The above map shows the Yorkshire Ridings (separated for clarity).  The term  'Riding' lends itself from Old Norse meaning 'part of three'.  Each Riding is further divided into Wapentakes, a term also derived from the Old Norse 'Vapnatak' which roughly interpreted means an administrative area similar to a 'Hundred'.

In the above map, I  have only highlighted the Wapentakes that I have an ancestral interest in; therefore, in the North Riding, only the Rydale, Birdforth, Allertonshire, Halikeld, Hang East, Hang West and Bulmer Wapentakes are shown.

My aim for the sub-pages of the North Riding is that they will soon hold my transcription of census data from 1841-1901 for the villages in the North Riding where my maternal ancestors hailed from namely Melmerby, Husthwaite, Bagby and Nunnington; the transcription for Nosterfield and West Tanfield are already under way...

updated August 2008

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