Editing East Midlands (section)

==History==
===Romans===
A historical basis for such a region exists in the territory of the [[Corieltauvi]] tribe. When the [[Roman conquest of Britain|Romans]] took control, they made Leicester ([[Ratae Corieltauvorum]]) one of their main forts. The main town in the region in Roman times was [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]], at the confluence of the [[Fosse Way]] and [[Ermine Street]].

[[File:Midland Map - 5 Boroughs 912 Ad.svg|thumb|220px|right|The [[Five Boroughs of the Danelaw]] ]]

===Anglo-Saxons and the Danelaw===
After the withdrawal of the Romans, the area was settled by [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]], a [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] people who gave the East Midlands most of the place-names it has today. They eventually founded the Kingdom of Mercia, meaning "borderlands," as it borders the [[Welsh people|Welsh]] people to the west. The region also corresponds to the later [[Five Boroughs of the Danelaw|Five Boroughs]] of the [[Danelaw]], the area that Vikings from Denmark controlled. In about 917 the region was subdivided between Danelaw (Vikings) to the north, and Mercia (Anglo-Saxons) to the south. By 920 this border had moved north to the [[River Humber]]. Evidence of the Danelaw can be seen in place-name endings of the region's villages, particularly towards the east. The Danes under [[Cnut the Great|Canute]] recaptured the area between about 1016 and 1035, but it came back under English control after Canute's death that same year.

===Civil War===
The region's two main battles in the [[English Civil War]] were the [[Battle of Naseby]] in northern Northamptonshire on 14 June 1645, and the [[Battle of Winceby]] on 11 October 1643 in eastern Lincolnshire.

===Scientific heritage===
[[Isaac Newton]], born in [[Grantham]] in 1642, is perhaps the most prolific scientist. His accomplishments include [[calculus]], [[Newton's laws of motion]], and [[Newton's law of universal gravitation]], among many others. There is a shopping centre named in his honour in Grantham. [[Thomas Simpson]] from Leicestershire is known for [[Simpson's rule]]. [[Roger Cotes]] invented the concept of the [[radian]] in 1714, but the term was not so-named until 1873.

[[Henry Cavendish]], loosely connected with Derbyshire, discovered [[hydrogen]] in 1766 (although the element's name came from [[Antoine Lavoisier]]), and Cavendish was the first to estimate an accurate mass of the Earth in 1798 in his [[Cavendish experiment]]. The [[Cavendish Laboratory]] at the [[University of Cambridge]] is named after a [[William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire|relative]]. [[Herbert Spencer]] coined the term "[[survival of the fittest]]" in 1864, which was once strongly linked with [[social Darwinism]]. [[John Flamsteed|Sir John Flamsteed]] was the first [[Astronomer Royal]] of the [[Royal Observatory, Greenwich]] in 1675. [[Robert Bakewell (agriculturalist)|Robert Bakewell]], of [[Dishley Grange|Dishley]] in Leicestershire and known for his [[English Leicester sheep]], arrived at [[selective breeding]]; his [[English Longhorn]] were the first ever [[Beef cattle|cattle bred for beef]].

[[George Boole]], pioneer of [[Boolean logic]] (upon which all [[digital electronics]] and computers depend), was born in Lincoln in 1815. The application of Boole's theory to digital circuit design would come in 1937 by [[Claude Shannon]]. Boole's grandson, the physicist [[G. I. Taylor]], made significant experimental contributions to [[quantum mechanics]]. The first practical [[Stowe Nine Churches|demonstration]] of radar was near [[Daventry]] in 1935. [[Robert Robinson (organic chemist)|Robert Robinson]], of Chesterfield in Derbyshire, invented the circular symbol in 1925 for the [[pi bond]]s of the [[benzene]] ring, as found on all structural diagrams of [[Aromatic hydrocarbon|aromatic compounds]]. [[Nicola Pellow]], a maths undergraduate at Leicester Polytechnic, whilst at CERN in November 1990, wrote the world's second web browser.

[[Silicone]] was discovered in 1899 by Prof [[Frederic Kipping]] at University College, Nottingham. [[Michael Creeth]] of Northampton discovered the [[Nucleic acid secondary structure|hydrogen-bonding mechanism between DNA bases]], allowing the [[Nucleic acid structure|structure of DNA]] to be discovered. Nottinghamshire's Ken Richardson was in charge of the team at Pfizer in Sandwich, Kent that in 1981 discovered [[Fluconazole]] (Diflucan), the world's leading [[antifungal medication]], especially useful for those with [[Immunodeficiency|weakened immune systems]]. It has few side effects. Richardson is now one of the few Britons in the [[National Inventors Hall of Fame]]. [[Don Grierson (geneticist)|Don Grierson]] at the University of Nottingham was the first to produce a [[Genetically modified tomato]], which became the first GM food on sale in the UK and in the United States.

[[Louis Essen]], a Nottingham physicist, [[History of timekeeping devices|made advances]] in the [[quartz clock]] in the 1930s at the [[National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)|National Physical Laboratory]] in Teddington, to produce the quartz ring clock in 1938, and the caesium clock, known as the [[atomic clock]], in 1955. During the war he invented the [[Absorption wavemeter|cavity resonance wavemeter]] to find the first accurate value of the speed of light. The atomic clock works on differences in [[Spin magnetic moment|magnetic spin]]. Before Essen's invention, the [[second]] was defined in terms of the [[Earth's orbit|orbit of the Earth round the Sun]]; he changed it in 1967 to be based on the [[hyperfine structure]] of the [[Isotopes of caesium|caesium-133]] atom. [[Coordinated Universal Time]] (UTC), in Paris, takes the average of 300 atomic clocks around the world.

On the early morning of Tuesday 26 February 1935 the [[Daventry transmitting station|radio transmitter]] at [[Daventry]] was used for what became known as the "[[Chain Home#Daventry experiment|Daventry Experiment]]" which involved the first-ever practical demonstration of [[radar]], by its inventor [[Robert Watson-Watt]] and [[Arnold Frederic Wilkins]]. They used a radio receiver installed in a van at [[Litchborough]] (just off the [[A5 road (Great Britain)|A5]] about {{convert|6|mi|km}} south of Daventry) to receive signals bounced off a metal-clad [[Handley Page Heyford]] bomber flying across the radio transmissions. The interference picked up from the aircraft allowed its approximate [[Bearing (navigation)|navigational position]] to be estimated, and therefore proved that it was possible to detect the position of aircraft using radio waves. The success of the experiment persuaded the British government to fund the development of a network of full scale radar stations on the south coast of England, which became known as [[Chain Home]], which provided a decisive advantage to the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] in the [[Battle of Britain]] in 1940.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Daventry Experiment: Commemorating the birth of British radar |work=BBC News |date=26 February 2015 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-31634132 |access-date=7 October 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Lincoln Steep Hill 1.JPG|thumb|220px|left|Steep Hill in [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]]]]
[[File:Treibjagd0001.JPG|thumb|220px|left|[[Fox hunting]] is historically linked with the East Midlands.]]

===Culture and identity===

'''Language and dialect'''

{{See also|East Midlands English|English language in England#East Midlands|Received Pronunciation#History}}

Parts of the East Midlands use a distinctive form of spoken dialect and accent. It also has some history in the beginnings of [[Received Pronunciation]] and southern England accents. However, spoken dialect and accent in the northern area of the East Midlands is far more similar to Northern English.

'''Identity'''

There is no modern Midlander, or East Midlander, identity. As Robert Shore wrote: "no one is more sceptical about the existence of an overarching Midland identity than Midlanders themselves."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/26/why-midlands-is-best-place-in-britain | title=Why the Midlands is the best place in Britain | work=The Guardian | author=Robert Shore | date=26 March 2014}}</ref> Inhabitants of the East Midlands tend to identify themselves either on a county or town basis, regarding the East Midlands as simply a bureaucratic area that lumps together dissimilar places. In the North of the region, in areas such as North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire, people culturally identify as Northerners. For example, a study by YouGov in 2018 found that a quarter of the inhabitants of the region identified as Northerners.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/47a383fe-b9e8-4501-b069-a15a30514667 | title=Are the Midlands in the North, the South, or neither? | work=BBC | author=Tomasz Frymorgen | date=19 January 2018}}</ref>

A new area of the [[North Midlands]] has been proposed, but this has not taken off. In [[Bassetlaw District|Bassetlaw]], the most northern local authority in the East Midlands area, many of the shared services such as NHS are with South Yorkshire, not with other Midlands areas. The television signal comes mainly from the [[Emley Moor transmitting station]], which broadcasts local news from BBC Look North and Calendar News. And its officially designated BBC Local Radio station in terms of radio coverage is [[BBC Radio Sheffield]]. In 2016 Bassetlaw District Council voted to become part of the Sheffield City Region because of the strong local ties.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worksopguardian.co.uk/news/bassetlaw-council-votes-full-membership-sheffield-city-region-786854 | title=Bassetlaw Council votes for full membership of Sheffield City Region | work=Worksop Guardian | date=18 March 2016}}</ref>

'''Food and cuisine'''

The area is known historically for its food, examples of which include [[Red Leicester]], the [[Lincolnshire sausage]], the [[Melton Mowbray pork pie]], [[Stilton cheese|Stilton]], the [[Bakewell pudding]], and the [[Bramley (apple)|Bramley apple]].

'''The arts'''

[[Lord Byron]] and [[D. H. Lawrence]] are perhaps the region's best known authors, although the latter only gained full recognition in the late 20th century. The [[Key Words Reading Scheme]] (''Peter and Jane'') was first produced in 1964 by Ladybird of Loughborough and is still in print. The books originated in 1948 with an idea from [[Douglas Keen]] of [[Heanor]]; the first was ''British Birds and Their Nests''. [[Ladybird Books]] were published in Loughborough throughout their 1960s and 1970s heyday, with the site closing in 1998.

[[Joseph Wright of Derby|Joseph Wright]] of Derby was an artist whose paintings symbolised the struggle between science and religious values in the Age of Enlightenment. He was also suggested to be "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution".

[[Charles Frederick Worth]], born in Lincolnshire in 1825, is considered to be the founder of Parisian ''[[haute couture]]'', ostensibly as the world's first true fashion designer.

'''Religion'''

[[William Booth]] of Nottingham founded [[The Salvation Army]] in 1865. Another religious order, the [[Pilgrim (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrim Fathers]], originated from [[Babworth]] near [[Retford]]. The [[Quakers]], also known as the Religious Society of Friends, were founded by Leicestershire-born ([[Fenny Drayton]]) [[George Fox]], who had an inspiration whilst living in [[Mansfield]] in 1647. [[Thomas Cranmer]] from Aslockton compiled the Church of England [[Book of Common Prayer]].

===Industrial heritage===
{{see also|History of photographic lens design}}
The region can claim the world's first factory, [[Sir Richard Arkwright]]'s [[Cromford Mill]]. Additionally, the world's oldest working factory can also be found in the area, producing textiles at [[Dethick, Lea and Holloway|Lea Bridge]], owned by [[John Smedley (industrialist)|John Smedley]]. Both sites are part of the region's only [[List of World Heritage Sites of the United Kingdom|World Heritage Site]], the [[Derwent Valley Mills]]. An opportunist employee of the Derbyshire textile factories, [[Samuel Slater]] of [[Belper]] saw his chance and (illegally) eloped in 1789 to [[Rhode Island]] in the US after memorising the layout of the textile machinery while working at [[Jedediah Strutt]]'s [[Milford, Derbyshire|Milford]] Mill. He was warmly welcomed by the inhabitants of the newly formed USA, so much so that he was later named the "Father of the [[American Industrial Revolution]]".

Britain's hosiery and knitwear industry was largely based in the region, and in the 1980s it had more textile workers than any other British region. The [[stocking frame]] was invented 1587 in [[Calverton, Nottinghamshire]] by Rev [[William Lee (inventor)|William Lee]]; these were the first known [[knitting machine]]s and heralded the industrial revolution by providing the necessary machinery. The world's first (horse-powered) cotton mill was built in central Nottingham in 1768. [[Marvel's Mill]] in Northampton was the first [[cotton mill]] to be powered by water.

[[John Barber (engineer)|John Barber]] of Nottinghamshire had invented a simple [[gas turbine]] in 1791 (when living in [[Nuneaton]]). [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]] was the site of the first [[Tanks in World War I|tank]] (first built on 8 September 1915, [[Little Willie]] was the first tank, and is the oldest surviving tank in the world, originally called the No.1 Lincoln Machine), and [[Grantham]] the first [[diesel engine]] (in 1892). The [[jet engine]] was first [[Timeline of jet power|developed]] in the region in [[Lutterworth]] and [[Whetstone, Leicestershire|Whetstone]], with the [[VTOL]] engine also (initially) [[Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig|developed]] in [[Hucknall]]. The first jet aircraft flew from [[RAF Cranwell]] in May 1941. During the Second World War, [[Derby]] was an important strategic location, as it was in Derby that [[Rolls-Royce plc|Rolls-Royce]] developed and manufactured their iconic [[Rolls-Royce Merlin|Merlin]] aero-engine. During the Second World War, all of R-R's engineering staff had been transferred to Belper.

[[File:APT 370-004, Rocket 150, Rainhill, May 1980 Slides187 (9859941613).jpg|thumb|left|The innovative but aborted APT, designed in Derby, seen here in May 1980]]
Derby was home to two railway workshops, [[Derby Works]] and [[Derby Litchurch Lane Works]] initially for the [[Midland Railway]], then the [[London, Midland & Scottish Railway]], and finally [[British Rail]]. [[British Rail Research Division]] in Derby invented the [[Advanced Passenger Train|APT]] ([[British Rail Class 370]]) and [[Maglev]]. The first ever steel rails were laid in 1857 at [[Derby railway station]] for the [[Midland Railway]]. Derby Litchurch Lane Works remains in operation under the ownership of [[Alstom]]

At its peak, [[Corby Steelworks]] was the largest in Britain. The collapsible [[Baby transport|baby buggy]] was invented in 1965 at [[Barby, Northamptonshire]] by [[Owen Finlay Maclaren|Owen Maclaren]]. [[Ford of Britain|Ford]]'s £8&nbsp;million Daventry Parts Distribution Centre (Ford Parts Centre) was fully opened on 6 September 1972, the first southern section opened in 1968, and was the UK's largest building by floor area for many years at {{convert|36.7|acre|m2}}, and is situated opposite the [[Cummins UK|Cummins]] factory.

[[File:Zoomlens2.png|thumb|right|How a zoom lens works; the principle was largely first invented in Leicester.]]

The largest camera in the world was built in 1957 in Derby for Rolls-Royce, which weighed 27&nbsp;tonnes and was around {{convert|8|ft|m}} high, {{convert|8|ft|m}} wide and {{convert|35|ft}} long, with a {{convert|63|in|mm|adj=on}} lens made by [[Cooke Optics|Cooke Apochromatic]]. Cooke Optics and [[Taylor-Hobson]] were major supplier of lenses for Hollywood; ''[[Star Wars]]'' was filmed with their lenses, filmed in England. [[Horace W. Lee]] invented the inverted telephoto lens (known as the [[Angénieux retrofocus]]) in 1931, lengthening the back [[focal length]] of the camera for the 1930s [[Technicolor]] Process and for [[vignetting]].

[[Arthur Warmisham]] of Taylor & Hobson invented the first non-telescopic 35&nbsp;mm [[zoom lens]], the Cooke Varo 40–&nbsp;120mm Lens, in a camera manufactured by [[Bell & Howell]] of the US. The popular 35&nbsp;mm [[Eyemo]] film camera came with Cooke lenses. Much of World War II aerial photography, where definition was important, was through Cooke lenses, due to their [[apochromat|Apochromatic process]]. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Cooke Speed Panchro lenses were the most popular choice for cinema films, then from the 1970s their Varotal zoom lens, which would win [[Gordon Henry Cook]] the 1988 [[Gordon E. Sawyer Award]] at the Oscars. [[Harold Hopkins (physicist)]], of Leicester, also did important work on the zoom lens (he largely invented it) and [[Optical fiber|fibre-optics]].

[[J. P. Knight]] of Nottingham is credited with inventing green and red [[traffic lights]], installed in London on 9 December 1868, but these lasted only three weeks; traffic lights would be introduced only from the 1920s, again in [[London]] (from an American-led design scheme). The first modern-day traffic lights were installed in [[Piccadilly]] from August 1926. [[Edgar Purnell Hooley]], a Nottinghamshire surveyor, in 1901 was in Denby and found a stretch of [[road surface]] that was smooth from an accidental leak of [[tar]] over the surface. He patented a process of mixing tar with chipped stones in 1902, forming [[Tarmacadam|Tarmac]], a name which he patented. Radcliffe Road (A6011) in [[West Bridgford]] in 1902 was the first tarmac road ({{convert|5|mi|km|disp=or}} long) in the world.

[[Mettoy]] was a famous firm in the [[St James End, Northampton|St James]] area of Northampton, which from 1933 produced [[Corgi Toys|Corgi]] toys (mostly made in [[Swansea]] and designed in Northampton), and in the 1970s it made the [[space hopper]]; the company collapsed in 1983, moving to Swansea. In Leicestershire was [[Palitoy]], another world-famous firm in Coalville; [[General Mills]] bought it in 1968, but production ceased in 1984 and the site was closed by [[Hasbro]] in 1994. [[Pedigree Dolls & Toys]] ([[Sindy]]) was in [[Wellingborough]], closing in 1982. The first plastic [[Keep case|DVD case]] was made in Corby by [[Amaray]]. Britain's first out-of-town shopping centre was opened in November 1964 by GEM at West Bridgford, on a site now owned by [[ASDA]].

Much [[integrated circuit]] and semiconductor research was carried out by [[Plessey]] at [[Plessey Research Caswell|Caswell]] near Towcester, ahead of much of what was being achieved in America by [[Jack Kilby]]; Plessey invented a model of the integrated circuit in 1957. Caswell was later a site for manufacturing [[monolithic microwave integrated circuit]]s in the 1990s by [[Marconi plc|Marconi]]. On 15 December 1966, the first electronic telephone exchange in Europe opened at [[Ambergate]] in Derbyshire.

[[Torksey]] [[Torksey railway station|railway viaduct]], built across the Trent in 1849, is considered to be the first [[box girder bridge]], designed by [[Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet]]. The tallest freestanding structure in the region is the chimney of [[West Burton power stations|West Burton power station]] (north Nottinghamshire) at {{convert|656|ft|m|order=flip|abbr=on}}. [[Nottingham Combined Heating and Power Scheme]] is the largest [[district heating]] system in the UK, centred on the Eastcroft incinerator, opened in 1973.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fccenvironment.co.uk/fcc-environments-pioneering-eastcrof-efw-plant-reaches-40-year-milestone.html|title=FCC Environment's 'pioneering' Eastcroft EfW plant reaches 40 year milestone|website=www.fccenvironment.co.uk|access-date=10 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310202009/http://www.fccenvironment.co.uk/fcc-environments-pioneering-eastcrof-efw-plant-reaches-40-year-milestone.html|archive-date=10 March 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Second World War===
{{See also|Strategic bombing during World War II}}
Most of the region was protected by a solitary RAF station, [[RAF Digby]] near [[Sleaford]], part of [[No. 12 Group RAF]] and controlled from [[RAF Watnall]]. Within the East Midlands, only Nottingham was [[Nottingham Blitz|heavily bombed]] during the Second World War's [[The Blitz|Blitz]], due to the presence of a large [[Royal Ordnance]] [[ROF Nottingham|factory]]. However, much of the [[Battle of the Ruhr|aerial obliteration]] of Germany was directed from the region, with two bomber groups based in [[Lincolnshire]] ([[No. 1 Group RAF|No.1]] and [[No. 5 Group RAF|No.5]]), and a few squadrons in South Nottinghamshire. The proliferation of Second World War airfields in Lincolnshire has led to it being known as Bomber County.

===Regional governance===
{{update|date=February 2023}}
The current government office region was created in 1994. Government funding decisions moved from [[Melton Mowbray]] (the [[East Midlands Regional Assembly]]) to Nottingham (the [[East Midlands Development Agency]]) in April 2010.