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Are we Midlands or Home Counties
20/09/2021
The Rev Richard Coles sparks a debate on social media after posing a question on the description of where Oxfordshire is
Are we in Oxfordshire in the Home Counties or the Midlands? Social Media has been alive debating the issue through the weekend after the Rev Richard Coles posed the question on Twitter on Sunday morning.
By Monday morning hundreds of people had replied giving their views on the matter, many of whom chose to differentiate between Banbury and the rest of the county.
The former member of the 80s group the Communards, who is now a radio presenter and the Vicar of Finedon in Northamptonshire, posted a message saying “Oxfordshire: Home Counties or Midlands?”.
Amongst the comments James Cane (@ActualJC) said: “South Oxfordshire: home counties. Banbury and beyond: midlands.”
Brian Nazarene (@BrianNazarene) disagreed in his reply: “HOW IS THIS EVEN A QUESTION??? Have lived here most of my life (Oxford City, West of the county and the south now) but apart from that in Notts where I was also born – anyone telling you North Oxfordshire is ‘midlands’ is having an absolute howler of a laugh.”
Victoria Freeman (@v_j_freeman) chose to be more specific and added a new dimension to the debate saying: “Oxford & south is Home Counties, West Oxon is Cotswolds & north Oxon is Midlands.”
Locally born Darron Cullen (@Darron_Cullen) didn’t believe either description was accurate. He said: “I was born and raised in Banbury. Absolutely nobody there would say it’s the Midlands. Home Counties a real push, too. Our accent [for what its worth] is surprisingly West Country, which we link to through the Cotswolds, and TV regions are all South or South East. So yeah – neither!”
Many people chose to note the main BBC TV news service provided came from BBC South (in Oxford and Southampton) and ITV provided news branded “Meridian”, which covers an area from Southampton up to Banbury. However, to confuse matters further those who receive their TV signal from the local Bretch Hill transmitter received their news from the Midlands.
Richard Hedderly (@richardhedderly) introduced the phrase that local people either love or hate when he added: “And part of new Banburyshire! :)”. He chose to illustrate his point showing “Banburyshire” as being 13 miles from the Cotswolds, 21 miles from Oxford, 25 miles from Milton Keynes and 38 miles from Birmingham.
Meanwhile Carl Warly (@carlywarly68) referred to the written works to support his point: “Definitely the Shires, as per JRR Tolkien, so Home Counties, with a hint of Cotswold thrown in for good measure. Plus our airport is called London Oxford Airport so we must be!”
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam
Mark Collinson On 11/09/2022 at 12:53 am
South East, officially. Banbury is the gateway to the Midlands if travelling north, or gateway to the South if travelling south.
Martin Burke On 11/08/2023 at 7:56 am
Although officially south east Banbury is not so pretentious as to be home counties and has the feel of a middle England small town