Midlands

Midlands, geographical region in the centre of England. The boundaries of the Midlands are not precisely defined, but the term is most commonly applied to the seven central counties in the area: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and West Midlands; it can be extended to include Herefordshire, Lincolnshire, Shropshire, and Worcestershire. The term “the Midlands” is also frequently used to describe the city of Birmingham and its surroundings.

Geographically, the Midlands is a large area of lowlands with elevations of up to 150 m (500 ft). It is bordered in the south-east by a belt of hills that runs from Bristol to Lincoln, in the west by the River Severn, and to the north by the Pennine Hills. These lowlands lie upon sandstone that dates from both the Permian and Triassic periods. Iron impurities in the sandstone turn the soil a distinctive red colour. There are coal deposits scattered throughout the Midlands.

The region has a number of industrial cities, including Birmingham, Burton upon Trent, Coventry, Derby, Leicester, Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall, and Wolverhampton. The area of manufacturing cities in the west of the Midlands is sometimes referred to as the “Black Country”, so-called for the collieries and smoky furnaces that proliferated there during the Industrial Revolution. Many of these early industrial factories thrived in the area due to the relative accessibility of important materials such as iron and coal. To the north is an area known as the Staffordshire Potteries (or the Potteries) that has an international reputation for the production of ceramics.