What was Archaeology like in the Past

[Dinosaur]

Yeah I think we should be told.....mind you I guess 'South' is relative.....there is that road sign on the M74/M6 just before you get to the Carlisle turnoff that famously says 'Carlisle and the South'!!

Get a map of England, a ruler, a pencil, and try drawing a line from east to west halfway up (no cheating and including the Channel Islands etc, since they insist on being seperate countries at the Commonwealth Games) . Think you'll find the majority of English units that have been in trouble recently/gone t**s-up are south of it? - although admittedly not too many are based in the (largely) uninhabited and endless wilds of Northumberland to start with....

[Oxbeast]

At the risk of a thread derail....Its an odd definition of 'the north' if Sheffield and Manchester are in the south. People who live there certainly think that they are northerners. Brummies think that they are from the Midlands. There's a unit in Lincoln gone bust as well, that is also in the Midlands.

[Jack]

Er did anyone else notice the blatant breach of AUP post advertising teaching the koran??!!

[Oxbeast]

Must have been halal spam...

[kevin wooldridge]

According to Wikipedia the centre line of England (including islands) passes through a point just north of Hinkley, Leics. If that line is extended across England and Wales it pretty much runs from Aberystwyth to Lowestoft (hurrah for Lowestoft!!). On that classification we get Norwich, Leicester, Lincoln and all points upward being the 'North' and Birmingham, Ipswich, Cambridge being all points 'South'. Lowestoft and Peterborough sit on the line...

My estimation therefore is that the recent 'closure of units' ratio between North and South is at present vaguely equal. That may change of course....and now we know where the line is drawn we can all keep an eye as to how the situation develops.....

If Scotland and the outer islands are included the centre of the UK moves to somewhere close to Hadrians Wall, making nearly all of England, apart from Northumbria, in the South.....so maybe that road sign at Carlisle isn't that inaccurate....

[Dinosaur]

S'why I specified England, in a depserate (and dyslexic) bid to support my position

The map on the back of the 1998 AA road atlas (we get all the latest aids in this office!) puts the line through the middle of the dot for Stafford, shame about Cornwall hanging down like that....Actually if you split England into thirds on a north-south scale, even Leeds is in the Midlands, which has its southern edge about along a line level with Luton....ok, swap 'not in the northern linear third of England', or 'more than an hour and a half down the A1 from Newcastle while broadly complying with the national speed limit while negotiating the traffic' for 'down south'? (and ignoring Scotland, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man etc).

Have any units closed in the last couple/few years in the area between Manchester/South Yorkshire and the Scottish Border? (Lancaster doesn't count, that was a takeover)
But of course this will all change dramatically if the Cornish Nationalists get their way }

[monty]

Have any units closed in the last couple/few years in the area between Manchester/South Yorkshire and the Scottish Border? [/QUOTE]

Both the Manchester Uni unit and ARCUS at Sheff Uni both closed in last couple of years.......

[kevin wooldridge]

And the Carlisle city unit......Cumbria and Lancashire Archaeology Unit......Liverpool/Merseyside unit......Gifford outbranch in Chester.....just for a few.

[Jack]

If you ask me yorkshire/lancashire is the north/south divide. Anything north being 'the north', anything south being 'the south' and once you get passed watford your in the 'deep south'. :face-stir:

[Dinosaur]

Anyone know at what point the signs on the A1, M1 and (less familiar territory) the M6 stop saying 'The North'? There's certainly one (was last year, anyway) where the new bit of the M1 links to the A1 northbound (somewhere just north-east of Site 27, if anyone else is reading this who worked there in the 90s, hi!), which is up level with Leeds, so the MoT certainly doesn't think Leeds is 'north', and I've just been told by the man at the next desk that there's definitely one up near Leeming and he's got the site photos to prove it. Must remember to check on the way home tonight through County Durham whether I'm in The North yet... }