The inaugural elections to the North Riding County Council were held on 24 January 1889. The North Riding was one of three divisions of the historic county of Yorkshire in England; it consisted of the ancient wapentakes (or hundreds) of Gilling West, Hang West, Gilling East, Hang East, Allertonshire, Halikeld, Langbaurgh West, Birdforth, Bulmer, Ryedale, Langbaurgh East, Whitby Strand and Pickering Lythe. The new council consisted of 60 members (one for each of 60 divisions), with 20 more voting aldermen to be elected by the new council. 30 of the seats were contested while 30 were uncontested. The election saw control of the council being taken by Conservative candidates, although these candidates were largely Independent conservatives as opposed to being party activists.
Following the election, the first Chairman of the Council was John Dundas, who remained in office until 1892.
A new authority The Local Government Act 1888 created county councils throughout England and Wales, to take over various administrative functions until then carried out by the unelected Quarter Sessions. They gained some of their powers under the Act on 1 April 1889, and their full powers on 22 September 1889. These included repairing county roads and bridges; maintaining court houses, police stations, and county halls; providing an asylum for pauper lunatics and reformatory and industrial schools; and being responsible for weights and measures and the control of contagious diseases in animals.John Edwards, 'County' in Chambers's Encyclopaedia (London: George Newnes, 1955), pp. 189–191 The areas they covered were called administrative counties and were not in all cases identical to the traditional counties, but in the North Riding the whole county came under the authority of the new county council, as there were no towns or cities large enough to be treated as county boroughs (although there were in the West and East Ridings).
Results
Composition The traditions of county government by Quarter Sessions were so long, often being passed on from one generation to another in the same families, that it is not surprising to find that the nature of the membership of the new authority was keenly debated: many, particularly Conservatives, saw the Local Government Act as the end of the role of the magistrate in county government; while on the other hand, many Liberals were worried that little or no change in membership would result.
When the North Riding election returns were in, it was clear that the Liberal prediction was the more accurate. Although a considerable portion of the Council was new blood (21 out of 60 members), the justices had a clear majority. 16 of the members returned unopposed were justices: in many cases they were the established local gentry, men like Sir Henry Beresford-Peirse at Bedale, the Earl of Feversham at Helmsley, Sir William Worsley at Hovingham and the Earl of Zetland at Marske. It was rare for a justice to be defeated, although this happened where more than one contested the same seat.
Although Conservatives repeatedly asserted prior to the elections that they should be conducted on a non-political basis, the composition of the council suggests that party affiliation remained influential. In its final form, the county council included a substantial Conservative majority, with significantly fewer Liberal members.
At the time, the provisional chairman expressed the view that the selection of aldermen ought not to be shaped by political considerations. However, the voting pattern indicated a high degree of consistency among Conservative councillors, who largely supported the same group of candidates. As a result, most of the aldermen appointed were not existing members of the council, which limited the direct influence of the electorate in their selection. The majority of aldermen appointed were Conservatives, many of whom were drawn from landed backgrounds.
Results by division
Aysgarth
Bedale
Brompton
Brotton
Catterick
Clifton
Croft
Easingwold
Eskdaleside
Eston North
Eston South
Flaxton
Gilling
Great Ayton
Guisborough
Helmsley
Hinderwell
Hovingham
Kirbymoorside
Kirkleatham
Leyburn
Loftus
Lythe
Malton
Marske
Masham
Middleham
Normanby
Northallerton
Norton
Ormesby
Osmotherley
Pickering
Redcar and Saltburn
Reeth
Richmond
Ruswarp
Scalby
Scarborough Central
Scarborough East
Scarborough North
Scarborough North West
Scarborough South
Scarborough West
Sheriff Hutton
Skelton
Snainton
South Otterington
Startforth
Stillington
Stokesley
Thirsk
Thornaby North
Thornaby South
Thornton
Topcliffe
Wath
Whitby East
Whitby West
Yarm
References