What part of England is most distinct from the rest of the country?

[saxonwold]

Originally Posted by spicymeatball

What part of England (not Great Britain) do you feel has the strongest regional identity and feels the most unlike other parts of England? My guess would probably be the extremities, ie Cornwall and Northumbria on opposite ends of the country, though you could make the argument London itself is actually the most different from the rest of the country due to so many foreigners living there and its unique situation of being the only large city in England.

Cornwall and Southwest England region.

[Bernie20]

Originally Posted by JennyMominRI

I had my DNA tested and apparently Corwall has it's own genetic markers.

Yes Cornwall is close to Brittany which makes sense as Cornish is the closest language to Breton and a lot of Cornish went to Brittany in the 5th Century.

[flamingGalah!]

I would say rural areas in the far north of England are perhaps most different to the rest of England, but then anywhere 'up north' is a huge culture shock for me, coming from the far south of England...

Originally Posted by Perfect Stranger

I would say Cornwall. Very rural compared to most of the country and stills has its own language related to Welsh.

It doesn't actually still have its own language, that died out hundreds of years ago. It is just that a few Cornish folk decided to 'bring it back' by learning it a couple of years ago, no more than a couple of dozen can actually speak any Cornish at all, it is basically a dead language...

Originally Posted by Dave Egerton

Cornwall, obviously, because it isn't English but a Celtic nation which hasn't benefited from devolution - it's strongest links being with Bretagne in North Eastern France - but should we actually count that as England for the purposes of this question?

Cornwall is English. End of.

Originally Posted by easthome

Cornwall also seems to be climatically different to the rest of the UK

Cornwall's climate isn't actually that different from other coastal areas of the UK. Infact Penzance, often cited as one of the warmest places in the UK has an annual mean temperature exactly the same as Southsea & a colder record low temperature too. If you include the Scilly Isles as part of Cornwall then yes the climate there is pretty unique, but that's because they are 28 miles off the tip of Cornwall...

[P London]

What is it with Cornwall and its supposed distinctness?

[dunno what to put here]

Cornwall has just retained a far more distinct identity than most other places in England. It doesn't necessarily feel any different - the villages look the same, the people sound the same to those in Devon, the climate is the same. It's largely based around this idea of 'Celtincess' more than anything.

[P London]

Surely Yorkshire has more of an identity with their Yorkshire tea, Yorkshire pudding and those dales that symbolises Yorkshire. Also the accent which I'd say is widely known.

Cornwall has Cornish pasty, cream tea and ice cream? lol

[flamingGalah!]

Originally Posted by P London

What is it with Cornwall and its supposed distinctness?

Just more weirdos there who think they are superior to everyone else in England & think they should be treated as a seperate entity Funny thing is these same weirdos are the ones that hate holiday makers visiting Cornwall when tourism is about the only industry Cornwall has, apart from making pasties

[dunno what to put here]

Cornwall is England's poorest county. No industry to speak of really.

[modernist1]

Cornish Pasties - great invention.