Midlands
See also Midlands (disambiguation).In general, the midlands of a territory are its central regions. The
Midlands (with a capital
M) usually means the
English Midlands, which broadly correspond to the early-medieval kingdom of
Mercia.
The area lies between
Southern England,
Northern England,
East Anglia and
Wales, and is generally considered to include the
counties of
Derbyshire,
Herefordshire,
Leicestershire,
Lincolnshire,
Northamptonshire,
Nottinghamshire,
Rutland,
Shropshire,
Staffordshire,
Warwickshire, the
West Midlands and
Worcestershire.
|
The two Government Office Regions of West and East Midlands. |
The Midlands is often divided into the
West Midlands and
East Midlands. These are both administrative
regions of England, but do not fully cover the traditional region of the Midlands. They exclude parts of northern Lincolnshire, now part of
Yorkshire and the Humber, and
Peterborough, which was once part of Northamptonshire but is now included with
Cambridgeshire in the
East of England Region.
Its largest
conurbation, which includes the cities of
Birmingham and
Wolverhampton, is approximately covered by the
West Midlands metropolitan county although this also includes
Coventry. Confusingly this is a much smaller area than the West Midlands region. Parts of the East Midlands are also densely populated, particularly the triangle formed by the cities of
Leicester,
Nottingham and
Derby.
Gloucestershire and
Oxfordshire are also sometimes considered to be part of the Midlands, albeit at the far southern edge (the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica describes Gloucestershire as "west midland",
Bedfordshire as "south midland", and
Huntingdonshire as "east midland" counties respectively.)
Cheshire is not generally considered to be in the Midlands, but rather a part of the
North West.
The
South Midlands is an area identified by the government for development, consisting of
Northamptonshire and
Bedfordshire with northern
Buckinghamshire. Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire are not usually considered part of the Midlands and are in the administrative regions of the
South East and the
East of England respectivelyâ€"a further illustration of the fluidity of the perceived boundaries of the Midlands.
*
Alfreton*
Birmingham,
Boston,
Burton upon Trent,
Buxton*
Chesterfield,
Corby,
Coventry*
Derby,
Dudley*
Gainsborough,
Gloucester,
Grantham*
Hereford,
Hucknall*
Kettering,
Kidderminster*
Leamington Spa,
Leicester,
Lichfield,
Lincoln,
Loughborough*
Mansfield,
Matlock*
Newark,
Newcastle-under-Lyme,
Northampton,
Nottingham,
Nuneaton*
Oxford*
Peterborough*
Redditch,
Ripley,
Rugby*
Shrewsbury,
Stafford,
Stoke-on-Trent,
Stratford-on-Avon,
Solihull*
Tamworth,
Telford*
Walsall,
Warwick,
Wolverhampton,
Worcester,
Worksop*
Official map of the Midlands, ODPM
