Quote:
Originally Posted by garinda
I've only been to Bacup once.
I felt a little uneasy.
I think it was brought on by being relatively close to both Mad-chester, and Yorkshireville at the same time.
I left before the cast of The League of Gentlemen started dancing down the streets, clutching their hairy nuts.
 |
As folk may already know, the county boundary has fluctuated throughout history, particularly and most dramatically during the Wars of the Roses when the residents of Leeds or Manchester could find themselves living in Yorkshire one week and Lancashire the next. This has continued down the years due to local government re-organisation. In 1891, the border town of Todmorden had to be moved 50 yards east whilst Barnoldswick moved in the opposite direction as part of the same arrangement. The residents of Barnoldswick refused to budge and existed as an enclave of Yorkshire inside Lancashire until they were forced to surrender after just two weeks when they were cut off by the Lancashire Electricity Board.
More recently, in 1962, Saddleworth became part of Lancashire but the cost of moving the small Pennine villages of Diggle and Dobcross brick by brick and the inconvenience caused was such that subsequent changes have involved moving the boundary rather than the buildings themselves.
The boundary with Cheshire is less controversial and has remained more or less the same for more than 1,000 years. Historically, it marks the line beyond which lived the Poshae, a tribe whose men drove expensive four wheeled chariots. Their women dyed their hair blonde and their bodies orange and wore garments made of fur but no undergarments. Today the boundary separates those who earn less than the national average wage from those who earn at least double. The population of Cheshire has been swelled by the southward migration of wealthy Lancastrians in search of cleaner air and cheaper salt.
Lancashire’s boundary fluctuations can be traced in maps, the most notorious of which is the so-called Filthie Mappe, purportedly drawn up in 1610 by the dyslexic cartographer ,John Seed.
The map caused such offence that Seed was hung, drawn and quartered. It was only later discovered that the map had been drawn up by a trainee on a work experience programme whilst Seed was signed off work with the plague.