The Great North/South Divide

I think the North/South divide, the hostility that is, dates from the Danelaw.

Great Yorkshire minds, tha knows, Maple, lass!?

Why are you offended by this lizzie ? At a loss to understand.

The South = London and Surrey

Kent and Sussex are the South to those that live there. We have a coast line Surrey dosen't

I live in the North-East - over 40 miles from Aberdeen. To people here, Northumbria is the North-East of England. Yes, it's all relative.

What happened to Hampshire and Berkshire, Essex & Kent! ?
I know Rutland & Middlesex got wiped but thought we still had Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire, Wiltshire, Somerset etc etc!!
I have lived in NE England and South London & Surrey. There are differences in local culture but much more similarity in the people.

To me, the north means north of Yorkshire, which is a region on its own, south of Yorkshire is the Midlands and south of that is London and South East

All these definitions seem to leave out that broad swathe of counties that run from Hertfordshire through Beds, Bucks, Oxon, Bucks, Berks, Wilts etc, which are not really South east (south and east of London),nor west of England,(Dorset and westwards). If anything I would call us South Central

Lily what is wrong with Carlisle? It is quite a pleasant town and the surrounding area is lovely and not over populated like a lot of the south.

I lived in Carlisle between the ages of 5 and 7. My main memory is that it is very cold there in winter and my little sister used to cry all the way to school and back because of the school

Oh, yes, summer outings to Talkin Tarn. I once had a door in the public loos there slam on my fingers, remember those big old heavy doors with a great brass penny operated locks? It was quite painful and three of my finger nails eventually died off, although they regrew.

Mostly locals with their sarth east London accents!

my sister cried because of the cold, NOT the school.

Yes Monica, I know exactly where you mean. Once I was there and somebody threw a carved wooden figure into my car. A roughly carved , evil looking man playing a violin. It was the strangest thing.

Sounds more like Royston Vasey than Carlisle! Were they local?

I used to think there was The South and The Noth and I’d lived in both.
Then my daughter went to work in Bournville and it turned out there was a huge area called The Midlands, in between South and North. I was amazed!

I used to love the way road signs in Scotland would have an arrow to “The South” - anywhere beyond the Carter Bar.
Or people’s children would grow up and move “down South” that could be Ponteland!

The Danelaw divided England vertically, not horizontally. Everything east of a line roughly from the Wirral peninsula to, and including Essex was in the Danelaw, everything to the west and south was not. So it was not thee original begetter of the north/south divide.

Monica with all due respect you are condemning Yorkshire to the status of some sort of geographical no mans land. If Manchester and Liverpool are designated as being in the North West (note the use of the word North) and if the northern border of Derbyshire is designated as being where the Midlands ends, it makes no sense that Yorkshire is not part of the North.

Grey, thats the thing. The figure was thrown into a car. I didn't see anybody.

Yorkshire, as every person born there knows, is the centre of the universe and God's own county. Which means that the South is south of Yorkshire and the North is North of it.

Midlands = Birmingham & Wolverhampton
ah, no, it stretches right up to Stoke-on-Trent and all those lovely places in between. It includes some of the Peak District too! It starts in lovely Herefordshire.

Birmingham and Wolverhampton are just about in the middle of the Midlands

As for the 'West Country ' - West Country = those nice places that are far away - it's just accessible for everywhere.



I agree, North East is North East England. Scotland is Scotland.

West Country those nice places that are far away
not if you live there

lemongrove I'm not offended. I'm just amazed and amused that, in our tiny island, some places are still regarded as outlandish, especially "The North". I think many people imagine us standing on our doorsteps in our pinnies, arms folded, hair in curlers under a turban-style headscarf and our stockings rolled down to the ankle. Our menfolk are wearing flat caps and braces and have a whippet on a piece of string! ? That was ten years ago. We're bang up to date these days! ??☺

Years ago I think it was Private Eye which published a “map” of Great Britain. Round about Watford there was marked “ox carts start here”
Says it all!

I know Rutland & Middlesex got wiped
We used to live in Middlesex
Strange that, it doesn't exist but we lived there

Lizzypopbottle
Just the same as people who don't know south London thinks everyone pronounces it sarf