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West Riding of Yorkshire

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Arms of the County Council of the West Riding of Yorkshire
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Arms of the County Council of the West Riding of Yorkshire

The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, United Kingdom. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding, was based closely on the historic boundaries. The lieutenancy at that time included the City of York and as such was named West Riding of the County of York, and the City and County of the City of York.

Its boundaries roughly correspond to the local government areas of West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the Craven, Harrogate and Selby districts of North Yorkshire. Plus some smaller parts in Lancashire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester and the newest East Riding of Yorkshire (created in 1996).

Ancient divisions

The West Riding spans 1,771,562 acres (7,169 km²) from Sheffield in the south to Sedburgh in the north and from Slaidburn in the west to Adlingfleet in the east.

Unlike most English counties which were divided into hundreds, Yorkshire was divided first into three ridings and then into wapentakes. The wapentakes of the County of York, West Riding were Agbrigg and Morley, Barkston Ash, Ewcross, Claro Lower, Claro Upper, Osgoldcross, Skyrack Lower and Skyrack Upper, Staincliffe East and Staincliffe West, Staincross, Strafforth, Tickhill Lower and Tickhill Upper.

Of its area the southern industrial district, considered in the broadest application of the term, could be seen to extend northwards from Sheffield to Skipton and eastwards from Sheffield to Doncaster, covering rather less than one-half. Within this district are Barnsley, Batley, Bradford, Brighouse, Dewsbury, Doncaster, Halifax, Huddersfield, Keighley, Leeds, Morley, Ossett, Pontefract, Pudsey, Rotherham, Sheffield, Todmorden (partly in Lancashire), and Wakefield. Major centres elsewhere in the riding include Harrogate, and Ripon.

Within the industrial region other urban districts include Bingley, Castleford, Cleckheaton, Elland, Featherstone, Handsworth, Hoyland Nether, Liversedge, Mexborough, Mirfield, Normanton, Rawmarsh, Rothwell, Saddleworth, Shipley, Skipton, Sowerby Bridge, Stanley, Swinton, Thornhill, Wath-upon-Dearne, Wombwell and Worsborough. Outside the industrial region are Goole, Ilkley, Knaresborough and Selby. It also contains a large rural area to the north including the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Modern history

The County of York, West Riding administrative county was formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888. In 1894 it was divided into municipal boroughs, urban districts and rural districts. Most of the West Riding's largest towns were not in the administrative county, but were county boroughs with the powers of both a municipal borough and a county council. Initially there were four in number, Bradford, Leeds, Halifax and Sheffield. The City of York, also a county borough, was included in the county for census and lieutenancy purposes. The number of county boroughs increased over the years: Rotherham gained this status in 1902, Barnsley and Dewsbury in 1913, Wakefield in 1915 and Doncaster in 1927. The boundaries of existing county boroughs were also widened.

By 1971 1,924,853 people (or 50.85% of the West Riding's population) lived in the administrative county, against 1,860,435 (or 49.15%) in the ten county boroughs.

Current usage

The West Riding remains an historic division of the ancient and geographic county of Yorkshire and is still used in the names of the following clubs and organisations:

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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