Where do YOU think the North of England begins? Scientists create a controversial new map

It’s a debate sure to ruffle feathers, but anything beyond the Watford Gap really should be classed as the north of England, a study suggests.

This is the critical line on which high street bakery Greggs, the beacon of the north, becomes more popular than southerners’ favorite deli, Pret A Manger, an academic study has elaborated using artificial intelligence.

If the national consumption of steak bakes versus houmous-filled wraps and smashed avocado on toast wasn’t convincing enough, the researchers also looked at the distribution of Morrisons and Waitrose supermarkets in England.

This also brought the north-south divide within two miles of the Watford Gap.

Both calculations agree that Birmingham, Coventry and Leicester are technically in the north of England. But curiously, the Pret and Greggs dividing line shows that Cornwall is to the north.

This is the case because there are no Prets in the county, and because Cornwall is reluctantly home to a pair of Greggs, despite the ‘pie wars’ in which some locals describe the bakery as ‘Satan’s franchise’ because the pastries are not made are. to a traditional recipe.

The analysis by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University, conducted using machine learning and not yet reviewed by other academics, but published online in April, was brought to the attention of a wider audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

Sophie MacLean referred to it in her lecture on how math is relevant to everyday questions.

The mathematician told the audience, “Actually, there’s only one way to judge what’s north and south, and that’s by looking at the distribution of Pret and Greggs.

‘You could imagine the single Pret in Newcastle surrounded by a swarm of Greggs.

“In London they say you’re never more than twenty feet from a rat—or a Pret.”

Dr. Robin Smith, the Sheffield Hallam physicist who led the study and adapted the machine learning normally used to look at nuclear reactions, said: ‘The food we eat is a very good indicator of whether someone is northern or southern.

Greggs is very popular in the north, where people seem to prefer a steak bake.

The North-South dividing line as determined by the number of Greggs (blue) and Pret (red) stores. Curiously, the Pret and Greggs dividing line shows that Cornwall is to the north

‘We are fascinated by the north-south divide, so it’s good to know where it starts.

‘The North really can start at the Watford Gap, just as people say, even though as a person from Birmingham I wouldn’t think I’m from the North of England.

“However, since Greggs produced the vegan sausage roll, it’s become more popular in the South, so this may not be a feature of the North for very long.”

The north-south divide is believed to date back to 1069, when William the Conqueror moved north to try and control an unruly population.

Greggs has become a symbol of the north since the first bakery opened in Newcastle in 1951, while Pret first opened in Hampstead in 1984.

The tongue-in-cheek survey in England, conducted over a month during the researchers’ evenings and weekends, was done by searching Greggs and Pret stores, Morrisons and Waitrose supermarkets across the UK. country and to switch their locations in latitude and longitude coordinates.

Researchers used a statistical machine learning method to try to work out the line in the country that separates most Greggs from Prets.

It’s a debate sure to ruffle the feathers, but anything beyond the Watford Gap really should be classed as the north of England, a study suggests

They then used an artificial neural network to assign a value to each part of the country based on the number of outlets.

This showed the dividing line in the country where the chances of finding a Greggs are higher than the chances of finding a Pret – oddly it divides Norfolk, with King’s Lynn classified as northern, while Norwich is still to the south.

The researchers also looked at the supermarkets, because Pret is so concentrated in London that a ‘London effect’ can skew the numbers, and using Pret and Greggs produced the ‘Cornwall anomaly’.

Both measures state that the diagonal north-south divide roughly bisects Peterborough.

Oxford, Cambridge and Milton Keynes all open to the south.

The north-south line calculated by looking at Pret and Greggs closely matches the north-south distribution based on average gross household income, which was also analyzed by the researchers, because incomes in the north are generally lower then in the south.

The line of looking at Morrisons and Waitrose corresponds closely to the north-south divide, called the ‘Dorling line’, which is based on factors such as house prices, employment levels and life expectancy.

Northern accents are dying out and could DISAPPEAR by 2066

From the approachable Geordie dialect to the instantly recognizable Liverpool song, many of England’s most distinctive accents come from the north.

But a new study has warned that Northern accents could all but disappear in just 45 years.

Using physical models, researchers from the Universities of Portsmouth and Cambridge predicted how accents are likely to change across England in 2066.

Their findings suggest that northern accents could be replaced by “fancy” southeastern pronunciations.

However, it is predicted that certain north-south differences will remain – we will continue to disagree on the pronunciation of ‘bad’, the researchers say.

From the low-key Geordie dialect to the instantly recognizable Liverpool song, many of the UK’s most distinctive accents come from the North. Pictured: Ant and Dec, who are known for their Geordie accent