Riding
This article is about the riding as a unit of local government and as an electoral district; for usage of the more common homonym, a form of the verb to ride, see equestrianism and related articles such as riding animal.In the
British Isles since
Anglo-Saxon times, a
riding is traditionally a sub-division (especially in three) of a
county.
The term has similar or analogous meanings in other countries.
The word (known since 1295) is descended from the
Old Norse þriðing (
thridhing or
thrithing) meaning a third part (notably of a county). The word riding was originally written as
thrit/ling or
thriding, but the initial th has been absorbed in the final th or t of the words north, south, east and west, by which it was normally preceded.
A common misconception holds that the term arose from some association between the size of the district and the distance that can be covered on horseback in a certain amount time.
Ridings are originally Scandinavian institutions.
In Iceland the third part of a thing which corresponds roughly to an English county was called
thrithjungr.
In Norway, however, the thrithjungr seems to have been an ecclesiastical division.
Yorkshire
Since
Viking rule,
Yorkshire has had three ridings ,
East,
North and
West, originally each subdivided into
wapentakes.
The Yorkshire ridings were in many ways treated as separate counties, having long had, separate
Quarter Sessions and also separate
Lieutenancies since the
Restoration. This practice was followed by the
Local Government Act 1888, which created made each of the three ridings an
administrative county with an elected county council. These county councils, and the historic Lieutenancies were abolished in 1974 under the
Local Government Act 1972.
A local government area
East Riding of Yorkshire was re-established in 1996, with a corresponding Lieutenancy, but this does not include the entire area of the historic East Riding and even includes some of the historic West Riding.
According to the 12th-century compilation known as the laws of
Edward the Confessor, the riding was the third part of a county (
provincia); to it causes were brought which could not be determined in the
wapentake, and a matter which could not be determined in the riding was brought into the court of the shire.
There is abundant evidence that riding courts were held after the Norman Conquest. A charter which
Henry I granted to the Church of St Peters at York mentions
wapentacmot, tridingmot and
shiresmot (-mot designates popular assemblies), and exemptions from suit to the thriding or riding may be noticed frequently in the charters of the Norman kings. As yet, however, the jurisdiction and functions of these courts have not been ascertained. It seems probable from the silence of the records that they had already fallen into disuse early in the 13th century.
Although no longer having any administrative role the Ridings of Yorkshire still play a part as cultural entities - they are used for the names of a number of groups and organisations and some people in Yorkshire associate themselves with one Riding or another (see
West Riding of Yorkshire#Current usage and
Yorkshire Ridings Society).
Ireland
County Tipperary in the
Republic of Ireland was divided in
1838 into two (not three) ridings,
Tipperary North Riding and
Tipperary South Riding â€" the divisions remain as local government counties, but were renamed simply 'North Tipperary' and 'South Tipperary' in
2002.
County Cork was divided into East and West Ridings in
1823. The ridings still exist for judicial purposes, and
Garda Siochana divisions are based on them.
Cork county council is divided for some purposes into the two ridings, with councillors for the ridings meeting separately to perform some functions.
Elsewhere
Lindsey, a subdivision of
Lincolnshire, also possessed ridings, in this case the
North,
West, and
South ridings.
The term was used in 19th century
Canada to refer to sub-divisions of counties.
In
Canadian politics, a "riding" is a colloquial term for a
constituency or electoral district. Officially, "
electoral district" is generally used, although government documents sometimes use the colloquial term. In colloquial Canadian French, a riding is confusingly known as
comté, i.e. "county", as the electoral districts in Quebec were historically identical to its
counties; the official French term is
circonscription.
The Canadian use of "riding" is derived from the
English local government term, which was widely used in Canada in the 19th century. Most Canadian counties never had sufficient population to justify administrative sub-divisions. Nonetheless, it was common, especially in
Ontario, to divide counties with sufficient population into multiple electoral districts, which thus became known as "ridings" in official documents. Soon after Confederation, the urban population grew (and more importantly, most city dwellers gained the franchise after property ownership was no longer required to gain the vote). Rural constituencies therefore became geographically larger through the 20th century and generally encompassed one or more counties each, and the word "riding" was then used to refer to any electoral division.
The local association for a political party is known as a
riding association.
The term is also used in
Australia as a division of
Shire Councils, similar to a
Ward in City councils.
Ridings existed in rural
New Zealand until the popularisation of the automobile with the improvement of roads, and the concurrent
urban drift. Then (c. ), the ridings were merged into larger "
Councils", which in the were merged again into "district councils". In towns the equivalent administrative unit was called a "
borough council".
The term
farthing (from four-thing) is analogous for quarters of a county.
Gloucestershire was once divided into Farthings. In
Tolkien's fictional world of
Middle-earth,
The Shire is divided into four
Farthings.
*
Etymology on line *
Information about Canadian ridings* Felix Liebermann,
Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen (Halle, 1888-89)
* William Stubbs, Constitutional History of England
* Richard Cleasby, Icelandic Dictionary
* New English Dictionary
* William Dugdale,
Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. vi., edited by John Caley and others (1846).
