The subdivision of Yorkshire into three ridings or "thirds" is of Scandinavian origin. The West Riding was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Unlike most English counties, Yorkshire, being so large, was divided first into the three ridings and, later, the city of York. Each riding was then divided into wapentakes, a division comparable to the hundreds of Southern England and the wards of England's four northern-most historic counties.
Wapentakes
Within the West Riding of Yorkshire there were ten wapentakes in total, four of which were split into two divisions, those were— Claro, Skyrack, Strafforth and Tickhill and Staincliffe. The wapentake of Agbrigg and Morley was created with two divisions but was later split into two separate wapentakes. A wapentake known as the Ainsty to the west of York, was until the 15th century a wapentake of the West Riding, but since then has come under the jurisdiction of the City of York
Administrative county
The administrative county was formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888, and covered the historic West Riding except for the larger urban areas, which were county boroughs with the powers of both a municipal borough and a county council. Initially there were five in number: Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax, and Sheffield. The City of York was included in the county for census and lieutenancy purposes. The number of county boroughs increased over the years; Rotherham gained this status in 1902, Barnsley and Dewsbury in 1913, Wakefield in 1915 and Doncaster in 1927. The boundaries of existing county boroughs were also widened. Beginning in 1898, the West Riding County Council was based at the County Hall in Wakefield, which was inherited by the West Yorkshire County Council in 1974. The Local Government Act 1888 included the entirety of Todmorden with the West Riding administrative county, and also in its lieutenancy area. Other boundary changes in the county included the expansion of the county borough of Sheffield southward in areas historically in Derbyshire such as Dore. Fingerposts erected in the West Riding until the mid-1960s had a distinctive style. At the top of the post was a roundel in the form of a hollow circle with a horizontal line across the middle, displaying "Yorks W.R.", the name of the fingerpost's location, and a grid reference. Other counties, apart from Dorset, did not display a grid reference and did not have a horizontal bar through the roundel. From 1964, many fingerposts were replaced by ones in the modern style, but some of the old style still survive within the West Riding boundaries. By 1971 1,924,853 people lived in the administrative county, against 1,860,435 in the ten county boroughs.
Current usage
The term West Riding is still used in the names of the following clubs, and organisations:
, a re-enactment group based in Halifax who depict this Regiment during the Napoleonic Wars
