Facts about Driffield
General Info
Driffield is centred around Middle Street, its main high street of both independent and chain shops and retail (such as WHSmith, Iceland, Yorkshire Trading Company, B & M, Boyes, Peacocks, Superdrug and Boots. On a Thursday, a market is held in the town centre. Its original cattle market closed in 2001.
The town’s main hotel is the Bell Hotel, an old coaching inn in the centre of the town. Public houses and bars include, The Full Measure, the Original Keys, Buck, Royal Oak, Tiger Inn, the Benjamin Fawcett (Wetherspoons), the Blue Bell, and ‘Forty One’. It also has a micro-pub The Butcher’s Dog.
Restaurants and takeaways include the Water Margin, Stuart’s Fish & Chips of Driffield, El Dorado’s, Trishna’s, The Scullery, Marco Polo, and Muskan Spice. Cafe’s include the cycle friendly The Bike Cave.
History
Driffield is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and the name is first attested in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle where King Aldfrith of Northumbria died on 14 December 705.[5] It is also found in Domesday Book of 1086, meaning “dirty (manured) field”.
A Bronze Age mound outside Driffield was excavated in the 19th century, the contents of which are now kept in the British Museum. It includes a knife, a dagger, a beaker and a greenstone wrist-guard all dating to between 2200 and 1500 BC.
The remains of Driffield Castle, a motte-and-bailey castle, sit at Moot Hill.
RAF Driffield was targeted by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. On 15 August 1940, a raid by Junkers 88s resulted in 14 deaths and many injuries. RAF Driffield was the site of the first death in the WAAF during the Second World War.
