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A
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    edit-2
    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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      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.

      • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝A
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        You could use the same argument to suggest that most of Norfolk is in the Midlands, but it isn’t.

        • blackn1ght
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          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
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            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.

    • frazorth
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Those bloody Northerners in Westminster!

    • Angry_Badger@lemmy.fmhy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yep, whenever I cross Dartford bridge I always comment to my wife that we’re currently in the Midlands. She doesn’t find me funny…

  • m15otw
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    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
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      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.

  • Huffkin
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    For me the North is where you play tig, the South is where you play tag

    • m15otw
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

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

      • HenrysCat
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        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.

  • LordWarfire
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I drove past Watford Gap yesterday, that felt like leaving the South.

  • smeg
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    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
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    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.

  • MuckleWiggles
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Living in the North of Scotland and listening to people referring to anywhere north of Watford Gap as “The North” will always elicit a raised eyebrow from me.

    Oh my sweet southern children, what do you know of the true north? Where the sun hides it’s face for weeks at a time…

    • smeg
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Northerners are basically Scots, Scots are basically Vikings, Southerners are basically French

      • starlinguk@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        You do realise York comes from the word “Yorvik” and that ze French never made it that far north, right?

        • smeg
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          I was going largely by geographic proximity rather than conquest. Also if you’re suggesting that Yorkshire is in the South then they won’t be happy with that!

    • mackwinston
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      If we consider GB as a whole, you’re still in the southern half of Great Britain until you get almost up to Carlisle. Manchester, Liverpool, Yorkshire etc. which are all considered “up north” are very much south of this.