An authoritative and comprehensive account of an important area centred around the town of Howden. This is the first part to be published of a two-part volume on the East Riding liberty and wapentake of Howdenshire. It deals with the nineteen civil parishes and townships which made up the liberty outside the town of Howden itself. Until 1836 Howdenshire was one of the bishop of Durham's exempt franchises in Yorkshire, enclaves which survived the Reformation and Civil War. Its special nature, which is mostly ancient wetland reclaimed in the twelfth century, is explored via in-depth sections on drainage and river defence, with a reconstruction of the unique medieval and early modern scheme developed to contain the River Ouse and empty the drainage dykes. Like all volumes of the VCH, Howdenshire, has an excellent set of footnotes, which allow for further research. ― EAST YORKSHIRE LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY For anyone with an interest in Howdenshires history - especially in the medieval, Tudor and Stuart periods - a personal copy would be a sound investment. ― HOWDEN CIVIC SOCIETY What it does, the VCH does superbly, and this volume is a triumphant demonstration of its effectiveness. It opens up a little-known and unexpectedly strange corner of England to wider audiences both general and academic. ― NORTHERN HISTORY The clear structure and appreciation of every dyke and farmstead makes the Victoria County History a pleasure to read, full of scholarship and with stories to find. ― Vernacular Architecture David Crouch is a fellow of the British Academy and author of a number of editions of medieval documents, most recently The Acts and Letters of the Marshal Family (2015) for the Camden Society. He has written extensively on medieval politics and society, and was also editor of Volume 10 (Howden and Howdenshire) of the Victoria History of Yorkshire East Riding.