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The Midlands

You'd think that the middle of a country, the heartlands, would define it best. This would be where the power and identity of a nation could truly be found. Strangely it is often the case that the centre of a country tends to be a relatively unimportant place. Have a look at a map of Europe and see where the capital cities lie. Far more capital cities are on or near the peripheries of countries than in their centre. London, placed on a southern estuary is much more typical of a capital city than Madrid, which lies in the centre of Spain. Similarly compare the influence of Topeka, Kansas, right in the centre of the United States, with the power of Washington DC on the east coast, or Los Angeles on the west coast. Ironically the centre is often something of a periphery. Perhaps countries are best defined in relation to others, rather than in themselves.

The English Midlands do not have the capital of Britain, and historically the Midlands have often been passed over, as monarchs based in London looked to the north, to the crucial border with Scotland. Nevertheless the Midlands have tried to win more power than its central position might tend to allow. When Simon de Montfort challenged Henry the Third in the thirteenth century, many supporters of de Montfort had their homes in the Midlands. After the death of de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265 more than thirty Warwickshire families had their estates reviewed in preparation for confiscation.

The most famous of all rebellions centering on the Midlands was the Gunpowder Plot of 1604. The nobleman George Throckmorton had his estate near Stratford Upon Avon in the west Midlands. He was a member of the Reformation Parliament during the reign of Henry the Eighth, known for his opposition to Henry's decision to break away from the Catholic church. . Although the Throckmorton family was not directly involved with the Gunpowder Plot, it was at the Throckmorton estate of Coughton Court that the families of the plotters waited for news on the night of November the fourth 1604. By morning they were to hear that Guy Fawkes had been discovered in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament, and the Plot had been foiled.

The Midlands really laid its claim to centre stage during the eighteenth and nineteenth century Industrial Revolution. There was coal here to drive the engines of the revolution. The people who made the engines were also here. In 1769 James Watt patented the single-action steam engine, and in 1775 he entered into partnership with Matthew Boulton, a Birmingham industrialist. The partners built a factory in the Soho area of Birmingham. Matthew Boulton's House in Soho, Soho House, survives and can be visited. Many of the great minds of the Industrial Revolution, collectively known as the Lunar Society, met here.

The Midlands reveal much about the problems of industrialisation, and the ways people have tried to solve them. The history of this crucial time is much more complicated than is usually imagined. The popular image is of huge satanic mills. But the real picture is one of variety. In many ways small workshops and subcontracting were typical of Midlands industry, with workers setting their own hours and employing their own teams. This tradition continued into the 1970s in some industries. The Industrial Revolution can be explored at the many museums in the Severn Valley near Coalbrookdale. In Coventry it is worth visiting the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust Museum. Frederick Lanchester worked here, a perfectionist who used the predictable nature of mass production to guarantee the quality of his cars. Ironically we now tend to look upon mass produced items as being low in quality. Such ironies are typical of industrial history, and the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust Museum in Browns Lane, Coventry is a good place to explore them.

The period 1888 to 1914 was the heyday of local government power in the Midlands. Impressive civic buildings of this time reflect this enhanced prestige. The style sometimes known as "Municipal Gothic" reached its height in the building of the Victoria Law Courts in Corporation Street, Birmingham, decorated inside and out with terracotta and brilliantly coloured tiles. The ornate decoration was designed to illustrate the achievements of the city. Since that time the independence of the Midlands has declined, as the centralising trends of the twentieth century took over. Interesting, into the twenty first century centralising trends in Britain have weakened again, and although this has led to more local power for Wales and Scotland, it doesn't seem to have influenced the Midlands much.

Shakespeare's House, Stratford Upon Avon

Although the Midlands is well known for its industrial history, driving down the A35 from Birmingham towards Stratford Upon Avon will reveal a very different landscape of woods, countryside and picturesque villages. This area was once the Forest of Arden. These woods are remembered by Shakespeare in As You Like It . Shakespeare was born in Stratford, in the heart of England. Shakespeare defines England for many, but he was always particularly sharp on the contradictions of nationalism. In Henry the Fifth, while outwardly banging a nationalistic drum, Shakespeare subtly reminds us that a country relies as much for its identity on its external opponents as it does on itself. The Bishop of Ely describes the qualities of Henry, who turned over a new leaf on the death of his father:

 

The strawberry grows underneath the nettle

And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best

Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality

(Henry the Fifth Act 1 Scene 1: 37- 39)

We like to think the best of who we are, but what we see in ourselves requires others to give us that sense of identity. We can only be ourselves in relation to others. In place of arrogance there is a hidden cooperation.

Shakespeare's house in Stratford in the heart of England is a great cultural centre. Stratford, however, is also the quiet provincial town that Shakespeare left to find his fortune in another heart of Britain, down south in the great port city of London where England rubs up against the rest of the world.