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East Midlands

The East Midlands is one of the regions of England and consists of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and most of Lincolnshire, although people often speak of the "East Midlands" with only Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire in mind. The point where the three counties meet is known as Trent Lock.

The highest point in the region is Kinder Scout, in the Derbyshire Peak District at 2,088 ft (636 m). A looser definition of the East Midlands would include the City of Peterborough and Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire.

Financial funding decisions for the East Midlands (usually public construction schemes) are taken at the East Midlands Regional Assembly, based in Melton Mowbray. It is not an elected chamber, but a quango.

Population and settlement

Its main settlements are Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, Derby, Northampton, Mansfield , Chesterfield , and Kettering . Leicester is officially the largest city in the region, although the largest conurbation is the Nottingham Urban Area.

Transport links

Road

The M1 motorway also serves the three largest conurbations. In the east, the A1 is an important, often overcrowded route for the east coast ports and is important for supplying much of the UK's agricultural production. The A46 since Roman times provided a connection between the south west and north east of the region, although around Newark, it has difficulty coping with capacity. East-west routes by road in the region are essentially single-carriageway roads, with only the dual-carriageway A14 skirting the northern part of Northamptonshire.

Airports

East Midlands Airport in North West Leicestershire is situated between the three main cities of Derby, Leicester and Nottingham.

Railway

Two of the north-south mainline railways serve the region, The Midland Main Line (operated by East Midlands Trains) in the west and the East Coast Mainline (operated by NXEC) in the east. Both companies operate high-speed trains to London. The main south west-north east Cross Country Route (MR) (operated by Arriva plc) runs through Birmingham and Derby also the West Coast Mainline goes into Northampton & Long Buckley in Northamptonshire run by London Midland and sometimes Virgin Trains call at Northampton & Chiltern Railways and First Great Western provide services to Kings Sutton in Northamptonshire on the Chiltern Main Line. East-west routes are provided by the Nottingham - Skegness, Liverpool - Norwich (through Nottingham), and Birmingham - Stansted Airport (through Leicester) routes; these last two routes are the essentially the only east-west routes in the section of England between Sheffield and London, both routes meeting at Peterborough.

History

A historical basis for such an area exists in the territory of the Corieltauvi tribe. When the Romans took control of the region, they made Leicester its capital, then named Ratae Corieltauvorum. The region also corresponds to the later Five Burghs of the Danelaw. The current government office region was created in 1994.

Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:


Map	Ceremonial county	Shire county /unitary	Districts
	Derbyshire	1. Derbyshire	a.) High Peak, b.) Derbyshire Dales, c.) South Derbyshire, d.) Erewash, e.) Amber Valley, f.) North East Derbyshire, g.) Chesterfield, h.) Bolsover
	Derbyshire	2. Derby U.A.
	Nottinghamshire	3. Nottinghamshire	a.) Rushcliffe, b.) Broxtowe, c.) Ashfield, d.) Gedling, e.) Newark and Sherwood, f.) Mansfield, g.) Bassetlaw
	Nottinghamshire	4. Nottingham U.A.
	Lincolnshire (part only)	5. Lincolnshire	a.) Lincoln, b.) North Kesteven, c.) South Kesteven, d.) South Holland, e.) Boston, f.) East Lindsey, g.) West Lindsey
	Leicestershire	6. Leicestershire	a.) Charnwood, b.) Melton, c.) Harborough, d.) Oadby and Wigston, e.) Blaby, f.) Hinckley and Bosworth, g.) North West Leicestershire
	Leicestershire	7. Leicester U.A.
	8. Rutland
	9. Northamptonshire		a.) South Northamptonshire, b.) Northampton, c.) Daventry, d.) Wellingborough, e.) Kettering, f.) Corby, g.) East Northamptonshire

MEPs

The East Midlands is also a six-member constituency for the European Parliament.

Economy

Manufacturing

Main employers in the region include Weetabix at Burton Latimer. For engineering, there is Rolls-Royce in Derby, Siemens in Lincoln, Triumph Motorcycles in Hinckley, Noble in Barwell, and Caterpillar has a large factory on an old airfield near Desford. The jet engine was first developed in the region in Lutterworth, with the VTOL engine also developed at Hucknall, and the first practical demonstration of radar was in Daventry in 1935. Mountsorrel has the largest granite quarry in Europe, owned by the French company, Lafarge. The north part of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire used to have many coal mines, and there are two pits still producing in Nottinghamshire near Market Warsop and Ollerton; UK Coal is based in Harworth. Swarfega was invented and is made by Deb in Belper. Corus has a steelworks in Corby.

Retail

Thorntons is a big employer at Alfreton, and Wilkinson is at Worksop. Boots is based in Lenton in Nottingham, as well as the head office of Games Workshop, the producers of Warhammer miniatures. Dunelm Mill, the furnishings company, is based in Syston, as is Pukka Pies. Many footwear companies such as Shoe Zone (which bought out Stead and Simpson), are based in Leicester, as is the clothing company, Next, the photographic equipment company Jessops (both based near each other on the Braunstone Frith estate), and Admiral (sportswear) and the crisp company Walkers (owned by PepsiCo). Carlsberg is brewed in Northampton, and the Black Leisure Group (owner of Blacks and Millets) is based in Duston, to the west of the town, and there is Travis Perkins who also own Wickes. East Midlands Trains has its head office in Derby. The former East Midlands Electricity is now owned by E.ON UK (supply) and Central Networks (distribution). BMI has its headquarters at Castle Donington. Sports Direct is based in Shirebrook on an old Bolsover coal mine. Sixt, the car rental firm, has its UK base in Chesterfield. United Biscuits has a main factory in Ashby-de-la-Zouch where it makes its KP Snacks. Oxo is made by Premier Foods in Worksop. Catfood such as Whiskas is made in Melton Mowbray by Masterfoods. Dr. Martens are made in Wellingborough. Belkin UK is in Rushden. RS Components is in Corby.

Finance

Capital One, the Virginia-based credit card company, has its UK HQ in Nottingham's city centre next to the train station, and Dublin-based Experian, one of two UK credit-referencing companies, was founded and has a large UK HQ to the south-west of the city, on the A453 near the River Trent. Alliance & Leicester is based in Narborough. Barclaycard is headquartered in Northampton, and Nationwide has a large administrative centre at Moulton Park.

Rural

Lincolnshire and Rutland are very agricultural, with much of the UK's arable crops grown in this area. The RAF have many bases in this area too, with the main RAF College at Cranwell near Sleaford. Interflora has its UK HQ in Sleaford.

Entertainment

Skegness and the Lincolnshire coast provides seaside entertainment for many people in the East Midlands with its Butlins resort. Nottingham and Leicester are a popular night time destination (often for people outside of the East Midlands).

Education

There is a mixture of education across the East Midlands - mostly comprehensive secondary schools, except Lincolnshire has fifteen state grammar schools (as well as some comprehensive schools). For GCSE results, City of Nottingham schools are the worst performing, with Leicester schools a close second. Rutland (the best area for GCSEs) has one of the highest percentages of pupils (Buckinghamshire is the highest) reaching the threshold of five grades A-C (including Maths and English) in England; it is almost twice the percentage value of schools in Leicester, although the highest performing district council area is Rushcliffe. Leicestershire and Lincolnshire also have GCSE results above the UK average. At A level, Lincolnshire performs the best, and with schools in Nottingham, has results above the UK average; Nottingham has much better results at A level than those at GCSE on average. This describes the city quite accurately - it has the largest group of under-achieving school pupils in the East Midlands, but yet has one of the highest achieving groups of school pupils as well, giving a salient socio-economic diversity of almost chasmic proportions.

Top twenty state schools in the East Midlands (2007 A level results)

1. Caistor Grammar School (1021)
2. Bourne Grammar School
3. Queen Elizabeth's High School, Gainsborough
4. Northampton School For Boys
5. Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ashbourne
6. Kesteven and Sleaford High School
7. Spalding High School
8. The Becket School, West Bridgford
9. The King's School, Grantham
10. Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle
11. West Bridgford School
12. Skegness Grammar School
13. Bilborough College
14. Highfields School, Matlock
15. Lady Manners School, Bakewell
16. De Lisle Catholic Science College, Loughborough
17. St Mary's Roman Catholic High School, Chesterfield
18. Boston Grammar School
19. The Priory Lincolnshire School of Science and Technology
20. Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School (904)

Local Media

Television

The BBC East Midlands region of BBC Television, based in Nottingham, produces several regional television programmes including the news programme East Midlands Today. This excludes most of Northamptonshire, north Nottinghamshire and north Derbyshire. Most of Lincolnshire is covered by the BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire region based in Hull, with its Look North programme. Derbyshire's High Peak is covered by BBC North West and Granada Television based in Manchester. Northamptonshire is part of the BBC East region based in Norwich and has the Look East programme. Most of Northamptonshire can receive Central News East, with western parts of the county (Daventry) receiving Central News West, and Southern parts of the county (around Brackley, Towcester and Northampton) receiving Thames Valley Tongight, which used to be the Central south region. Central News East also covered the East Midlands, broadcasting from Lenton Lane in Nottingham from March 1984. The studios were closed and is now the King's Meadow Campus of Nottingham University. These studios had been responsible for Family Fortunes and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Central News East still continues, broadcasting from ITV Central's Birmingham Studios. Northamptonshire has Anglia Television's Anglia Tonight programme and the north of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire has Yorkshire Television's Calendar.
MATV, based in Leicester, which caters to the area's large South Asian population.