Pickering
Pickering is an old market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England, on the boundary of the North York Moors National Forest. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it sits at the foot of the moors, neglecting the Vale of Pickering to the south. According to legend the community was founded by King Peredurus around 270 BC; nevertheless, the town as it exists today is of middle ages origin. The tale has it that the king shed his ring and charged a young maiden of stealing it, yet later that day the ring was found in a pike caught in the River Costa for his supper. The king was so satisfied to discover his ring he married the young maiden; the name Pike-ring altered over the years to Pickering. It is a good story told to fit the name, but it is not the origin. Pickering is believed to be called after the fans of an Anglian man called Picer or some such personal name-- the Picer-ingas. The visitor venues of Pickering Parish Church, with its medieval wall surface paints, Pickering Castle, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and Beck Isle Museum have made Pickering prominent with visitors. Neighboring places consist of Malton, Norton-on-Derwent and Scarborough.
