Vale of York in the context of "Vale of Mowbray"

The River Foss is in North Yorkshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Ouse. It rises in the Foss Crooks Woods near Oulston Reservoir close to the village of Yearsley and runs south through the Vale of York to the Ouse in the centre of York. The name most likely comes from the Latin word Fossa, meaning ditch. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The York district was settled by Norwegian and Danish people, so parts of the place names could be old Norse. Referring to the etymological dictionary "Etymologisk ordbog", ISBN 82-905-2016-6 deals with the common Danish and Norwegian languages – roots of words and the original meaning. The old Norse word Fos (waterfall) means impetuous. The River Foss was dammed, and even though the elevation to the River Ouse is small, a waterfall was formed. This may have led to the name Fos which became Foss.

The responsibility for the management of the river's drainage area is the Foss Internal drainage board (IDB). It has responsibility for the area from Crayke to the pre-1991 city boundary of York covering 9,085 hectares and 162.54 km of waterways. The Foss IDB is part of the York Consortium of Drainage Boards that oversees 10 IDB's in the Yorkshire region.

Yorkshire (/ˈjɔːrkʃər, -ʃɪər/ YORK-shər, -⁠sheer) is an area of Northern England which was historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after the city of York.

The south-west of Yorkshire includes the cities of Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Doncaster and Wakefield. The north and east of the county includes the southern part of the Teesside conurbation; the port city of Hull is located in the south-east. York is positioned near the centre of the county. Yorkshire has a coastline on the North Sea. The North York Moors occupy the north-east of the county, and the centre contains the Vale of Mowbray and the Vale of York. The west contains part of the Pennines, which includes the Yorkshire Dales.

North Yorkshire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It covers the majority of the North York Moors, the Vale of Mowbray and Vale of York, and the Yorkshire Dales. It does not include the north-east of the ceremonial county or the unitary authority area of York. The largest settlement is Harrogate, and the administrative centre is Northallerton. North Yorkshire is the largest local government area in England, with an area of 3,103 square miles (8,037 km).

The unitary authority area was formed on 1 April 2023 during a local government restructure. Prior to this, North Yorkshire was a non-metropolitan county containing seven non-metropolitan districts, and was governed by a county council and seven district councils. The creation of the unitary authority area was achieved by abolishing the seven districts and their councils, creating a new district covering the entire area of the non-metropolitan county, and giving North Yorkshire County Council the responsibilities of a district council in addition to its existing county council responsibilities. The county council chose to rename itself North Yorkshire Council as part of the restructure. The first elections to the reconstituted authority took place on 5 May 2022, and it took on district council responsibilities on 1 April 2023.