Ok this might be a really stupid question, but when does it become the North of England? I’m from Bradford (West Yorkshire) but does that make me a northerner? Like I know it’s WEST Yorkshire, but is that not still in the north of England?
by ChAtcatx
11 comments
I don’t think you’ll find a single person that thinks Bradford isn’t The North. Every definition I know would put Bradford in the north. Whether you take it is Watford Gap, The River Trent or The River Don.
It’s a fuzzy border. Map men made an interesting video on the topic that you should check out.
As a history geek, I consider anything north of the Humber River (the old Kingdom of Northumbria) to be Northern, which would barely include where you live
Take a line running East-West from JUST above Shrewsbury. Run it North East of Derby and Nottingham (they’re not in “the North” – they’re midland) and run it up North-East towrds and underneath Grimsby (Grimsby is in “The North”) making sure it lies North of Lincoln.
Based on just eyeballing that map and assuming you’re talking about England and not the entire UK, I would say anything north of Nottingham is north since that appears to be right in the center of the country.
I would say that it’s “officially” the North after the North Midlands ends. This boarder goes over south Yorkshire, which sends some into a tale spin of fury. Rule of thumb is if a Yorkshire man is foaming at the mouth, then it’s probably correct.
It’s a funny thing, I’m from Sheffield and definitely consider it the North. However, Gainsborough in Lincolnshire is slightly higher up than Sheffield but I wouldn’t consider Lincolnshire to be the North 🤷🏻♂️
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I’ve always said use postcodes to sort it, that gets round places like Glossop which is definitely northern but is in Derbyshire which most would agree is the midlands. [If you look on this map](https://www.electricmarketing.co.uk/sites/default/files/inline-images/map.gif) I’d say a line from Chester, Crewe, Stockport, Sheffield, Doncaster is as close to perfect as I’ve ever managed.
If you’re asking a Northerner, it starts about ten miles to the south.
(Born in Kings Lynn and grew up in Hunstanton (not on this map, but just north of Kings Lynn and dead level with Stoke. I’ve never clicked with either side of the north-south fight.)
If the divide is only NORTH or SOUTH, then it’s a diagonal line that’s hard to precisely justify….but Gloucester and Leicester are on the south of it, and Worcester, Birmingham, and Nottingham in the North.
The diagonal line captures both the affluence-deprivation dimension of north/south in the midlands….and gives the game away that North/South is largely the degree to which you are in or not in London’s orbit.
But a better distinction is NORTH / MIDLANDS / SOUTH, which can be on existing county lines, with recognition that East and South-west have their own flavour.
Officially? The counties of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, County Durham, Tyne & Wear and Northumberland constitute the North, as well as North and Northeast Lincolnshire. Personally, I think it’s correct, barring the parts of Lincolnshire, which should be deemed East Midlands