Northerners are nervy , unsophisticatedFrank Gallagher - character . Southerner are arrogant snobs along the crinkle ofBlackadderor Edina and Patsy fromAbsolutely Fabulous . Of of course , these stereotypes are ( on the whole ) wildly off the chump but that has n’t halt us Brits from debating who has it good – the North or the South – and the correct orthoepy of the word " bath " since time immemorial .
There are disagreements on where the North stop and the South begins but the Watford Gap is the official dividing line . It stand up somewhere near to Watford village in Northamptonshire , England . Researchers now believe this division could hark all the manner back to Viking sentence .
Archaeologist Max Adams noticed a trenchant deficiency of Scandinavian placenames southwest of Watling Street when he was researching for his new ledger . Watling Street is an old popish route that function as a connection between Londinium ( what is now London ) andViroconium(now Wroxeter ) , Roman Britain ’s fourth expectant city . This route is now called the A5 .
There are perhaps a handful of Viking placenames , if any , below this decimal point . But change of location northward of this route and you ’ll come across hundreds of villages and towns with name like " Fishguard " , " Grimethorpe " , and " Haverigg " .
" clear , the Scandinavian settlers kibosh at Watling Street , " Adams toldThe Guardian .
After further investigation , Adams honour that to the north - east of Watling Street rivers feed into the Irish Sea or the North Sea , whereas to the Confederacy and west they flow into the River Severn or the Thames . As he point out , we do n’t need to bear attention to the management of river urine flow today because we can build a bridge to baffle from one money box to another . In Viking time , however , multitude would have paid attention .
" Your born trading routes are along rivers and all the knightly monastic land used the rivers as their artery of power . So distinctly the geographics of baron has always matter , " Adams explained .
" This is England ’s natural fault line , its continental water parting : the turning point that divide and disunite northwards from south ( epitomise by the famous Watford Gap , on the A5 / M1 north - east of Daventry ) ; and I have no doubt that Norse U. S. Army and settlers sleep together its imperatives . ”
After year of dispute between the Danes and the Anglo - Saxons , Guthrum , a Viking leader , brokereda peace treatywith King Alfred , King of Wessex , in 886AD . Watling Street became the diving line between the two kingdoms . This boundary line was strengthened in the early tenth century when Abert ’s son and successor , Eadweard the Elder , get the throne .
“ I ’m not certain whether the great unwashed on the north side of Watling Street immediately sense themselves different or whether that ’s more of a southern jest . But clearly it ’s a joke with a very quondam realism confiscate to it , " Adams said .
