Q: ARE Manchester and Liverpool really part of the North? I understand they were once part of the Midlands. I know that York was once part of Northumbria but what about Leeds and Sheffield? - J Anderson, Houghton-le-Spring.

A: THERE were no real populous cities in ancient Northumbria. York was the main centre of population and capital of the kingdom but it shared this role with Bamburgh. However, your question is interesting because Manchester and Liverpool were part of Northumbria but, like Sheffield in the east, they were on the frontier of the kingdom.

Significant defensive ditches protecting the old Northumbrian border can be traced on the outskirts of Manchester and Sheffield. Further north, Leeds was firmly in Northumbria for most of the kingdom's history but, in the earliest period, Leeds was a Celtic tribal area called Leodis and perhaps part of the wider Celtic kingdom called Elmet.

In the east, the Humber was a very definite boundary for the Northumbrian kingdom - hence the name North-Humber-ia, while, inland, the Sheffield and Doncaster areas drained by the Rivers Don and Dearne were a very marshy area that provided another natural boundary. West of Sheffield, the Pennines continued the natural border but on the outskirts of Sheffield is a place called Dore, the doorway between Northumbria and the Midland kingdom of Mercia.

The Northumbrian border was strikingly similar to the Yorkshire border of today, so that Doncaster, for example, lay just within the Northumbrian kingdom. However, a few miles to the north, the Northumbrians built a defensive ditch stretching from Sheffield towards the Dearne near Barnsley.

Across the Pennines in Lancashire, the Mersey formed a natural border like the Humber. Its role as the Northumbria-Mercia border continued inland. Interestingly, Mercia and Mersey both have names meaning boundary.

In the earliest days of Northumbria, the North West, including Cumbria, had been a Celtic area but, by 614AD, much of the area was seized by the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms called Northumbria and Mercia. North of the River Ribble, Cumbria and northern Lancashire were Northumbrian territory but the land between the Ribble and Mersey fell under Mercian rule. This meant that Liverpool and Manchester were in the Midlands. This territory was seized by the Northumbrians under King Aethelfrith in 614AD along with large areas of the Midlands after a battle at Chester.

In 900AD, there was also significant influence from Irish-Norwegians from the Viking colony in Dublin. Liverpool acquired its name at this time, but Manchester was fortified by the English King Edward the Elder who ruled Mercia and Wessex, and wished to protect Cheshire from Viking settlers in the North. For much of this period the North West was something of a debatable land and was one of the first areas of the North to fall under southern English control.

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Published: Monday, February 26, 2001