This book specifically examines the history of the concept of a North-South divide in England during the last millennium, a concept which has surfaced in recent political debates about regional contrasts in wealth and welfare in England. Concerned with different historical periods between 1086 and 2000, six essays examine both the material geography of England, in terms of its broad regional differences in population, economy, society and culture, and the geography of England as imagined by the people of those periods.