The Ridings of Yorkshire
Once the southernmost part of Northumbria, Yorkshire has a natural geographical perimeter formed by the River Tees, the North Sea, the River Humber and the Pennine hills. However, the Vikings split their ‘kingdom of York’ into the three Ridings of Yorkshire — North, West and East (‘riding’ means a third).
The city of York is in the centre but is traditionally associated with the West Riding, with Hull and Middlesbrough being the main cities of East and North Ridings respectively. These regions remained largely unmodified until 1974, when the North and West were “abolished” to make way for North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. Further boundary changes occurred, with parts of the Ridings now being in other counties. The Ridings may be termed “historic” but are clearly not forgotten by campaign groups and the older generation.
The Ridings comprise 6,081 sq.miles (Yorkshire is England’s largest county), with a population of 5.4 million. West Riding has industrial towns such as Leeds and Sheffield but also rolling countryside. North Riding has farms, a 45-mile coastline and the North York Moors. East Riding is mainly flatland with a 53-mile coastline. Its cliffs of clay are being eroded by the sea by at least 6ft. per year.
(Top images – top, left, right: a North Riding farm by Andrew Smith, a West Riding factory by Stephen Craven, an East Riding beach by Peter Church / all at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)