Comments on: Where does ‘The North’ begin?

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:07:04 +0000

There are other oddities about people’s understanding of British geography. For example, Heading due North from Bristol (and ignoring the Bristol Channel), where do you first meet the sea? Guess before you look at a map!

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:04:44 +0000

I think where “The North” starts depends on the side of the Pennines. The North-West is normally taken as Manchester / Liverpool and north from there.
If you go ENE along the M62 from North Manchester, you get to Leeds, which is a long way south of the North-East, which is County Durham and Northumbria.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 13:59:15 +0000

Watford Gap services is in the gap in the hills next to the village of Watford, Northants (pop 224 [2001]) as opposed to the other place in Hertfordshire (pop 79726 [2001]).

By: Dave Walker

Dave Walker — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:40:35 +0000

This also reminds me of one of the best lines in the first series of the rebooted Doctor Who, with Christopher Ecclestone – and it arrived in the first episode…

[Rose] Why do you sound like you’re from the North?
[The Doctor] Lots of planets have a North!

By: alecm

alecm — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 07:27:20 +0000

And…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-South_divide_in_the_United_Kingdom#See_also

By: alecm

alecm — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 07:25:34 +0000

Plays on iPlayer.

Quote re: one of the contributors – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dorling

> In commenting on a map produced by Dorling showing the North-South divide in the United Kingdom,[5] Simon Jenkins described Dorling as “geographer royal by appointment to the left”.

…and lo, he appears to be defining the line in terms of “health advantage”, “voting” and “the head on beer”.

Hmm

By: Dave Walker

Dave Walker — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 01:01:13 +0000

There was a rather good 2-part documentary about this on Radio 4 earlier this year; the programme synopses indicate where the academic involved reckoned the line on being, and the programme itself – if you can find cached copy of it – covered how its path was arrived at. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dht1z .

By: Clive

Clive — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:31:20 +0000

The answer depends enormously on whether one wants to know where “The North” starts in comparison with “The South”, or whether there’s “The North”, “The Midlands” and “The South”, or even the full set of regional destinations to choose from.

If forced to create a dichotomy, I guess I’d use a sweeping “U” shape: running between Chester and Ellesmere Port in the West, then putting most of Staffordshire in The North before bending back upwards to the Humber, so Grimsby is in The North but Lincoln isn’t.

If I’m allowed “Central England”, I’d probably say “The North” started with Liverpool, Manchester, the M62 corridor and Humberside.

If using road-sign regional destinations, it might be worth reflecting on the presence of signs to “The NORTH” at Scotch Corner. (-8

By: Mike Smith

Mike Smith — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:16:19 +0000

I think of Cheshire and Derbyshire as being in the North and Staffs and Notts as the Midlands. I think my wife treats anything south of Co Durham and Cumbria as not quite The North.

By: alecm

alecm — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:35:45 +0000

in which direction ?

By: Mark Allen

Mark Allen — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:32:35 +0000

Hadrian’s Wall.

By: acb

acb — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:19:29 +0000

I thought the Watford Gap was in Watford, and that “the North begins at the Watford Gap” was in the same class of hyperbolic statements as “wogs begin at Calais”.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:14:15 +0000

I always think of it as a line beginning at Chester.

By: Tom Hawtin

Tom Hawtin — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:01:12 +0000

Anything beyond Chudleigh Knighton does not exist.

By: Francis Davey

Francis Davey — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:59:32 +0000

That seems about right to me. Certainly I lived just North of that line and always thought of myself as “Northern”. Watford Gap is then where the “South” begins and the Midlands ends (Leamington Spa being just South which seems about right).

Your area is roughly Northumbria at its peak.

Of course its all more complicated than that. The real fundamental difference is those bits of England that were Norse and those which weren’t. I’ve always been happier in Norse areas.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:58:08 +0000

…I can’t bring myself to think of Nottingham as North, though.