Northern England, also known as the North of England, or as the North, is a cultural region Cultural region is a term used mainly in the fields of anthropology and geography. Specific cultures often do not limit their geographic coverage to the borders of a nation state, or to smaller subdivisions of a state. To 'map' a culture, we often have to identify an actual 'cultural region', and when we do this we find that it bears little of England The area now called England has been settled by people of various cultures for about 35,000 years, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant. It is not a government administrative region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties Counties of England are areas used for the purposes of administrative, geographical and political demarcation. All of England is divided into 48 ceremonial counties, which are also known as geographic counties. Many of these counties have their origins in antiquity, although some were established as recently as 1974. Outside Greater London and the. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent The River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire between Biddulph and Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham,^[4] while the north is bordered by Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland. At times in history the Isle of Man The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann (Manx: Mannin, [ˈmanɪn]), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The island is, today a Crown dependency The Crown Dependencies are possessions of The Crown in Right of the United Kingdom, as opposed to overseas territories of the United Kingdom. They comprise the Channel Island bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel, and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, has been geopolitically linked with the region and for some cultural aspects remains so. The counties of Northern England combined have a population of around 14.5 million covering an area of 37,331 km2 (14,414 sq mi).

During antiquity most of the area was part of Brigantia—homeland of the Brigantes The Brigantes were a Celtic tribe who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of Northern England and a significant part of the Midlands. Their kingdom is sometimes called Brigantia, and it was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire. Ptolemy lists the Brigantes also as a tribe in Ireland, where they could be found around Wexford, and the largest Brythonic kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 61.8 million people in mid-2009, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets. The island of. After the Roman conquest of Britain By AD 43, the time of the main Roman invasion of Britain, Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. In common with other regions on the edge of the empire, Britain had enjoyed diplomatic and trading links with the Romans in the century since Julius the city of York York (locally /ˈjɔːk/ ) is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence became capital of the area, called Britannia Inferior Britannia Inferior was a subdivision of the Roman province of Britannia established c.214 by the emperor Caracalla, son of Septimius Severus. Located in modern northern England, the region was governed from the city of Eboracum by a praetorian legate in command of a single legion stationed in the city. This subdivision of Britannia lasted then Britannia Secunda. In Sub-Roman Britain Sub-Roman Britain is a term derived from an archaeological label for the material culture of Britain in Late Antiquity: the term "Sub-Roman" was invented to describe the potsherds in sites of the 5th century and the 6th century, initially with an implication of decay of locally-made wares from a higher standard under the Roman Empire. It new Brythonic kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd Yr Hen Ogledd is a Welsh term used by scholars to refer to those parts of what is now northern England and southern Scotland in the years between 500 and the Viking invasions of c. 800, with particular interest in the Brythonic-speaking peoples who lived there emerged. An Angle In geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle. The magnitude of the angle is the "amount of rotation" that separates the two rays, and can be measured by considering the length of circular arc swept out when one ray is rotated about the vertex to coincide with the other ruling elite created Bernicia Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England and Deira Deira was a kingdom in Northern England during the 6th century AD. It extended from the Humber to the Tees, and from the sea to the western edge of the Vale of York. It later merged with the kingdom of Bernicia to the north to form the kingdom of Northumbria from which came Northumbria Northumbria is primarily the name of both a medieval kingdom of the Angles people, in what is now north east England and southern Scotland, and of the earldom which succeeded it when a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom became England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory: the Humber Estuary and a Golden Age in cultural, scholarly and monastic activity, centered around Lindisfarne Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England also known as Holy Island, the name of the civil parish. According to one place-name authority, the name originates in Old English, and means "island [of the] travellers from Lindsey", indicating that the island was settled from Lindsey, or possibly that its inhabitants and aided by Irish monks.^[5] Norse Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language and Gaelic Viking The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse (Scandinavian) explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, and settled in wide areas of Europe and the North Atlantic islands from the late eighth to the mid-eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga raiders gained control of much of the area, inserting the Danelaw The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to be geographical. The—during this time there were close relations with Mann and the Isles The Kingdom of Mann and the Isles was a Norse kingdom that existed in the British Isles between 1079 and 1266, and whose kings were vassals of the King of Norway, Dublin and Norway After World War II, Norway experienced rapid economic growth, with the first two decades due to the Norwegian shipping and merchant marine and domestic industrialization, and from the early 1970s, a result of exploiting large oil and natural gas deposits that had been discovered in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Today, Norway ranks as the. Northumbria was unified with the rest of England under Eadred Eadred was the King of England from 946 until his death in 955. He was a son of Edward the Elder by his third marriage, to Eadgifu, daughter of Sigehelm, ealdorman of Kent around 952.

With the Norman conquest The Norman conquest of England began in 1066 with the invasion of the Kingdom of England by the troops of William, Duke of Normandy, and his victory at the Battle of Hastings. This resulted in Norman control of England, which was firmly established during the next few years in 1066, desolation was brought with the Harrying of the North The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate Northern England, and is part of the Norman conquest of England. It effectively ended the quasi-independence of the region through wide-scale destruction that resulted in the relative "pacification" of the local. Though much construction and town founding was done shortly after. A Council of the North The Council of the North was an administrative body originally set up in 1485 by king Richard III of England, the last Yorkist monarch to hold the Crown of England; its intention was to improve government control and economic prosperity, to benefit the entire area of Northern England. Throughout its history, the council was always located within was in place during the Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe European history in the period of the 14th and 15th centuries . The Late Middle Ages were preceded by the High Middle Ages, and followed by the Early Modern era (Renaissance) until the Commonwealth The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653-1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. After the English Civil War and the execution of Charles I, the republic's existence was initially declared by An Act declaring England to be a after the Civil War The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first (1642–46) and second (1648–49) civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war (1649–51) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II. The area experienced Anglo–Scottish border fighting until the unification of Britain The history of the formation of the United Kingdom has involved personal and political union across Great Britain and the wider British Isles. The United Kingdom is the most recent of a number of sovereign states that have been established in Great Britain at different periods in history, in different combinations and under a variety of polities under the Stuarts The House of Stuart, also known as the House of Stewart, is an important European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century. Their direct ancestors had held the title High Steward of Scotland since the 12th century, after arriving by route of Norman.

Definitions

Linguistically

Concepts of the North take account of perceived "Northern" regional accents There are many different accents and dialects throughout England and people are often very proud of their local accent or dialect, but there are many associated prejudices— illustrated by George Bernard Shaw's comment:. Experts on historical dialects categorise as Northern the area north of a line that begins at the Humber estuary, and runs up the river Wharfe and across to the River Lune in north Lancashire.^[6] However, the linguistic elements that traditionally defined this area, such as use of doon instead of down and substitution of an -ang noise in words that end -ong (e.g. lang instead of long), are now only prevalent in the more northern parts of the region; these linguistic features may reflect a more modern interpretation of where the line sits today. As speech has changed, there is little consensus on what defines a "Northern" accent or dialect.

Geographically

The North of England may also be considered as the area (from coast to coast) surrounding the Pennines The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range in Northern England and Southern Scotland. They separate the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East, an upland chain often referred to as "the backbone of England". This stretches from the Cheviot Hills The Cheviot Hills are a range of rolling hills straddling the England/Scotland border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders on the border with Scotland to the Peak District. The areas defined were formerly dominated by heavy industry and mineral extraction and processing. Combined with the characteristically wild, hilly landscape of the region, this has led to the popular conception of it being "grim up North".

It is an area of extreme landscapes. There are several belts of urbanisation, many of which form one larger belt that runs from Liverpool to Leeds along the M62 The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 and E22 (Holyhead to Ishim). The road is 107 miles (172 km) long;; for 7 miles (11 km), it shares its route with the M60 motorway around corridor, then heading south to Sheffield along the M1 The M1 is a major north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the Preston Bypass, which later became part of the M6 corridor. There are further agglomerations in the North East and east of Preston. Around eleven million people live in The Northern Way, most in its largest cities Leeds Coordinates: 53°47′59″N 1°32′57″W / 53.79972°N 1.54917°W Leeds (pronounced /ˈliːdz/ ) is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city had a population of 770,800 (2008 est.). Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial, Sheffield Sheffield (pronounced /ˈʃɛfiːld/ ) is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base. The population of the City of, Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880. Liverpool is the fourth largest city in the United Kingdom (third largest in England) and has a population of 435,500, and lies at the centre of the wider, Bradford Bradford (pronounced /ˈbrædfərd/ ) lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, 8.6 miles (13.8 km) west of Leeds, and 16 miles (25.7 km) northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a and Manchester Manchester (pronounced /ˈmæntʃɛstə/ ) is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2008, the population of the city was estimated to be 464,200, making it the seventh-most populous local authority district in England. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas; the metropolitan county of Greater.

Government Office Regions

The North might also be considered to include the three Government Office Regions The English Regions, also known as the Government Office Regions, are currently the highest tier of sub-national government entity of England, used by central Government for statistical purposes. One of the regions, London, has a directly elected assembly. The other eight regions have Local Authority Leaders’ Boards, which have limited powers of North East England North East England is one of the nine official regions of England and comprises the combined area of Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Tees Valley . The main city in the region is Newcastle upon Tyne. Other towns in the area are: Gateshead, Sunderland, South Shields, Durham, Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Hartlepool and, North West England North West England is one of the nine official regions of England. It has a population of 6,853,200 and comprises five ceremonial counties of England – Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, and Cheshire and Yorkshire and the Humber Yorkshire and the Humber is one of the nine government office regions of England. It covers most of the historic county of Yorkshire, along with the part of northern Lincolnshire that was, from 1974 to 1996, within the former shire county of Humberside. The population in 2006 was 5,142,400. This area consists of the ceremonial counties of Cheshire Cheshire's area is 2,343 square kilometres and its population is just over a million. Apart from the large towns along the River Mersey and the historic city of Chester, it is mostly rural, with a number of small towns and villages that support an agricultural industry. It is historically famous for the production of Cheshire cheese, salt, bulk, Cumbria Cumbria, the third largest ceremonial county in England, by area, is bounded to the west by the Irish Sea, to the south by Lancashire, to the southeast by North Yorkshire, and to the east by County Durham and Northumberland. Scotland lies directly to the north, County Durham The ceremonial county borders Tyne and Wear, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Northumberland and forms part of the North East England region, East Riding of Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Yorkshire and part of Lincolnshire. The High Peak district of Derbyshire (which has former areas of Cheshire within its boundaries) would also often be considered as part of the North,^{[citation needed]} even though it lies within the East Midlands Government Office Region.^[7][8][9] The Government office regions may also include North of England Inward Investment Agency which is a UK government sponsored agency that represents two Regional Development Agencies in North England: Northwest Regional Development Agency(NWDA) and One Northest (ONE).

Ancient counties

Alternatively, the North might be considered to comprise the six ancient counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, Westmorland, Durham, Lancashire and Yorkshire. The eastern part of this region coincides with the old Kingdom of Northumbria apart from those areas which were later absorbed into Scotland.

Ecclesiastical

Northern England is sometimes defined to coincide with the ecclesiastical Province of York, which is overseen by the Archbishop of York. The See includes the Isle of Man, which in ecclesiastical terms is the see of Sodor and Man and was at one time a part of Jorvik in contention with Dublin over said island and Galloway. A comparable definition in Roman Catholic terms would be the Province of Liverpool.^[10]

People

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 have a traditional rivalry with people from Lancashire, even though people from both areas recognise a shared "Northern" identity. Similarly, there is a strong distinction between natives of Sunderland (Mackems) and those of Newcastle (Geordies). A person from Cheshire may feel little or no shared identity with somebody from Northumberland simply because of a supposed shared "northernness".

Sport

Rugby

The sport of rugby experienced a schism in 1895 with many teams based in Yorkshire, Lancashire and surrounding areas breaking from the Rugby Football Union and forming their own Rugby League. The disagreement that led to the split was over the issue of professional payments, and "broken time" or injury payments.

History

The Romans called an area similar to northern England "Britannia Inferior" (Lower Britain) and it was ruled from the city of Eboracum (modern York). The 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 the eastern half of modern-day Yorkshire. Bernicia and Deira were first united as Northumbria by Aethelfrith, a king of Bernicia who conquered Deira around the year 604. An area east and 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 the Hen Ogledd, Welsh for 'Old North'. The north of England still retains vestiges of a Celtic culture, 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 was controlled from London by the Council of the North, based at the King's Manor, York, set up in 1484 by Richard III. However the major decisions affecting the North of England have been made entirely in London since this institution was abolished in 1641.

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 much of the South and east of England has in general prospered economically, the north and west have remained relatively poor, consequently there are currently many government subsidised urban regeneration projects happening across northern towns and cities, hoping to exploit the lack of private investment in the area. 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. Equally, counties such as Cornwall share the relative economic deprivation often associated with the North.

Religion

Christianity is the largest religion in Northern England and has been since the Early Middle Ages, though its existence on the island dates back to the Roman introduction in antiquity and continued through Early Insular Christianity. The Holy Island of Lindisfarne played an essential role in the Christianisation of Northumbria, after Aidan from Connacht founded a monastery there as the first Bishop of Lindisfarne on the request of King Oswald.^[11] It is known for the creation of the Lindisfarne Gospels and remains a site of pilgrimage to this day.^[12][13] Paulinus as part of the Gregorian mission became the first Bishop of York. It was at the Synod of Whitby that calucations of Easter were brought in line with Roman calculations. In the modern day the three main forms of Christianity practiced are Anglicanism, Latin Rite of the Catholic Church and Methodism. In terms of ecclesiastical administration for the Church of England the entire north is covered by the Province of York, which is represented by the Archbishop of York. Likewise, with the exception of old Cheshire the north is covered in Catholic Church administration by the Province of Liverpool represented by the Archbishop of Liverpool.

Flag

Many areas of Northern England possess their own flags, but there is no official flag for the region as a whole. In 2003 a flag was proposed for the region, the Flag of the North of England which comprises the cross of St George in a Nordic cross format to symbolise the historical links to Scandinavia, with the colours of the flag of England to symbolise the links to the rest of England.^[14]

See also

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

Sources

Footnotes

1. ^ "HM Revenue & Customs Advice Teams - Northern England". HMRC.gov.uk. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/bst/north.htm. Retrieved on 23 February 2009.
2. ^ "Why are they important?". NorthumbrianAssociation.com. http://www.northumbrianassociation.com/lindisfarne/why_are_they_important.html. Retrieved on 23 February 2009.
3. ^ Palgrave, History of England, 124.
4. ^ "Entire Catchment Flood Modelling as a Planning Tool – River Trent Case Study". Glenelg Hopkins CMA. http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:h1Vpf_g_nm0J:glenelg-hopkinsvicgovau.ascetinteractive.com.au/images/file/Joel%2520Leister%2520-%2520Entire%2520Catchment%2520Flood%2520Modelling%2520as%2520a%2520Planning%2520Tool.doc+River+Trent+%22northern+england%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=uk&client=firefox-a. Retrieved on 23 February 2009.
5. ^ "Historical background to The Golden Age". Golden Age of Northumbria. http://www.goldenageofnorthumbria.com/history.html. Retrieved on 23 February 2009.
6. ^ See, for example, John Wells, Accents of English Volume 2, pages 349-350, or Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England, pages 39-41
7. ^ Vision of Britain - Constituents of North East
8. ^ Vision of Britain - Constituents of North West
9. ^ Vision of Britain - Constituents of Yorkshire and the Humber
10. ^ Royal College of St. Alban, Valladolid - The five provinces of England and Wales
11. ^ "The Religious History of Lindisfarne". Lindisfarne.org.uk. http://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/general/aidan.htm. Retrieved on 23 February 2009.
12. ^ "The Easter Walking Pilgrimage to Holy Island". NorthernCross.co.uk. http://www.northerncross.co.uk/about.htm. Retrieved on 23 February 2009.
13. ^ "The history of The Gospels". BBC.co.uk. http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/features/gospels/gospels_tense_past.shtml. Retrieved on 23 February 2009.
14. ^ "North of England flag". Flags of the World. 1 October 2008. http://flagspot.net/flags/gb-e-n.html. Retrieved 2008-12-05.

References

• Palgrave, Francis (1831). History of England. Harvard University.
• Russell, Dave (2004). Looking North: Northern England and the National Imagination. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719051789.
• Ehland, Christoph (2007). Thinking Northern: Textures of Identity in the North of England. Editions Rodopi BV. ISBN 9042022817.

Categories: Regions of England | Northumbria

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