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Where is the "northern line"?

Ian

From CoasterForce
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This crops up now and then, where do you think the north of England actually starts?

According HMRC, Northern England roughly (probably a bad choice of word :p) starts at Leicestershire.
Map_of_Northern_England.png


I'm not interested to know where it officially starts, but where YOU think it starts.

For me, north of Birmingham is The North.

And if anybody wants a stab at making a "funny" London Underground related joke regarding the Northern Line, feel free!
 
I would say Birmingham is the midlands.

The north starts at about South Yorkshire I'd say.

Round about Sheffield way.
 
Well, it's NOT Tottenham Court Road at the moment, which is REALLY annoying...

For me, north of Watford Gap is the Midlands, and then above about Stafford or Stoke is the REAL North. Probably Stoke because then below it you can count Derby and Nottingham as the Midlands, which they are. I'd refer to the Midlands as "up North", but, not "the North". The Midlands are a lot better than the actual North (which says it all for the actual North), so I like to keep them seperate. But, I could never think of the Black Country as the "North", because it's such a Midlands institution. Hell, most of it's in the WEST MIDLANDS. The clue is in the county name... Plus, saying anything above Birmingham is the North would mean I support a Northern Football team, and **** that for a laugh.

FUN FACT.

When I'm at home-home, I live pretty much in Watford Gap, well-known as the north/south divide. I can see it out my bedroom window. So, suffice to say, if I look on the left towards the south I see sunshine, hope and rich people, and if I look to the right I see desolation, factories billowing out smoke and things being deep-fried.
 
England, North??
You must be joking, the whole of England is to the south of me...
 
The Mersey divide for me - roughly, though I class Runcorn as being Northern, but the rest of Cheshire not really.

Essentially Lancashire (and ex-Lancashire (North Cheshire, Greater Manchester), Merseyside (I'll include the Wirral here to annoy people who live there) and Yorkshire are the lower boundary counties. Most of Cheshire and Leicestershire/Staffordshire/Derbyshire marking the upper bounds of the Midlands. Watford gap marks the end of the Midlands in my mind and the start of The South. Of course, if it's not South, it must be North; but that really is silly as there IS a Midlands.

For the pedants, the actual middle point of England is Lindley Hall Farm, Leicestershire. That's generally recognised as the most equidistant point from all sea around the island. If you put a rectangular map over England, then it's almost on a level with Stafford. So kind of anything south of Stafford is south, anything north is north :)
 
North of the Thames = north
North of the Watford Gap = NORTH


People start talking in funny accents north of the Watford Gap. If I have to ask people to repeat themselves, then it's NORTH! Birmingham is therefore NORTH.

NB: this is not a dig at the NORTH, it's more to do with my own failings in the ability of communication.

The NORTH is in fact a lovely place, boasting a full variety of rain, different names for common vegetables, a quaint attitude towards what foods should and can be fried, and a blasé attitude to the perils of alcoholism ;D
 
Mysterious Sue said:
North of the Thames = north
NB: this is not a dig at the NORTH, it's more to do with my own failings in the ability of communication.

I doubt you're the only one who fails to communicate with a thick accented Brummie...


And funny accents, pah, same can be said of the American accent...
 
I've never understood what's so hard to understand about the Brummie accent...?

It's just really, really slow, like everyone up there has had a stroke. Annoying as ****, but, easy to understand.

It's not like, Somerset <////3

But, the majority of English accents speaking the language we invented and you stole, are fine. No need to subtitle them like I hear a lot of Americans do. Morons.
 
loefet said:
England, North??
You must be joking, the whole of England is to the south of me...

**** YOU LOEFET, STEALING MY TITLE OF MOST NORTHERN MEMBER OF MIDLANDS MAYHEM 4!

Btw in relation to to topic I get lost when I leave my own street so asking me about places outside of there is just silly. This trait also get sillier when you work in an area that you have no clue on and ask for direction to another soliciter and they give you directions using street names... that are no where near you (and occasionally the wrong ones.)
 
Ben said:
I've never understood what's so hard to understand about the Brummie accent

Why they don't make an effort to just jolly well stop it!

That area just across the border from where I am is where I consider The North to start really, so basically Cheshire and up.
 
Birmingham is where it starts to get north for me.
Sheffield, Manchester are definitely north.

Newcastle may was well be Scotland as far as I'm concerned.

:D
 
What is Amy Winehouse's favourite tube stop?

High Barnet.......

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SK0QyHcCIw[/youtube]
 
Being from Milton Keynes, I'm quite Southern-Eastern-Midlandian-South Eastian-Londonian as nobody actually knows where to properly locate us.

However, I classify The North as starting in Leicester as upon my visit there for a football match, they all incorrectly chanted the F-word as fook instead of the traditional ****. That's northern for me. The line starts there.
 
ciallkennett said:
Being from Milton Keynes, I'm quite Southern-Eastern-Midlandian-South Eastian-Londonian as nobody actually knows where to properly locate us.

I think it's more that no-one wants to claim that MK is part of their area more than anything ;)
 
I've always classed myself as living in the North when I am at home (Manchester) but then it just seems weird that I can travel two and a half hours by car up to uni further North and still be in the same country (Durham near Newcastle). It's made me realise that maybe the North boundary is still pretty low down the country considering.
 
Sheffield. But then I hate that that would class Manc's as Northerners, but if I'm being honest I just don't like the West Side of the country.

I don't know why I've always favoured the East side, along with the North.

Yeah, Yorkshire+Boro+Newcastle all **** rule.
 
Nemesis Inferno said:
ciallkennett said:
Being from Milton Keynes, I'm quite Southern-Eastern-Midlandian-South Eastian-Londonian as nobody actually knows where to properly locate us.

I think it's more that no-one wants to claim that MK is part of their area more than anything ;)

Brilliant :lol:

I reckon the north starts just after Stoke-On-Trent. Anywhere between Stoke and Oxford, I classify as the Midlands.
 
ciallkennett said:
Being from Milton Keynes, I'm quite Southern-Eastern-Midlandian-South Eastian-Londonian as nobody actually knows where to properly locate us.

However, I classify The North as starting in Leicester as upon my visit there for a football match, they all incorrectly chanted the F-word as fook instead of the traditional ****. That's northern for me. The line starts there.

It's all a case of the masses against the classes :wink:
 
ciallkennett said:
Being from Milton Keynes, I'm quite Southern-Eastern-Midlandian-South Eastian-Londonian as nobody actually knows where to properly locate us.
I can locate Milton Keynes pretty easily. It's similar to Mordor on the maps for Middle Earth, it's just a big black hole of hell and despair. Once you're looking for that, finding Milton Keynes is easy.
 
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