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West Riding of Yorkshire

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Template:Infobox historic district The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three traditional subdivisions of Yorkshire, United Kingdom and from 1889 to 1974 formed an administrative county.


Ancient divisions

Unlike most English counties which were divided into hundreds, Yorshire was divided first into three ridings and then into wapentakes. The wapentakes of the 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.

Modern history

The 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.

Yorkshire's West Riding comprises an area roughly corresponding to its administrative successors West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire plus the Craven, Harrogate and Selby districts of North Yorkshire. Small parts lie in what is now the Lancashire, Cumbria and Greater Manchester administrative areas and the post-1996 East Riding of Yorkshire.

It has an area of 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.

Of this 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.

Current usage

The name or term West Riding is used by the following clubs and organisations:

The West Riding as an administrative county prior to its abolition in 1974. County boroughs are marked in yellow.
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