Riding
From Open Encyclopedia
- 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 horse 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, in Australia analogous. The word (known since 1295) is descended from the Old Norse þriðing (thridhing or thrithing) meaning a third part (notably of a county). The term was also used in 19th century Canada to refer to sub-divisions of counties - today, the word riding is a semi-official term for an electoral district. 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.
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British Isles
Since Viking rule, Yorkshire has three ridings, East, North, and West, which were themselves subdivided into wapentakes.
The ridings had separate county councils until 1974. A local government body called East Riding of Yorkshire was re-established in 1996.
Lindsey, a subdivision of Lincolnshire, also possessed ridings, in this case the North, West, and South ridings.
- County Tipperary in the Republic of Ireland was divided in the 19th century into two (not three) ridings, Tipperary North Riding and Tipperary South Riding — the divisions remain but these have since been renamed simply 'North Tipperary' and 'South Tipperary'.
- The term farthing (from four-thing) is analogous for quarters of a county. Gloucestershire was once divided into Farthings, and, in Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, The Shire is divided into four Farthings.
Canada
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.
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. In the predominantly francophone province of Quebec, the equivalent term is comté, i.e. "county".
The local association for a political party is known as a riding association.
Australia
The term is also used in Australia as a division of Shire Councils, similar to a Ward in City councils.
New Zealand
Ridings existed in rural New Zealand until the popularisation of the automobile with the improvement of roads, and the concurrent urban drift. Then (c. 1950s↓↑) the ridings were merged into larger county council↓s, which in the 1990s↓↑ were merged again into district councils. In towns the equivalent administrative unit was called a borough council.
