Beverley is a market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

, civil parish and the county town

County town

A county town is a county's administrative centre in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its...

 of the East Riding of Yorkshire

East Riding of Yorkshire

The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. For ceremonial purposes the county also includes the city of Kingston upon Hull, which is a separate unitary authority...

, England, located between the River Hull

River Hull

The River Hull is a navigable river in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the north of England. It rises from a series of springs to the west of Driffield, and enters the Humber estuary at Kingston upon Hull. Following a period when the Archbishops of York charged tolls for its use, it became a free...

 and the Westwood. The town is noted for Beverley Minster

Beverley Minster

Beverley Minster, in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire is a parish church in the Church of England. It is said to be the largest parish church in the UK....

 and architecturally-significant religious buildings along New Walk and other areas, as well as the Beverley Racecourse

Beverley Racecourse

Beverley Racecourse is a thoroughbred horse racing venue located in the town of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.The racecourse is a right-handed flat course, that is just over 1 mile 3 furlongs....

 and the market place; the town itself is around 1,300 years old. It is also home to the oldest grammar school

Grammar school

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

 in the country, Beverley Grammar School

Beverley Grammar School

Beverley Grammar School is a boys' secondary school in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. It was founded in about 700 AD/CE and is the oldest state school in England and the sixth oldest school overall in England. The school is a specialist Engineering College and shares a mixed Sixth form with...

.

The town was originally known as Inderawuda and was founded by Saint John of Beverley

John of Beverley

John of Beverley was an English bishop active in the kingdom of Northumbria. He was the Bishop of Hexham and then the Bishop of York which was the most important religious designation in the area. He went on to found the town of Beverley by building the first structure there, a monastery...

 during the time of the Anglian

Angles

The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...

 kingdom of Northumbria

Northumbria

Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...

.