Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a former county of England, divided administratively until 1974 into the West, North and East Ridings (from old Danish Trething, "third part", a legacy of the area's ninth-century Scandinavian settlers).

In 1974 most of the area was reorganised as West, South and North Yorkshire (based respectively on the cities of Leeds, Sheffield and York). Most of the former East Riding became the northern part of the new county of Humberside (based on the city of Hull), while Middlesbrough and neighbouring districts became the southern part of Cleveland. A part of the North Riding was incorporated in County Durham while part of the West Riding went to Lancashire.

West and South Yorkshire were abolished as administrative entities in 1986 and broken up into their constituent districts, to be followed a decade later by Humberside and Cleveland. The city of York also became a unitary authority at the latter reorganisation, incorporating parts of neighbouring North Yorkshire districts.

The former undivided Yorkshire covers some 15,770 sq km with a population of some five million.