Beverley

For other uses, see Beverly (disambiguation).

Beverley
Town and civil parish
Coat of arms of Beverley Town Council
Beverley is located in East Riding of Yorkshire
Beverley
Beverley
Location within the East Riding of Yorkshire
Population30,587 (2011 census) [a]
OS grid referenceTA035399
Civil parish
  • Beverley
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townBEVERLEY
Postcode districtHU17
Dialling code01482
PoliceHumberside
FireHumberside
AmbulanceYorkshire
UK Parliament
Websitewww.beverley.gov.uk
List of places
UK
England
Yorkshire
53°50′42″N 0°25′37″W / 53.845°N 0.427°W / 53.845; -0.427

Beverley is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located 27 miles (43 km) south-east of York and 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Hull.[1][2] At the 2021 census the built-up area of the town had a population of 30,930, and the smaller civil parish had a population of 18,014.[3][4] It is the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The town was founded in the seventh century by John of Beverley, who established a church in the area. It was originally named Inderawuda, and was part of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. The town came under Viking control in the 850s, then became part of the Kingdom of England. John of Beverley was made a saint in 1037, and the town was a place of pilgrimage for the remainder of the Middle Ages.[5] It continued to grow under the Normans, when its trading industry was first established, and eventually became a significant wool-trading town and the tenth-largest settlement in England. After the Reformation, the stature of Beverley was much reduced.

The town contains several landmarks, including Beverley Minster, Westwood common, North Bar gatehouse, St Mary's Church, and Beverley Racecourse. It inspired the naming of the city of Beverly, Massachusetts,[6][7][8] which in turn was the indirect source of the name for Beverly Hills, California, which was named after its Beverly Farms neighbourhood.[9][10]


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  1. ^ "Distance Beverley – York". Distance 24. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Distance from Beverley to Hull". Retrieved 4 June 2022.
  3. ^ "Towns and cities, characteristics of built-up areas, England and Wales". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Dataset: PP002 – Sex". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  5. ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus; Neave, David (11 March 1995). Yorkshire: York and the East Riding. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09593-7.
  6. ^ Rev. E. M. Stone History of Beverley (Mass.), from its settlement in 1630 to 1842. 12mo. Boston, 1843
  7. ^ Genealogical and Personal Memoirs – Page 1460 William Richard Cutter "Mr. Balch was born in Beverley, Massachusetts, September 30, 1704, and died in Bradford (Grove- land) January 12, 1791–2."
  8. ^ Los Angeles Magazine – December 1996 – Page 99 Vol. 41, No. 12 "Beverly Farms appears to have been named after the nearby town of Beverly, which was in turn named after Beverley, England. That Yorkshire cathedral town was named in the 8th century or so for an earlier settlement called Beverlac – a ...
  9. ^ Garvin, Alexander (19 June 2002). The American City. McGraw-Hill Professional. p. 383. ISBN 978-0-07-137367-8. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
  10. ^ Marc Wanamaker, Early Beverly Hills, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2005, pp. 17–18 [1]