To ask what you consider “The North”?

[Hairbrush123]

Just a post about being a Northerner/Southerner which made me think - what do you consider as “The North”? I’ve never had a solid answer for this and just wanted to know the general census on this.

About ten minutes past Charing Cross should do it from where we are now, if we're talking about from DPland, it all gets a bit sketchy once you're seeing signs that say Bristol.

Scotland isn't The North, it's an entirely different country consisting of low bits,
the posh bit,
the holiday bit,
the high bit and
the fringes of the known world bit,

just before you get to the Islands bit (one bit to the top right with 'people', one bit to the left with 'We sold our London bedsit and now want to live from the land/our art with superfast internet for our Insta accounts of sheep and 497 photos of sun on the water, all taken on one particular day')

and the rocks in the middle of the ocean bits that you can only find on Google by zooming down to the territorial waters border marker level.

My father came from the holiday bit just above the posh bit when it was still a farming and fishing bit.

I’m from Leicester so the really midlands.

The south starts at Watford Gap. The north begins when you leave Nottinghamshire.

Dietrich I'd go for the line underneath - across from the bottom of wales.

In England, north of Crewe.

North of Hull.
Although when my mother lived in County Durham they called people from Yorkshire southerners.

I live in the northernmost town in England so everywhere else is south

For England I just imagine a line continuing from the welsh northern coast and anything above that is the north.

@DietrichandDiMaggio

I think this map is correct.

Agree this looks right. Then it's Wales, West Mids, East Kids on the row below Then South West, South and South East

Birmingham is firmly in the Midlands and only a few miles from Meridan which is the centre of England, its in the West Midlands - so anything north of this is northern and anything south is southern

@SavingsQuestions

Dietrich I'd go for the line underneath - across from the bottom of wales.

That's called the Midlands. We labelled it clearly to help Northerners and Southerners. We're not one of you. We're Midlands. In the Middle.

It all depends on your terms of reference.

If speaking as if there is only north and south, then the Midlands probably becomes part of the north.

If talking about England only and having some flexibility, I'd think of south up to about Bedford/Milton Keynes and then Midlands up to about Sheffeld and north from then onwards.

The north-south divide can mean different things. It can refer to London and the Home Counties as south and anywhere beyond Hertfordshire and Bucks as north.

When people say they are from the south, I've heard people mention places likes Northampton that I'd think of as more Midlands, but I guess in relation to Sunderland or Durham, it is the south.

There's north/south of the river Thames too and for lots of people going behind Watford seems outside their comfort zone.

My Dad liked to drive up the M1 and when he got to the big chimneys near Nottingham, he'd say 'we are now in the industrial north'.

People do forget the Midlands as a separate place and seem vague about where it is.....and those people often just call it the north.

In England, the North starts at Sheffield, the South starts at Milton Keynes and the bit between those two places is the Midlands.

@winched

Doesn’t the north just reference the north of England?

Oh yeah obviously because England is the only country who uses the measurements of "north and south" Northern Ireland are just clearly confused and Scotland too small to have north.

Surely "the north" changes in relation to whatever land you are explicitly discussing.

England - Northumberland, Cumberland etc
Scotland - Aberdeenshire, Caithness etc
Northern Ireland - Derry / Londonderry etc
Wales - Conwy etc

UK - Well we're clearly all talking about England lets face it, the only one that matters. so Northumberland.

Well I suppose lots of countries refer to the North, so someone in France would be thinking about northern France, someone in Germany would be thinking about northern Germany etc.

The OP should probably have clarified that they were talking about England (though most people would have known), just to save posters having to come on and say pretend they didn't know which country was being referred to.

Sheffield, Manchester and upwards.
I love it up here 💕

England - Starts at Liverpool/Manchester/Sheffield, an approximate line with the top of Wales

Scotland - starts at Dundee

I always think of the North as the area round Durham/Northumberland, but I live in the Midlands and there are signposts on the A38 that point to "The North" .

And I know southerners who think the North starts at Watford Gap...

North of the Midlands.

In England, anything from County Durham upwards. In Scotland, from the Highlands upwards.

Above the midlands, the clue is right there.

I live in Derbyshire. This is not the North, it is the Midlands. North starts around Sheffield.

Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and all points upwards.

Staffordshire, Birmingham, Midlands, not the north.

@SleepingStandingUp

I’m from the south, I live in the East Midlands, so to me, it’s very much the north.
That’s why I said, “In my book”

Above Birmingham which I take as representing the Midlands, though I know logically that there is a fair bit of Midlands above it.

north of birmingham i think

And actually, it could be a different country. Not a huge fan