I've always assumed that the Watford mentioned as the beginning of "the North" was the Hertfordshire one, @barry island, rather than the village in Northamptonshire. But perhaps I'm mistaken...
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
People used to say that "the North" started at Watford Gap services if you were travelling up the M1, but that's a good way further south than Leicester and Nottingham which are East Midlands, so it was utter nonsense!
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I think it was a sort of joke in the S.E. (but mainly London) that as soon as you leave London anywhere past Watford (in Herts.) you're in the North of England
As soon as you join the M1 after navigating many roundabouts with signs like this-
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
When first married I lived in Middlesex and my in-laws lived in Northampton. I always swore the temperature in Northampton was at least 3 degrees lower than in Middlesex, no matter what time of the year.
@Pete.8 is right it's meant as a bit of a joke there's even a bit of banter goes on between sarf Lunnon and North London. I know I was pleasantly surprised when I moved across the Thames to find they had street lights and everything 😅 I know exactly where that picture is from, it's similar if you take the M4 signs to say the West. When my parents retired to Devon, they used to get irritated by weather reports saying "rain spreading from the West" which meant Ireland or Wales yet Devon and Cornwall are always referred to as " The West Country ". 🙄 BTW I was very confused just over a year ago to find that Dorset had spread East to include Bournemouth, when I spent a couple of summers there with my cousin ( we were both school age) it was definitely in Hampshire.
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As soon as you join the M1 after navigating many roundabouts with signs like this-
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
”My chief moan this week …” he’d say.
We called him the occluded front.
I know exactly where that picture is from, it's similar if you take the M4 signs to say the West.
When my parents retired to Devon, they used to get irritated by weather reports saying "rain spreading from the West" which meant Ireland or Wales yet Devon and Cornwall are always referred to as " The West Country ". 🙄
BTW I was very confused just over a year ago to find that Dorset had spread East to include Bournemouth, when I spent a couple of summers there with my cousin ( we were both school age) it was definitely in Hampshire.