DRIFFIELD (or Great Driffield, to distinguish it from the neighbouring hamlet of Little Driffield), a markettown of England, in the east riding of Yorkshire, 28 miles to the east of York, and 196 miles from London by road. The town—consisting of one principal street, from which some smaller ones diverge—is agreeably situated at the foot of the Wolds, and is connected with the port of Hull by a navigable canal. It stands in the centre of a fertile agricultural district. An important corn and cattle market is held in the town every Thursday, and there are four large stock-fairs annually at Little Driffield. Besides the parish church, a fine old edifice in different styles, the principal public buildings in Great Driffield are the places of worship for Independents, Methodists, and Baptists, the corn exchange, the dispensary, the mechanics’ institute, and the station of the Hull and Scarborough railway. Carpets, cotton, and chemical manure are manufactured in the town; and in the neighbourhood are numerous flour-mills and mills for bone-crushing. Population in 1871, 8364.