Made in Manchester and Stockport: Sir Joseph Whitworth (1803-87), engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist, created a standard for screw threads for nuts and bolts, allowing components to become interchangeable and laying the foundation of modern mass production. 1/9 With other precision engineers, he pioneered a manufacturing revolution that transformed Britain from a craft economy to a fully mechanised one within two generations. 2/9

Made in Manchester: Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960) was a suffragette and socialist who fell out with her mother Emmeline and older sister Christabel over the direction of the movement. 1/8 She was born in Old Trafford, second child of Emmeline and Richard Pankhurst. She attended Manchester High School for Girls and trained as an artist at Manchester Art School and the Royal College of Art. 2/8

Made in Manchester: Emily Williamson (1855-1936) co-founded the Society for the Protection of Birds at her home in Didsbury because she was angry about being barred from the all-male British Ornithologists’ Union. 1/6 Her all-female group aimed to discourage women from wearing feathers on dresses and hats; they objected not only to destruction of bird populations that resulted from demand for feathers, but also to cruelty involved in the trade. 2/6

Made in Ashton and Wigan: George Formby senior (1875-1921) was among the best-known of Lancashire's rich seam of music hall comedians, born into poverty in Ashton-under-Lyne. 1/6 He played characters including 'John Willie', an archetypical gormless Lancashire lad, accident-prone but muddling through, whose cane twirl and ducklike walk allegedly inspired Charlie Chaplin. 2/6

1911 can be seen as northern England’s high point, relative to the rest of the UK. In that year its share of England’s population peaked at 36.5%. But the seeds of relative industrial decline had already taken root. 1/5 The north was over-dependent on industries such as textiles, coal mining, iron, steel, shipbuilding. Some were not innovating as fast as their global competitors and the region was not developing new ones. 2/5

A football match in 1599 between men of Bewcastle, England, and Armstrongs of Whithaugh, Scotland, was followed by ‘drynkyng hard’. Final score was two dead, 30 taken prisoner ‘and many sore hurt, especially John Whytfeild, whose bowells came out, but are sowed up againe’. 1/5 The Middle Ages brought 600 years of border warfare. Daniel Defoe wrote on his tour through Northumberland in 1724: ‘Every place shews you ruin’d castles, Roman altars, inscriptions, monuments of battles, of heroes killed, and armies routed. 2/5

Climate, geography and geology have shaped the north’s story. Archaeologist Cyril Fox in the 1930s identified a highland-lowland divide, described by some as a ‘Jurassic divide’. A ridge of Jurassic limestone runs from Dorset to the Yorkshire coast. 1/11 To the north-west lie largely hills and harder rocks, suitable for pastoral farming such as raising sheep; the south-east has more arable farming. Pastoral communities tended to be isolated farmsteads or small hamlets, while arable communities created larger villages. 2/11

OK, here's my liberal, inclusive take on this vexed question. The north is where people who live in a place think they are in the north, not where someone else thinks they are. A northerner is someone who thinks of themself as a northerner. 1/9

https://twitter.com/GroomB/status/1602960239611052032

The north has rarely been a single administrative unit, so it’s a cultural question. In so far as boundaries have been drawn for one purpose or another, these have shifted bewilderingly over the centuries. 2/9

The Industrial Revolution from about 1760 to 1840 was transformative yet also horrific. Suddenly northern England, frequently written off as backward, was starring in the key global event. (Pic: Marshall's flax mill, Leeds) 1/6 This allowed populations to grow and living standards to rise - eventually - without a Malthusian check from disease or famine. But it also brought wrenching social change. Conditions in towns were gruesome, though also bad in the rural areas people left behind. 2/6

Halifax-born Wilfred Pickles was invited to read the national news early in WW2, apparently because Brendan Bracken, minister of information, believed that a northern voice would be an inclusive gesture and would be difficult for German propagandists to impersonate. 1/7 Although BBC research found Pickles’ reading popular, a torrent of abuse came through the post from people who claimed that his delivery undermined the credibility of the bulletin. 2/7

Leeds benefited from migrants such as Montague Burton, a Lithuanian Jew who came to escape pogroms. After starting his tailoring chain in Sheffield, he moved operations to Leeds. By mid-20th century his Burmantofts works was thought to be the world’s largest clothing factory. 1/6 Australian cricketer Don Bradman being measured for a Burton's suit in 1938. 2/6

A football match in 1599 between men of Bewcastle, England, and Armstrongs of Whithaugh, Scotland, was followed by ‘drynkyng hard’. Final score was two dead, 30 taken prisoner ‘and many sore hurt, especially John Whytfeild, whose bowells came out, but are sowed up againe’. 1/5 The Middle Ages brought 600 years of border warfare. Daniel Defoe wrote on his tour through Northumberland in 1724: ‘Every place shews you ruin’d castles, Roman altars, inscriptions, monuments of battles, of heroes killed, and armies routed. 2/5