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.

Down here in the southwest, people don't say 'up north'. They say 'up country'. Usually means Taunton...

Anywhere above Nottingham I’d say is north.

I’m from Yorkshire and will always remember a woman at a training course I went to (taking place in central London) describing, with a serious face so not taking the mic, that anything above Luton is in the North...

How can anyone not grasp the concept of ‘midlands’? Here in Wales anything north of Brecon is classed as North Wales. Crazy.

Hemel Hempstead

I grew up in Sheffield and live in North Lancashire now. Definitely consider myself 'Northern'. Yet if you asked me to point to where 'The North' began on a map, I'd probably concede that South Yorkshire isn't really very Northern I'd say Northumberland, Cumbria and North Yorkshire are Northern? Sheffield is more Midlands - but when I think Midlands I think of Birmingham which is a 3 hour drive South on a good day for me.

@MishMashMummy

I’m from the Scottish central belt, so for me anything above Perth is about right.

I’m always amazed at how far south ‘the north’ starts for most people. York, for example, is firmly in ‘the North’ to most English people but it’s only a little over half way up England! I’ve seen Sheffield and Manchester described as Northern cities too

Of course Sheffield and Manchester are in the North 🤣. What would you describe them as? The midlands?! 😆

Scotch Corner upwards for me.

Manchester and above

@Gwenhwyfar

Anywhere north of Machynlleth

🙌

Anything north of the Thames!

Surely North is anything North of where you are???? It’s all a matter of perspective as this thread demonstrates.

If you find 'Look North' appearing on your TV after the main BBC news, that's a good sign that you're in Northern England.

Anything north of the Thames

Seriously - anything north of Milton Keynes is "Up North" to me. I live on South Coast

@Arbadacarba

If you find 'Look North' appearing on your TV after the main BBC news, that's a good sign that you're in Northern England.

We have Midlands today!

I also think anything above Birmingham

I’ve seen Sheffield and Manchester described as Northern cities too

The people who live in Sheffield and Manchester would consider themselves Northern. In England, there is a cultural difference between the north and south. I'm a Manc and I don't know anyone who would say "I'm from Manchester, so I'm a southerner".

The North to me is anywhere above Inverness. But then I live in Scotland.

Manchester is "down south".

Don’t really think of England vs Scotland, more just ‘north’ of Britain. Anything above Cambridge is the North, including Northampton. Then if I think about distinguishing Scotland and England, I consider the Edinburgh and border counties to be an enclave of the ‘south,’.

Writer and journalist Stuart Maconie argues that "there is no south of England... There's a bottom half of England... but there isn't a south in the same way that there's a north".[50] He goes on to state that "there's no conception of the south comparable to the north. Good or bad, 'the north' means something to all English people wherever they hail from... [to southerns] it means desolation, arctic temperatures, mushy peas, a cultural wasteland with limited shopping opportunities and populated by aggressive trolls. To northerners it means home, truth, beauty, valour, romance, warm and characterful people, real beer and decent chip shops. And in this we are undoubtedly biased, of course". This suggests that all people in England have biased views regarding the north–south divide.[51] Maconie says regarding on where the North starts that "Crewe is surely the gateway to the North", suggesting that Crewe is the most southern part of the north of England.[52]

from Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North%E2%80%93South_divide_in_England

Anything north of Nottingham is the north to me.

I saw a thread on here not that long ago with someone asking for good schools in the south west & someone said Putney 🤣
It’s all relative. I always think Oxford/Buckinghamshire/Northants are hard to pinpoint - not south, not the midlands, not south east either. Where are they?

Anything above Birmingham.

Anything north of Aberdeen.

Anywhere above Dundee.