History of The East Riding of Yorkshire - Administrative History

Administrative History

The East Riding originated in antiquity. Unlike most counties in Great Britain, which were divided anciently into hundreds, Yorkshire was divided first into three ridings and then into numerous wapentakes within each riding. It should be noted that the ancient wapentake system is not used in the modern day, though it is an important part of Yorkshire's cultural heritage. Within the East Riding of Yorkshire there were seven wapentakes (including Hull), two of these were further sub-divided into divisions, thus;

The separate Lieutenancy for the riding was established after the Restoration, and the ridings each had separate Quarter Sessions.

For statistical purposes in the 19th century an East Riding of Yorkshire registration county was designated, consisting of the entirety of the poor law unions of Beverley, Bridlington, Driffield, Howden, Hull, Patrington, Pocklington, Sculcoates, Skirlaugh and York, thus excluding parts of the historic riding around Norton and Sherburn (which are also excluded from the modern district), but also including the city of York and environs (more usually associated with the West Riding). These poor law unions formed the basis of rural sanitary districts in 1875.

A county council for the East Riding of Yorkshire was set up in 1889, covering an administrative county which did not cover the county borough of Hull, but otherwise had the same boundaries as the historic riding. Apart from Hull the East Riding contained two municipal boroughs, Beverley and Hedon.

Under the Local Government Act 1894 the rest of the administrative county was divided into rural districts and urban districts. The rural districts were based on the rural sanitary districts, with Beverley Rural District, Bridlington Rural District, Driffield Rural District, Howden Rural District, Patrington Rural District, Pocklington Rural District, Riccal Rural District, Sculcoates Rural District and Skirlaugh Rural District being formed as-is.

Several other rural districts were formed by divisions of rural sanitary districts to conform to the administrative county borders : Sherburn Rural District and Norton Rural District came from Scarborough and Malton RSDs respectively (otherwise in North Riding); Riccal Rural District from Selby RSD (otherwise in the West Riding); and Escrick Rural District which was previously part of York RSD (which covered all three ridings). Urban districts were Cottingham, Great Driffield, Hessle (from 1899), Hornsea, Norton, Pocklington and Withernsea.

The East Riding's only large town is Hull, a major port. Hull's population of which rose rapidly in the late 19th century : quadrupling from about 60,000 in 1851 to 240,000 in 1901. Other towns in the riding did not have similar growth and remain small: Bridlington's permanent population remained largely static in the same period, increasing from 6,000 to around 7,000. By 1971 the riding had a population of slightly over 500,000. In comparison, the West Riding (including county boroughs) saw extensive urbanisation and the formation of several conurbations, and had a population of nearly 4,000,000 in 1971, and the North Riding a population of about 700,000. Beverley was once a town of some importance, with St. John's College and Beverley Minster. The college was suppressed along with the monastery in the 16th century (see Dissolution of the Monasteries) and the town entered a decline in relative importance, although gaining a charter of incorporation in 1573, having previously been under the Archbishop of York. Beverley benefited somewhat from the proximity of Hull during the Industrial Revolution, and became the county town for the East Riding administrative county in 1892.

Bridlington obtained municipal borough status in 1899, having become a resort town (as had Hornsea and Withernsea), although not matching the population growth of Scarborough further up the coast in the North Riding.

The county districts underwent a major reorganisation in 1935 :

• Derwent Rural District formed from most of Escrick RD, Riccal RD and part of Howden RD (which continued in existence)
• Holderness Rural District formed from Patrington RD and Skirlaugh RD
• Sherburn RD abolished, split between Bridlington RD, Norton RD and part to Filey UD
• Sculcoates RD abolished, mostly to Beverley RD
• Great Driffield urban district made smaller and renamed Driffield, the rural part going to Nafferton parish in Driffield Rural District
• an urban district of Haltemprice formed to cover the urbanised area west of Hull, from Cottingham and Hessle urban districts, and parts of Sculcoates Rural District (including Haltemprice, West Ella and parts of other parishes)
• Pocklington urban district abolished and added to Pocklington RD

Both the administrative county and the historic Lieutenancy were abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974, with most of the riding going to form the northern part of Humberside. Some parts became part of North Yorkshire, with the borough of Scarborough taking in Filey UD and part of the Bridlington Rural District, the district of Ryedale taking in Norton and the former Norton Rural District, and the district of Selby taking in the former Derwent Rural District. Humberside also included northern Lincolnshire, and Goole and the former Goole Rural District, which are in the historic West Riding.

The creation of a cross-Humber authority was unpopular, despite the promise of the Humber Bridge (which ultimately opened in 1981), and identification with Yorkshire and the East Riding remained strong (for example, North Wolds District Council change its name to East Yorkshire District Council in the early 1980s, with Beverley also taking the name 'East Yorkshire Borough of Beverley'). This culminated with the local government review in the 1990s, which saw Humberside abolished and the northern part form two unitary authorities.

The East Riding district was formed on 1 April 1996 from the former districts of East Yorkshire, Beverley and Holderness, along with the northern part of the Boothferry district, including the Goole area which forms part of the historic West Riding (attaching it to the districts of Selby or Doncaster were proposed but rejected). The ceremonial county, the area in which the Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire represents the Crown, was re-established the same day, covering Hull as well as the district.