A saltire (diagonal cross) may have been used as a symbol of Mercia as early as the reign of Offa.[1][bettersourceneeded] By the 13th century, the saltire had become the attributed arms of the Kingdom of Mercia.[2] The arms are blazonedAzure, a saltire Or, meaning a gold (or yellow) saltire on a blue field. The saltire is used as both a flag and a coat of arms. As a flag, it is flown from Tamworth Castle, the ancient seat of the Mercian kings.[1]
The flag also appears on street signs welcoming people to Tamworth, the "ancient capital of Mercia". It was also flown outside Birmingham Council House during 2009 while the Staffordshire Hoard was on display in the city before being taken to the British Museum in London. The cross has been incorporated into a number of coats of arms of Midlands towns, including Tamworth, Leek and Blaby. It was recognised as the Mercian flag by the Flag Institute in 2014.[4]
The unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire (not shown), while classed as part of the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire, actually come under the Yorkshire and the Humber region and are therefore not in the officially recognised East Midlands region.
The two regions of the Midlands have a combined population of 10,350,697 (2014 mid-year estimate),[10] and an area of 11,053sqmi (28,630km2).
Various parts of the Midlands, particularly Warwickshire and Leicestershire, are on occasion referred to as the Heart of England, especially in tourist literature given that the geographic centre of England is generally considered to lie within this arc.
Different areas of the Midlands have their own distinctive character, giving rise to many local history and industrial heritage groups. Nottingham played a notable part in the English Civil War, which is commemorated in a number of place names (Parliament Terrace, Parliament Street, Standard Hill). Areas such as Derbyshire's Amber Valley and Erewash combine attractive countryside with industrial heritage and are home to historic canals and sites associated with the mining industry. The Black Country, broadly the boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Walsall, played an important part in the Industrial Revolution.[citation needed]
The area is predominantly low-lying and flat apart from isolated hills such as Turners Hill within the Black Country conurbation at 271m (889ft) and the Wrekin just south of Wellington in Telford at 407m (1,335ft). Upland areas lie in the west and north of the region with the Shropshire Hills to the west, close to the England–Wales border and the Peak District area of the southern Pennines in the north of the region. The Shropshire Hills reach a height of 540m (1,771ft) at Brown Clee Hill and includes the Long Mynd, Clee Hills and Stiperstones ridge. Wenlock Edge, running through the middle of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), is a long, low ridge, which extends for over 15 miles (24km).[11] The Peak District reaches heights of between 300m (1,000ft) and 600m (2,000ft); Kinder Scout is the highest point at 636m (2,086ft).[12] Further south, the Welsh border reaches over 700m (2,000ft) high, at Twyn Llech (Black Mountain), which at 703m (2,306ft) is thus the highest point in Herefordshire.
Lincolnshire is the only coastal county in the Midlands as the region is bordered by Wales to the west. It is also where the Midlands' lowest points can be found as some places fall below sea level, with the lowest points being near Thorpe Tilney in North Kesteven and Stickford in East Lindsey.[16]
Climate
The Midlands has a temperate maritime climate, with cold, cloudy, wet winters and comfortable, mostly dry, mostly sunny summers.[17] The temperature usually ranges from −0.4°C (31.3°F) during winter nights to 24.1°C (75.4°F) during summer days. Due to its geographical location, which is furthest away from the coast than anywhere else in England, it typically receives mostly light winds, with warm days and cold nights. Sometimes the Midlands can have very cold nights such as a minimum of −18.7°C (−1.7°F) in Pershore on 20 December 2010. The previous day had a maximum of only −8.2°C (17.2°F), also in Pershore. Hot days are also possible, such as a maximum of 34°C (93°F) in Pershore on 19 July 2006. There can also be very mild winters nights, such as in Bidford-on-Avon when the temperature at 6 pm was as high as 15.2°C (59.4°F) on 9 January 2015. At 8 am the following morning the temperature was still at 13°C (55°F).[18][19][20] Both the highest and lowest temperature ever recorded in England were in the Midlands, the former on 19 July 2022 around Coningsby in Lincolnshire where it reached a maximum temperature of 40.3°C (104.5°F),[21] and the latter on 10 January 1982 around Newport in Shropshire where it dropped to a minimum of −26.1°C (−15.0°F).
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Due to being neither Northern England or Southern England, the Midlands have had cultural elements from both sides in the North–South divide, such as dialect[23] (see also West Midlands English and East Midlands English). A study has shown that some Midlands areas have traditionally had a dialect closer to "northern" but now more influenced by "southern".[24] In a binary choice, the Watford Gap is often considered the dividing point between the north and south of England, with most of the Midlands population sitting above this point.
Worcestershire is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands county to the north, Warwickshire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south, and Herefordshire to the west. The city of Worcester is the largest settlement and the county town.
Mercia was one of the three main Anglic kingdoms founded after Sub-Roman Britain was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlands of England.
Staffordshire is a landlocked ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south-east, the West Midlands county and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and the county town is Stafford.
The West Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of International Territorial Level for statistical purposes. It covers the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. The region consists of the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire. The region has seven cities; Birmingham, Coventry, Hereford, Lichfield, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton and Worcester.
Hereford and Worcester was an English non-metropolitan county created on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 from the areas of the former administrative county of Herefordshire, most of Worcestershire and the county borough of Worcester. An aim of the Act was to increase efficiency of local government: the two counties are among England's smaller and less populous counties, particularly after the same Act transferred some of Worcestershire's most urbanised areas to the West Midlands.
Warwickshire is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire to the south, and Worcestershire and the West Midlands county to the west. The largest settlement is Nuneaton and the county town is Warwick.
England is divided by a number of different regional schemes for various purposes. Since the creation of the Government Office Regions in 1994 and their adoption for statistical purposes in 1999, some historical regional schemes have become obsolete. However, many alternative regional designations also exist and continue to be widely used.
The West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust (WMAS UNHSFT) is responsible for providing NHS ambulance services within the West Midlands region of England. It is one of ten ambulance trusts providing England with emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service.
Girlguiding Midlands is one of the nine regions and countries of Girlguiding UK. The Midland Region HQ is on Lower Church Street in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The Chief Commissioner is currently Clare Shinton.
The War Damage Commission was a body set up by the British Government under the War Damage Act 1941 to pay compensation for war damage to land and buildings and " 'fixed' plant and machinery", throughout the United Kingdom. It was not responsible for the repairs themselves, which were carried out by local authorities or private contractors.
The administrative boundaries of Worcestershire, England have been fluid for over 150 years since the first major changes in 1844. There were many detached parts of Worcestershire in the surrounding counties, and conversely there were islands of other counties within Worcestershire. The 1844 Counties Act began the process of eliminating these, but the process was not completed until 1966, when Dudley was absorbed into Staffordshire.
Local transport bodies are partnerships of local authorities in England outside Greater London. There are 38 local transport bodies. They cover similar areas to local enterprise partnerships, but are not permitted to overlap each other. Decision making for major transport infrastructure spending is devolved to these bodies from the Department for Transport. They will receive funding from April 2015.
The North Midlands Rugby Football Union is a governing body for rugby union in part of The Midlands, England. The union is the constituent body of the Rugby Football Union for the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and the Greater Birmingham area.
Sovereign Mercia was an organisation that campaigned to establish a sovereign Mercian state in the English Midlands, and generally promoted the culture and identity of the region. Sovereign Mercia recognised the traditional Saint Alban's Cross charged with the white, double-headed Eagle of Leofric as the Mercian national flag, and proposed Life is a Beautiful Book as the Mercian national anthem, since it was used as the ATV Midlands start-up theme and therefore has a strong regional association.
The Midland Counties Football Union was a governing body for rugby union in The Midlands, England from 1879 to 1920.
↑ Calculated using data from WorldClim.org.Hijmans, R.J.; Cameron, S.E.; Parra, J.L.; Jones, P.G.; Jarvis, A. (2005). "Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology". 25: 1965–1978.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
Allen, R.C. Enclosure and the Yeoman: the Agricultural Development of the South Midlands 1450-1850 (Oxford UP, 1992)
Beckett, John V. The East Midlands from AD 1000 (Addison-Wesley Longman, 1988).
Bennett, Michael J. "Sir Gawain and the green knight and the literary achievement of the north-west Midlands: the historical background." Journal of Medieval History 5.1 (1979): 63–88.
Betteridge, Alan. Deep Roots, Living Branches: A History of Baptists in the English Western Midlands (Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2010).
Dewindt, Edwin Brezett, and Edwin Brezette DeWindt. Land and people in Holywell-cum-Needingworth: structures of tenure and patterns of social organization in an East Midlands village, 1252-1457 (PIMS, 1972).
Donnelly, Tom, Jason Begley, and Clive Collis. "The West Midlands automotive industry: the road downhill." Business History 59.1 (2017): 56-74 online.
Finberg, H.P.R. The early charters of the West Midlands (Leicester University Press, 1972).
Gelling, Margaret. The West Midlands in the Early Middle Ages (Leicester UP, 1992).
Hilton, R. H. A Medieval Society: The West Midlands at the End of the Thirteenth Century (1987) online review
Jones, Peter M. Industrial Enlightenment: Science, technology and culture in Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760–1820 (2017) online.
Laughton, Jane, Evan Jones, and Christopher Dyer. "The urban hierarchy in the later Middle Ages: a study of the East Midlands." Urban history (2001): 331–357.
McWhirr, A. L. A. N. The Early Military History of the Roman East Midlands (1970) online.
Money, John. "Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760-1793: Politics and Regional Identity in the English Provinces in the Later Eighteenth Century." Midland History 1.1 (1971): 1–19.
Money, John. Experience and Identity: Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760-1800 (Manchester University Press, 1977).
Rowlands, Marie B. The West Midlands from AD 1000 (3 vol, Longman, 1987).
Somerset, Alan. "New Historicism: Old History Writ Large? Carnival, Festivity and Popular Culture in the West Midlands." Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England 5 (1991): 245–255. online
Stafford, Pauline. The East Midlands in the Early Middle Ages ( Leicester University, 1985).
Stobart, Jon. "Regions, Localities, and Industrialisation: Evidence from the East Midlands Circa 1780–1840." Environment and Planning A 33.7 (2001): 1305–1325.
Tompkins, Matthew. Peasant society in a midlands manor, Great Horwood 1400-1600 (PhD Diss. U of Leicester, 2006) online.
Townsend, Claire. "County versus region? Migrational connections in the East Midlands, 1700–1830." Journal of Historical Geography 32.2 (2006): 291–312.
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