weighton and west of Hornsea. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 the total population of the urban area of Beverley was 29,110 - of whom 17,549 live within the historic parish boundaries.
As well as its Racecourse and Markets, Beverley is known in the modern day for hosting various music festivals throughout the year, and also food festivals. In 2007 Beverley was named as the best place to live in the United Kingdom in an"Affordable Affluence" study by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
