Editing Mercia (section)

== Modern uses of the name Mercia ==
The term "midlands" is first recorded (as ''mydlonde-shiris'') in 1475.<ref>[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/118201?redirectedFrom=midlands#eid "Midland", ''Oxford English Dictionary'']</ref> John Bateman, writing in 1876 or 1883, referred to contemporary [[Cheshire]] and [[Staffordshire]] landholdings as being in Mercia.<ref name="Bateman">{{harvp|Bateman|1971}}{{pages needed |date=September 2019}}</ref> The most credible source for the idea of a contemporary Mercia is [[Thomas Hardy]]'s [[Wessex]] novels. The first of these appeared in 1874 and Hardy himself considered it the origin of the conceit of a contemporary Wessex. [[Bram Stoker]] set his 1911 novel ''[[The Lair of the White Worm]]'' in a contemporary Mercia that may have been influenced by Hardy, whose secretary was a friend of Stoker's brother. Although 'Edwardian Mercia' never had the success of 'Victorian Wessex', it was an idea that appealed to the higher echelons of society. In 1908 Sir Oliver Lodge, Principal of [[Birmingham University]], wrote to his counterpart at [[Bristol]], welcoming a new university worthy of "...the great Province of Wessex whose higher educational needs it will supply. It will be no rival, but colleague and co-worker with this university, whose province is Mercia...".<ref name="Cottle & Sherborne">{{harvp|Cottle|Sherborne|1951}}{{pages needed |date=September 2019}}</ref>

The [[British Army]] has made use of several regional identities in naming larger, amalgamated formations. After the Second World War, the infantry regiments of [[Cheshire]], Staffordshire and [[Worcestershire]] were organised in the [[Mercian Brigade]] (1948–1968). Today, "Mercia" appears in the titles of two regiments, the [[Mercian Regiment]], founded in 2007, which recruits in Cheshire, [[Derbyshire]], Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, and parts of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, and the [[Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry]], founded in 1992 as part of the [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]]. In 1967, the police forces of [[Herefordshire]], Shropshire and Worcestershire were combined into the [[West Mercia Constabulary]], which changed its name to West Mercia Police in 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.shropshirearchives.org.uk/collections/police-records/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001155246/https://www.shropshirearchives.org.uk/collections/police-records/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 October 2020 |title=Police Records |publisher=Shropshire Archives |access-date=21 May 2020}}</ref>

Telephone directories across the Midlands include a large number of commercial and voluntary organisations using "Mercia" in their names, and in 2012 a new football league was formed called the [[Shropshire Premier League|Mercian Regional Football League]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://full-time.thefa.com/Index.do?league=287177213 |title=The Sportsjam Regional Football League |publisher=The Football Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126130741/http://full-time.thefa.com/Index.do?divisionseason=448491932 |archive-date=26 November 2015 |url-status=dead |access-date=26 November 2015}}</ref>

[[Hits Radio Coventry & Warwickshire]], a commercial radio station, was originally launched in 1980 as '''Mercia Sound''', later becoming '''Mercia FM''', and then '''Mercia'''.<ref>{{cite web |title='Local radio has lost a great man' - tributes made to founder of Mercia Sound |url=https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/local-radio-lost-great-man-11378825 |publisher=Coventry Telegraph |access-date=27 March 2022 |date=25 May 2016}}</ref>