North Riding of Yorkshire

The North Riding of Yorkshire is the northernmost of the three Ridings that make up the county Yorkshire in northern England. Much of the Riding is rural, containing the North York Moors as well as an area of the Pennines including the north-eastern part of the Yorkshire Dales and southern Teesdale. It has a population of around 708,000, with many of its inhabitants living in the Teesside conurbation, which is centered on the Riding's largest town Middlesborough (pop. 174,000), and straddles the border with County Durham to the north along the River Tees, stretching to the seaside town of Redcar. Other notable towns in the Riding include the seaside resorts Scarborough and Whitby, as well as Catterick, Northallerton and Thirsk.

The Riding is well-known for its coastline along the North Sea, which boasts such features as Robin Hood's Bay.

History

From the late 9th century until the mid-11th century, the North Riding formed the northernmost part of the Danelaw; an area of mainly northern, central and eastern England in which Danish laws applied. As such, many place-names in the Riding have Scandinavian origins. The name Whitby, for example, is derived from Old Norse hvite-byr meaning "white town".