Northern England

In this image, Northern England is shown as blue, The Midlands as green and Southern England as yellow

Northern England, The North, The North of England or (less commonly) The North Country refers to the parts of England north of an ill-defined line. The North is considered by many to be a cultural region with an identity separate from that of the rest of England. The special cultural, political and economic characteristics of "the North" are, however, not universally agreed upon, nor are its geographical limits and stereotypes of the North mask the cultural, physical and historical differences within England's most varied region.

Definitions

Concepts of the North take account of perceived 'Northern' regional accents. Experts on historical dialects categorise as Northern the area north of a line that begins at the Humber estuary, runs up the river Wharfe and across to the River Lume in north Lancashire; however, the linguistic elements that traditionally defined this area, such as use of doon instead of down or substitution of an -ang noise in words that end -ong (e.g. lang instead of long), have now died out to the point where they are only heard in the rural far north of England. As speech has changed, there is little consensus on what defines a "Northern" accent or dialect.

The areas defined and formerly dominated by heavy industry and coal; and the characteristically wild, hilly landscape. Historically perceptions of the extent of the North have also been shaped by the region which historically was governed by the medieval Council of the North or that which falls into the ecclesiastical Province of York; or that part of England where has in recent time suffered from the post-industrial effects of low wages, house prices and human development indicators.

Geographical

In geographic definitions, the north of England is the area surrounding the Pennines, an upland chain often referred to as "the backbone of England". This region stretches from the Cheviot Hills on the border with Scotland, to the Peak District, and extends to the coast on either side. Although sometimes referred to as mountains, the Pennines are relatively small and are hence often referred to as hills or fells.

Government Office Regions

In some of the larger definitions, the north may be considered to constitute the three Government Office Regions of North East England, North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber. This area consists of the ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, County Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Yorkshire and part of Lincolnshire, however it would be unusual to consider the High Peak district of Derbyshire as anything but part of the North, even though it lies within the East Midlands Government Office Region.

Ancient counties

In some definitions, the north may be considered to constitute the six ancient counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, Westmorland, Durham, Lancashire and Yorkshire. This region coincides with the old Kingdom of Northumbria apart from those areas which were later absorbed into Scotland.

Ecclesiastical

In elder contexts northern England is sometimes defined by the ecclesiastical Province of York, which is administered by the Archbishop of York. The See includes the Isle of Man, which was at one time a part of Jorvik in contention with Dublin over said island and Galloway. A comparable perception in Roman Catholicism would be the Province of Liverpool.

Problems

However, all of these definitions lead to different geographical limits for the North of England.

The existence of huge variations between 'Northern' accents, of large pockets of extreme wealth in the 'North' and extreme poverty in the 'South', and of other notable discrepancies, have made the concept of a single 'North' extremely contentious.

People

The term "Northerners" is used to refer to people identified with the North, though it is often rejected by many because it incorrectly asserts a common identity across northern England. The term "northern" is often loosely used without any deeper consideration of the geographical identities of northern England, leading to confusion over the depth of affiliation between its areas.

As in much of the rest of England, people tend to have a deeper affiliation to their county or their City. Thus, Yorkshire people would be unlikely to feel much affinity with those from across the pennines in Lancashire. Similarly, there is a strong distinction between natives of Newcastle (Geordies) and those of Sunderland (mackems). A person from Cheshire may be likely to feel little or no shared identity with somebody from Northumberland simply because of a supposed shared "northernness".

Sport

See History of Rugby League

The sport of rugby experienced a schism in 1895 with many teams based in Yorkshire and surrounding areas breaking from the Rugby Football Union and forming their own League. The disagreement that led to the split was over the issue of professional payments, and "broken time" or injury payments. Until recent times, there has been a perception that 'league' was the code of rugby played in the north, whilst 'union' was the code played in the south.

History

The Romans called an area similar to some current definitions of northern England "Britannia Inferior" (Lower Britain) and ruled from the city of Eboracum (modern York). Brigantes occupied the region between the rivers Tyne and Humber. The sub capital held sway over the rest of the land north of there, which included for a brief period the part of the Scottish lowlands between Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall.

After the arrival of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, the North was divided into rival kingdoms: Bernicia and Deira. Bernicia covered lands north of the Tees, whilst Deira corresponded roughly to modern-day Yorkshire. Bernicia and Deira were first united as Northumbria by Aethelfrith, a king of Bernicia who conquered Deira around the year 604. The area west of the Pennines was divided into two Celtic kingdoms, Rheged (Cumbria and Lancashire) and Elmet (West Riding of Yorkshire). The north of England forms a large part of Hen Ogledd, Old Welsh for 'the Old North'. The north of England still retains a Celtic culture in some forms, and had its own Celtic language, Cumbric, spoken in the some parts (mostly the west) of northern England until around the 12th century.

The North and East of England was subject to Danish Law (Danelaw) during the Viking era, evidence of which can be found in the etymology of many place names and surnames in the area. Anglo-Norman aspirations in the Pale of Ireland have some roots in the Viking forays on the Irish Sea and the trade route which ran from York and crossing the Edinburgh-Glasgow area in Scotland, to Dublin in Ireland.

Historically the North used to have a measure of independence and was ruled over by the Council of the North, based at the King's Manor, York, set up in 1484 by Richard III. However decisions affecting the North of England have been made from London since this institution was abolished in 1641, although there is some measure of regional control in the form of local councils.

As the centre of the industrial revolution, Northern England has long been characterised by its industrial centres, from the mill towns of Lancashire, textile centres of Yorkshire, shipyards of the North East to the mining towns found throughout the North and the fishing ports along both east and west coasts. However, whilst the South of England has in general prospered economically, the north has, until now, remained relatively poor, although currently, there are many urban regeneration projects happening across northern towns and cities, hoping to address this imbalance, since five of the ten most populous cities in the United Kingdom lie in the North.

The picture is not clear-cut, however as the north has areas which are as wealthy if not wealthier than fashionable southern areas such as Surrey. Yorkshire's "Golden Triangle" which extends from north Leeds to Harrogate and across to York is an example, as is northern Cheshire.

See also

• Council of the North
• Harrying of the North
• Northumbria
• North-South divide in the United Kingdom
• Southern England
• The Northern Way