Yorkshire

Yorkshire, former county, northeastern England. The largest of the former counties, Yorkshire was divided into the administrative counties (or ridings) of East Riding, West Riding, and North Riding, which had as their county towns Beverley, Wakefield, and Northallerton, respectively. Yorkshire comprised a diversified terrain rising from the North Sea coast on the east to the Pennine Chain on the west. North and East Riding were chiefly agricultural counties. Manufacturing and coal mining were concentrated largely in West Riding. Before the Roman conquest the region was inhabited by the Brigantes, a powerful British tribe. The Romans established one of their major settlements in Britain at Eboracum, what is now York. From the 6th century the area was invaded by the Angles and Saxons, subsequently becoming part of the kingdom of Northumbria. Yorkshire was an important monastic center in the Middle Ages. In the 1974 administrative reorganization, most of Yorkshire was divided into the new counties of North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Cleveland, and Humberside and the metropolitan county of South Yorkshire.