Kasthu, as yet I haven't made much progress with
South Riding, due to the' flu affecting my current powers of concentration
I did become intrigued by the ancient administrative structure of Yorkshire, though when I checked out the background for the word "Riding" and discovered it had nothing to do with horses, and everything to do with the Viking Danelaw!
"In Yorkshire, the Viking rulers divided the county into three separate units for ease of administration. The Old Norse word for a third of something (
thrithjungr) became modified to
'riding', giving rise to the East Riding, North Riding and West Riding of Yorkshire. (There never was a South Riding- Holtby invented it) These administrative Ridings existed right from the Viking age until 1974, when they were dismantled by the UK Boundary Commission. Since 1974, Yorkshire people conscious of their heritage has pressed for the restoration of the ancient Viking Ridings. At the sub-shire county level, the Viking administrative unit was the '
vapnatak', which is expressed as '
wapentake' today. At the periodic meetings of the wapentake (a kind of local parliament and court) we believe the freemen vote by a show of weapons, which were then counted. The
wapentakes still exist today for certain administrative purposes and they can be found marked on local maps."
Source :
The Danelaw
