I love asking UK, especially English, people this question; the answers vary wildly. Once had a Londoner describe the north as “anywhere north of the M25”.

So, lemmings, where is ‘the north’ to you?

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Roughly north of a line from the Mersey Dee to the Humber. If we use counties then the southern borders of Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire form the line.

    It’s essentially this:

    I highly recommend Rory Stewart’s documentary Border Country: The Story of Britain’s Lost Middleland if you can find it anywhere as it does a good job of looking at the North and how it is so strongly connected to Scotland, it’s really Hadrian’s Wall that divided us along an arbitrary geographical feature because it was easy to defend.

    edit: as much as I’d like to exclude Cheshire I am allowing them into the North, so changed Mersey to Dee.

    • blackn1ght@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      You could argue that some parts of North Lincolnshire are in the North. If you draw a line across, you’d be in the heart of Lancashire.

        • blackn1ght@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          I was actually going to mention that in my original comment. In my mind it kind of is in the midlands seeing as it aligns with the rest of the midlands.

          • sethboy66@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            In my mind geological barriers trump all imaginary lines. Latitudes means little when there’s 25 kilometers of water between you and the other side of land. Counties have irregular shapes mostly due to geographic features making it historically difficult to easily traverse over the areas that would become boundaries between two counties; cultural differences between these counties are a phenomenon that arises because of on-the-ground geography rather than imaginary latitudinal lines and to me, that’s why they take precedence.

  • m15otw@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    North of the Thames. This means I can claim I moved from South to North.

    In actuality the line is somewhere above Nottingham but below Stoke.

  • mannycalavera@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Once had a Londoner describe the north as “anywhere north of the M25”

    I mean, London’s a big city but I’ve never heard any Londoner say this in all my life living there. It’s always been “comedians” usually Northern ones as a cheeky insult to Londoners: “Oh look they don’t even know geography”. Which, to be fair, we probably don’t.

    Personally I’d say anything North of Sheffield is da Naaarth. Roughly anything above Wales.

    • sethboy66@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      This would mean that Liverpool isn’t in the North, and Manchester just barely squeaks by (though most of Manchester is at or below Sheffield Latitude). They all dance around 53.3-53.5^o Lat.

    • m15otw@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Where I come from, we played It. Pretty sure that was the south, even south of Thames.

      • HenrysCat@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        I stay in the Northern Isles, it’s always fun seeing what companies will deliver to us. Even more ridiculous is the fact I can order a battery charger with batteries no problem but they refuse to send the batteries on their own.

  • smeg@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Sheffield and above is North, Cambridge and below is South, in the middle is Midlands, lines are a bit wiggly.

    A lot of people just think about wealth/poshness and tend to think only in terms of proximity to London.

  • PaleRider@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Well I live in the absolute middle of the Midlands, so anything north of me is “The North” and anything south of me is “The South”.

    Simples.

  • Noit@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I’m a child from a broken home. One parent lived in Yorkshire, the other in the midlands. When they did handover, it was at Donington Park services, the approximate midpoint. Therefore my North begins not far north of Donington Park services.

    • blackbird@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Wow, that brings back memories, similar locations with one parent in Stockton the other further south and our ‘handover’ was a greasy spoon on the A1(M) called Haven cafe (now a just as shitty KFC or something). I think of mid as Leicester maybe, never really thought about a dividing point.