Riding (country subdivision)

The word riding is descended from late Old English *þriðing or *þriding (recorded only in Latin contexts or forms, e.g., trehing, treding, trithing, with Latin initial t here representing the Old English letter thorn). It came into Old English as a loanword from Old Norse þriðjungr, meaning a third part (especially of a county) – the original "ridings", in the English counties of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, were in each case a set of three, though once the term was adopted elsewhere it was used for other numbers (cf. farthing). The modern form riding was the result of initial th being absorbed in the final th or t of the words north, south, east and west, by which it was normally preceded.[2][3][4]

A common misconception holds that the term arose from some association between the size of the district and the distance that can be covered or encircled on horseback in a certain amount of time (cf. the Walking Purchase).

The term was used in Australia as a division of some shire councils, similar to a ward in city, borough, town and many shire councils.[5]

The term was used in 19th century Canada to refer to subdivisions of counties.

In Canadian politics, "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 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 subdivisions. 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. The term was used in the legal description of the electoral districts of Canada West, which were grandfathered, by means of a schedule to the new constitution, as the electoral districts for the first elections to the new Canadian House of Commons, immediately following Confederation. 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, which legally is known as an "electoral district association", is often referred to as a riding association.

The Grand Jury (Ireland) Act 1836 empowered the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to divide Irish counties into ridings with separate assizes held in different towns.[8] This was to allow County Tipperary to be divided in 1838 into a North Riding and South Riding, because the county town of Clonmel was inconveniently far south for jurors from the north.[9] Nenagh became the North Riding's assize town.[10] The ridings became separate administrative counties, with minor boundary adjustments, under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898,[11][12] and were redenominated as counties "North Tipperary" and "South Tipperary" under the Local Government Act 2001.[13] They were merged back into a single County Tipperary by the Local Government Reform Act 2014.[14]

County Cork had been divided in 1823 into East and West Ridings for quarter sessions and petty sessions,[15] but not for assizes, and so had a single county council after the 1898 changes.[12] County Galway from 1837 had East and West Ridings for Royal Irish Constabulary and county surveyor purposes.[12] The Cork and Galway ridings became largely obsolete after independence in 1922,[12] although the names "Cork East[/West] Riding" were used for the relevant Garda Síochána (police) divisions into the 1990s.[16]

Ridings existed in rural New Zealand in the late 19th and early to mid 20th century as part of larger county councils in the area. For example, The Taranaki County Council was divided into three separate ridings: Moa (south), Omata (west) and Waitara (east).[17]

As use of the automobile became more popular with the improvement of roads, combined with the concurrent trend of urban drift (c. 1950s), the ridings were either merged back into their parent councils or separated off into county councils in their own right. The Taranaki County Council's three ridings eventually split, with the Omata Riding remaining part of the Taranaki County Council, the Moa riding merging with the Inglewood Borough Council and the Waitara Riding becoming part of the Clifton County Council.[18]

In 1989 these were again merged reorganised into district and/or city councils. For example, the above three all merged with the New Plymouth Council and Waitara Borough Councils to form the New Plymouth District Council.

Examples:

• Daily Southern Cross, 30 November 1876, Page 3
• Census, 1916. Return Showing the Population of the Dominion

Ridings are originally Scandinavian institutions.

In Iceland the third part of a thing which corresponded roughly to an English county was called þrithjungr. The island of Gotland and the Swedish provinces Närke and Hälsingland were also divided into þrithjungar instead of hundreds.

In Norway, the þrithjungr seems to have been an ecclesiastical division.

The term farthing 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, into the Fourth Age.

• Lathe
• Parts of Lincolnshire
• Rape

• Etymology on line
• Information about Canadian ridings