WOLDS (The), a tract of round chalky hills, in E. R. Yorkshire; extending from the Humber at Ferriby crescentually to the sea at Flamborough-head; measuring 35 miles in length and from 5 to 30 in breadth; rising, in some parts, to an altitude of 600 feet; and intersected from Settrington to Bridlington, by one continuous hollow, called the Great Wold valley.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))