historic Cheshire (which also forms the historic county top of that county). The hill ranges along the eastern side of Yorkshire are lower than those of the west. The highest point of the North York Moors is Urra Moor (height ). The highest point of the Yorkshire Wolds, a range of low chalk downlands east of York, is Bishop Wilton Wold (height ), which is also the highest point of the East Riding. The view from Sutton Bank at the southeastern edge of the North York Moors near Thirsk encompasses a vast expanse of the Yorkshire lowlands with the Pennines forming a backdrop. It was called the "finest view in England" by local author and veterinary surgeon James Herriot in his 1979 guidebook James Herriot's Yorkshire. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds runs nature reserves such as the one at Bempton Cliffs with coastal wildlife such as the northern gannet, Atlantic puffin and razorbill. Spurn Point is a narrow long sand spit. It is a national nature reserve owned by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and is noted for its cyclical nature whereby the spit is destroyed and re-created approximately once every 250 years. There are seaside resorts in Yorkshire with sandy beaches; Scarborough is Britain's oldest seaside resort dating back to the spa town-era in the 17th century, while Whitby has been voted as the United Kingdom's best beach, with a "postcard-perfect harbour". The northern extent of Yorkshire is the Tees and the southern extent was the Humber. East is the North Sea and west are the Pennines and the Aire Gap. Cities York has historically been recognised as a city "by ancient prescriptive right", having been the seat of a bishop for many centuries, rather than through specific charters or declarations. Its status as a city was reaffirmed as part of the administrative reforms in 1974 and again in 1996. The smallest city in Yorkshire is Ripon which associated its city status with the establishment of Church of England dioceses. When the Diocese of Ripon was created in 1836 the corporation of Ripon assumed that this inferred city status, however, uncertainty surrounding this led to its status being clarified by a parliamentary bill in 1865 known as the City of Ripon Act. In 1871, Wakefield had a population of around 28,000, less than half the size of the towns of Huddersfield and Halifax, yet when the Ripon