The East Midlands is one of nine official
regions of England
The regions of England, formerly known as the government office regions, are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. They were established in 1994 and follow the 1974–96 county borders. They are a continuation of the former 194 ...
. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the
Midlands
The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...
. It consists of
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
,
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...
,
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
(except for
North Lincolnshire
North Lincolnshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Lincolnshire, England. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 Census, it had a population of 167,446. T ...
and
North East Lincolnshire
North East Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. It borders the borough of North Lincolnshire and districts of West Lindsey and East Lindsey. The population of the district in the 2011 Census was ...
),
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
,
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
, and
Rutland
Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town.
Rutland has a ...
. The region has a land area of , with an estimated population in .
With a
sufficiency-level world city ranking, Nottingham is the only settlement in the region to be classified by the
Globalization and World Cities Research Network.
The main cities in the region are
Derby
Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
,
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
,
Lincoln and
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
. The largest towns in these counties are
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Chesterfield,
Coalville,
Corby
Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...
,
Glossop
Glossop is a market town in the borough of High Peak (borough), High Peak, Derbyshire, England, east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock. Near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Mancheste ...
,
Grantham
Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...
,
Kettering
Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...
,
Loughborough
Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...
,
Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent () or Newark is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...
,
Northampton
Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
,
Mansfield
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...
,
Oakham
Oakham is a market town and civil parish in Rutland (of which it is the county town) in the East Midlands of England. The town is located east of Leicester, southeast of Nottingham and northwest of Peterborough. It had a population of 12,14 ...
,
Swadlincote
Swadlincote is a historic mining town in the district of South Derbyshire, in the county of Derbyshire, England. It lies within The National Forest (England), The National Forest area. It borders the counties of Leicestershire and Staffordshire ...
and
Wellingborough
Wellingborough ( ) is a market town in the North Northamptonshire, Unitary Authority area, England, from London and from Northampton, north of the River Nene.
Originally named "Wendelingburgh" (the stronghold of Wændel's people), the Anglo ...
.
Physical features
The highest point at is
Kinder Scout
Kinder Scout is a moorland plateau and National nature reserve (United Kingdom), National Nature Reserve in the Dark Peak of the Derbyshire Peak District in England. Part of the moor, at above sea level, is the highest point in the Peak Distric ...
, in the
Peak District
The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...
of the southern
Pennines
The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...
in northwest
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
near
Glossop
Glossop is a market town in the borough of High Peak (borough), High Peak, Derbyshire, England, east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock. Near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Mancheste ...
. Other hilly areas of in altitude, together with lakes and reservoirs, rise in and around the
Charnwood Forest north of
Peterborough
Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...
,
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
, and in the
Lincolnshire Wolds.
The region's major rivers, the
Nene, the
Soar, the
Trent, and the
Welland, flow in a northeasterly direction towards the
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Trent, Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms ...
and
the Wash
The Wash is a shallow natural rectangular bay and multiple estuary on the east coast of England in the United Kingdom. It is an inlet of the North Sea and is the largest multiple estuary system in the UK, as well as being the largest natural ba ...
. The
Derwent, conversely, rises in the High Peak before flowing south to join the Trent some before its conflux with the Soar, and the
Witham flows in an arch, first north to
Lincoln before heading south to the Wash.

The centre of the East Midlands area lies roughly between
Bingham, Nottinghamshire and
Bottesford, Leicestershire. The
geographical centre of England lies in
Higham on the Hill in west
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...
, close to the boundary between the Leicestershire and Warwickshire. Some 88 per cent of the land is rural in character, although agriculture accounts for less than three per cent of the region's jobs.
Church Flatts Farm in
Coton in the Elms, South Derbyshire, is the furthest place from the sea in the UK (). In April 1936 the first
Ordnance Survey
The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...
trig point
A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity.
The station is usually set up by a map ...
was sited at
Cold Ashby in
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
. The
Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and
The Wildlife Trusts
The Wildlife Trusts, the trading name of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, is an organisation made up of 46 local Wildlife Trusts in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and Alderney. The Wildlife Trusts, between them, look after more than 2, ...
are based next to the River Trent and Newark Castle railway station. The
National Centre for Earth Observation is at the University of Leicester.
Geology
The region is home to large quantities of
limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
, and the
East Midlands Oil Province.
Charnwood Forest is noted for its abundant levels of volcanic rock, estimated to be approximately 600 million years old.
A quarter of the UK's
cement
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...
is manufactured in the region, at three sites in
Hope
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large.
As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...
and
Tunstead in Derbyshire, and
Ketton Cement Works in
Rutland
Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town.
Rutland has a ...
. Of the
aggregates produced in the region, 25 per cent are from Derbyshire and four per cent from Leicestershire. Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire each produce around 30 per cent of the region's
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...
and
gravel
Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
Gr ...
output.
Barwell in Leicestershire was the site of Britain's largest
meteorite
A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...
() on 24 December 1965. The
2008 Lincolnshire earthquake was 5.2 in
magnitude.
Environment
Areas of the East Midlands designated by the East Midlands Biodiversity Partnership as Biodiversity Conservation Areas include:
[Biodiversity Partnerships](_blank)
*
Charnwood Forest
*
Coversand Heaths
*Derbyshire Peak Fringe and Lower Derwent
*
Humberhead Levels
*Leighland Forest
*The Lincolnshire Limewoods and Heaths
*The
Lincolnshire coast
*The
Peak District
The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...
*
Rockingham Forest
*
Sherwood Forest
*
Rutland
Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town.
Rutland has a ...
, SW
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
and N
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
*
The Wash
The Wash is a shallow natural rectangular bay and multiple estuary on the east coast of England in the United Kingdom. It is an inlet of the North Sea and is the largest multiple estuary system in the UK, as well as being the largest natural ba ...
Areas of the East Midlands designated by the East Midlands Biodiversity Partnership as
Biodiversity Enhancement Areas include:
*The
Coalfields
*The
Daventry Grasslands
*
The Fens
The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system o ...
*The
Lincolnshire Coastal Grazing Marshes
*The
Lincolnshire Wolds
*The
National Forest
*The
Yardley-Whittlewood Ridge
Two of the nationally designated
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are:
*The
Peak District
The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...
*The
Lincolnshire Wolds
Forestry
Several towns in the southern part of the region, including Market Harborough, Desborough, Rothwell, Corby, Kettering, Thrapston, Oundle and Stamford, lie within the boundaries of what was once
Rockingham Forest – designated a
royal forest
A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...
by
William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...
and was long hunted by English kings and queens.
The
National Forest is an environmental project in central England run by The National Forest Company. Areas of north Leicestershire, south Derbyshire and south-east Staffordshire covering around are being planted in an attempt to blend ancient woodland with new plantings. It stretches from the western outskirts of Leicester in the east to Burton upon Trent in the west, and is planned to link the ancient forests of Needwood and Charnwood.
Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire attracts many visitors, and is perhaps best known for its ties with the legend of
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...
.
Governance
Regional financial funding decisions for the East Midlands are taken by
East Midlands Councils, based in
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray () is a market town in the Borough of Melton, Melton district in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, Leicestershire, River Eye, known below Melton as the Rive ...
. East Midlands Councils is an unelected body made up of representatives of local government in the region. The defunct
East Midlands Development Agency was headquartered next to the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
's East Midlands office in Nottingham and made financial decisions regarding economic development in the region. Since the
Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government launched its austerity programme after the
2010 general election, regional bodies such as those have been devolved to smaller groups on a county level. As a region, there is no overriding body with significant financial or planning powers for the East Midlands.
The
East Midlands Combined Authority was established in 2024.
Urban areas
The East Midlands region contains many urban areas which include:
*
Nottingham Urban Area (includes the Derbyshire towns of
Alfreton,
Belper,
Heanor
Heanor (/ˈhiːnə/) is a town in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. It lies north-east of Derby and forms, with the adjacent village of Loscoe, the civil parishes in England, civil parish and town council-administered area of He ...
,
Ilkeston,
Long Eaton
Long Eaton is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Erewash district of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about south-west of Nottingham and south-east of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 census. It has been part ...
,
Ripley and
Sandiacre. It also covers Nottingham, Mansfield, Arnold, Beeston, Bulwell, Carlton, Hucknall and West Bridgford. This means it spans parts of both Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.) (Pop: 729,977)
*
Leicester Urban Area (Pop: 650,000)
*
Derby Urban Area (Pop: 270,468)
*
Mansfield Urban Area (Spanning Mansfield,
Sutton-in-Ashfield
Sutton-in-Ashfield is a market town in Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of 36,404 in 2021. It is the largest town in the district of Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, Ashfield, four miles west of Mansfield, from the Derbyshire border and ...
and
Kirkby-in-Ashfield) (Pop: 158,114)
*''
Lincoln Urban Area'' (Spanning Lincoln,
North Hykeham and other villages) (Pop: 115,000)
*''
Burton upon Trent and Swadlincote Green Belt
The Burton upon Trent and Swadlincote Green Belt is a green belt environmental and planning policy that regulates the rural space between the towns of Burton upon Trent and Swadlincote, in the counties of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, within ...
'' (Which although isn't an urban area itself, it spans two counties between
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...
and Derbyshire near the towns of
Burton-upon-Trent and
Swadlincote
Swadlincote is a historic mining town in the district of South Derbyshire, in the county of Derbyshire, England. It lies within The National Forest (England), The National Forest area. It borders the counties of Leicestershire and Staffordshire ...
to restrict building)
Towns and cities
Major towns and cities in the East Midlands region include:
:
''Bold indicates city status
City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a monarch, national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose.
Historically, ci ...
.''
;Population > 300,000
*
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
,
LEC
*
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
,
NTT
;Population > 200,000
*
Derby
Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
,
DBY
*
Northampton
Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
,
NTH
;Population > 100,000
*
Lincoln,
LIN
*
Mansfield
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...
, NTT
;Population > 50,000
*
Beeston, NTT
*
Chesterfield, DBY
*
Corby
Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...
, NTH
*
Hinckley, LEC
*
Kettering
Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...
, NTH
*
Loughborough
Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...
, LEC
*
Wellingborough
Wellingborough ( ) is a market town in the North Northamptonshire, Unitary Authority area, England, from London and from Northampton, north of the River Nene.
Originally named "Wendelingburgh" (the stronghold of Wændel's people), the Anglo ...
, NTH
;Population > 25,000
*
Arnold, NTT
*
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, LIN
*
Bulwell, NTT
*
Coalville, LEC
*
Daventry
Daventry ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, Daventry had a populati ...
, NTH
*
Glossop
Glossop is a market town in the borough of High Peak (borough), High Peak, Derbyshire, England, east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock. Near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Mancheste ...
, DBY
*
Grantham
Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...
, LIN
*
Hucknall, NTT
*
Ilkeston, DBY
*
Kirkby-in-Ashfield, NTT
*
Long Eaton
Long Eaton is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Erewash district of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about south-west of Nottingham and south-east of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 census. It has been part ...
, DBY
*
Market Harborough
Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, close to the border with Northamptonshire. The population was 24,779 at the United Kingdom census, 2021, 2021 census. It is the ad ...
, LEC
*
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray () is a market town in the Borough of Melton, Melton district in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, Leicestershire, River Eye, known below Melton as the Rive ...
, LEC
*
Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent () or Newark is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...
, NTT
*
Rushden, NTH
*
Spalding, LIN
*
Sutton-in-Ashfield
Sutton-in-Ashfield is a market town in Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of 36,404 in 2021. It is the largest town in the district of Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, Ashfield, four miles west of Mansfield, from the Derbyshire border and ...
, NTT
*
Swadlincote
Swadlincote is a historic mining town in the district of South Derbyshire, in the county of Derbyshire, England. It lies within The National Forest (England), The National Forest area. It borders the counties of Leicestershire and Staffordshire ...
, DBY
*
West Bridgford, NTT
*
Wigston, LEC
*
Worksop
Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located south of Doncaster, south-east of Sheffield and north of Nottingham. Located close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbys ...
, NTT
;Population > 10,000
*
Ashby de la Zouch, LEC
*
Belper, DBY
*
Bingham, NTT
*
Bolsover, DBY
*
Bourne, LIN
*
Brackley, NTH
*
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in the High Peak, Derbyshire, Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Alston, Cumbria also claims this, but lacks a regu ...
, DBY
*
Desborough, NTH
*
Dronfield
Dronfield is a town in North East Derbyshire, England, which includes Dronfield Woodhouse and Coal Aston. It lies in the valley of the River Drone between Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield and Sheffield. The Peak District National Park i ...
, DBY
*
Earl Shilton, LEC
*
Eastwood, NTT
*
Eckington, DBY
*
Gainsborough, LIN
*
Heanor
Heanor (/ˈhiːnə/) is a town in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. It lies north-east of Derby and forms, with the adjacent village of Loscoe, the civil parishes in England, civil parish and town council-administered area of He ...
, DBY
*
Louth, LIN
*
Lutterworth
Lutterworth is an historic market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, close to the borders with Warwicks ...
, LEC
*
Mablethorpe
Mablethorpe is a seaside town in the civil parish of Mablethorpe and Sutton, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.OS Explorer map 283:Louth and Mablethorpe: (1:25 000): In 1961 the civil parish had a population of 3,611. On 1 Ap ...
, LIN
*
Mansfield Woodhouse, NTT
*
New Mills, DBY
*
North Hykeham, LIN
*
Oadby
Oadby is a town in the borough of Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire, England. Oadby is a district centre south-east of Leicester on the A6 road (England), A6 road. Leicester Racecourse is situated on the border between Oadby and Stoneygate. ...
, LEC
*
Oakham
Oakham is a market town and civil parish in Rutland (of which it is the county town) in the East Midlands of England. The town is located east of Leicester, southeast of Nottingham and northwest of Peterborough. It had a population of 12,14 ...
,
RUT
*
Retford, NTT
*
Ripley, DBY
*
Shepshed, LEC
*
Skegness, LIN
*
Sleaford
Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. On the edge of the The Fens, Fenlands, it is north-east of Grantham, west of Boston, Lincolnshire, Boston, and sou ...
, LIN
*
Stamford, LIN
*
Stapleford, NTT
*
Staveley, DBY
*
Syston, LEC
*
Towcester, NTH
Transport

9% of all jobs in the region are in
logistics
Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...
. Traffic in the region is growing at 2% per year – the highest growth rate of all UK regions. It is estimated that about 140,000 heavy goods vehicle journeys are made inside the region each day.
Road
The
M1 (part of the
E13 European route) serves the four largest urban areas in the region and affords a motorway link between
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
, and
North East England
North East England, commonly referred to simply as the North East within England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of County DurhamNorthumberland, , Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and part of northern North Yorkshire. ...
. Additionally, the
M6 begins on the south-western edge of the region, providing links to the
West Midlands and
North West England
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...
. Both connect to other major routes providing further links to other parts of the UK.
To the east of the largest cities lies the
A1 (part of the
European route E15), which is important for journeys to and from ports on England's north-east coast and the capital, and is a major artery for the United Kingdom's agricultural industry. The
A46 largely follows the
Fosse Way
The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia ( Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis ( Ilchester), Aquae Sulis ( Bat ...
, which has linked the south-western and north-eastern parts of England since Roman times. The
A43 dual carriageway connects the East Midlands via the
M40 motorway
The M40 motorway links London, Oxford, and Birmingham in England, a distance of approximately .
The motorway is dual three lanes except for junction 1A to junction 3 (which is dual four lanes) a short section in-between the exit and entry hig ...
corridor with the university city of
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
, as well as
South of England and
Solent
The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and mainland Great Britain; the major historic ports of Southampton and Portsmouth lie inland of its shores. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit whi ...
ports further afield. The historically important
A5 runs along the south-west
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...
boundary to the south of
Lutterworth
Lutterworth is an historic market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, close to the borders with Warwicks ...
and
Hinckley. The
A14 runs through the north of
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
, serving the settlements of
Kettering
Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...
and
Corby
Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...
alongside surrounding areas, and is a major route between the region and the
East of England
East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact ...
, including the university city of
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, and the major port of
Felixstowe
Felixstowe ( ) is a port town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, containe ...
.
Airports
East Midlands Airport in
North West Leicestershire
North West Leicestershire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Leicestershire, England. The towns in the district include of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Castle Donington, Coalville, Leicestershire , Coalville (where the council is b ...
is situated in proximity to the region's largest cities; from the centres of
Derby
Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
and
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
, with central
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
being away and
Lincoln further north east being away. The airport is the region's biggest public airport, used by over 4 million passengers annually.
Rivalry between the region's three biggest cities has led to a long-running discussion about the identity of both the airport, and region, with the East Midlands rarely found on any non-political map of the UK. The name was at one point changed to Nottingham East Midlands Airport so as to include the name of the city that is supposedly most internationally recognisable. However, the airport has a Derby phone number and postcode, and is in Leicestershire, but is officially assigned to Nottingham by
IATA
The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is an airline trade association founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff conferences tha ...
. As a result of the dispute, the name change reverted.

Three of the world's four main international air-freight companies (integrators) have their UK operations at EMA:
DHL
DHL (originally named after founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a multinational Import-Export Expert Company, founded in the United States and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It provides courier, package delivery, and express mail service, ...
,
UPS and
TNT Express (TNT bought by UPS);
FedEx
FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company specializing in Package delivery, transportation, e-commerce, and ...
have theirs at
Stansted. It is the second-largest freight airport in the UK after
Heathrow, but most freight from EMA is carried on dedicated planes, whereas most freight from Heathrow is carried on passenger planes (bellyhold).
Royal Mail
Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...
have their main airport hubs at Heathrow and EMA, as EMA is conveniently near the
M1,
A42 and
A50. Heathrow takes some 60 per cent of UK air freight, and EMA some 10 per cent, with Stansted, Manchester and Gatwick next. Air freight has grown at EMA from 1994 to 2004 from about 10,000 to over 250,000 tonnes. The main hours of cargo flying are from 20:00–05:00; domestic cargo flies into the airport in the evening, then from 23:30 to 01:30 cargo flies to European capitals and from 03:00–05:00 from Europe to EMA. It is the UK's twelfth-largest passenger airport; the runway is the UK's sixth-longest at .
Royal Mail
Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...
flights from EMA go to
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
,
Inverness
Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...
,
Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
,
Newcastle,
Exeter
Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
and
Bournemouth
Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...
, and it is the largest UK Royal Mail air hub, with eleven flights per night. DHL is the main route carrier at EMA by far with 20 flights per night, UPS have 6, and TNT have 2 (Belfast and Liège); for hubs in Europe, DHL flies to
Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, UPS to
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
, and TNT at
Liège
Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
.
Smaller airports in the region include
Retford Gamston Airport,
Nottingham Airport,
Leicester Airport,
Hucknall Airfield,
Sywell Aerodrome,
Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome and
Humberside Airport.
Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield lies just outside the East Midlands in
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...
.
Railway

Three of the United Kingdom's mainline railways serve the region: the
Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line (MML), sometimes also spelt Midland Mainline, is a major Rail transport in Great Britain, railway line from London to Sheffield in Yorkshire via the East Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras railway ...
, the
East Coast Main Line
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...
, and the
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
(
Northampton Loop) providing services terminating at
London St Pancras,
London King's Cross and
London Euston respectively. The three lines provide regular high-speed services to
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, at up to , serving , , , , , , , , , , , and . and are served by the
Northampton Loop of the
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
. England's primary south-west to north-east
Cross Country Route
The Cross Country Route is a long-distance railway route in England, which runs from to via , , and or . Inter-city services on the route, which include some of the longest passenger journeys in the UK such as to , are operated by CrossC ...
runs through Derby and Chesterfield. , , , , , , , and are served by regional services The
Chiltern Main Line also serves the western fringe of the region, at
Kings's Sutton.
A
land speed record for trains was broken in the region. Although the record was set in 1938, the current world speed record for
steam trains is held by
4468 ''Mallard'', which clocked between
Grantham
Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...
and
Peterborough
Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...
, pulling six coaches on the
East Coast Main Line
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...
near
Little Bytham in Lincolnshire, on 3 July 1938. The ''Mallard'' record was unbroken by any British rail train until 6 June 1973, when an
InterCity 125
The InterCity 125 (originally Inter-City 125) or High Speed Train (HST) is a diesel-powered High-speed rail, high-speed passenger train built by British Rail Engineering Limited between 1975 and 1982. A total of 95 sets were produced, each com ...
between
Northallerton and
Thirsk reached . ''Mallard'' in 1938 had six carriages and a
dynamometer car. The national electric-train speed record (pre-
High Speed 1
High Speed 1 (HS1), officially the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel.
It is part of the line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Euro ...
) of was set on the same stretch as the Mallard record, on 17 September 1989 by
Class 91 91010.
There were plans to bring a new
high-speed rail
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is ...
line through the East Midlands as part of the
High Speed 2
High Speed 2 (HS2) is a high-speed railway which has been under construction in England since 2019. The line's planned route is between Handsacre – in southern Staffordshire – and London, with a Spur line, branch to Birmingham. HS2 is to ...
project, of which
Phase 2 would have brought a new line connecting
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
to
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
, with a proposed station in
Toton
Toton is a large suburban village in the Borough of Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire, England. It forms part of the built-up area of Beeston, Nottinghamshire, Beeston, which in turn forms part of the wider Nottingham Urban Area. The population of th ...
known as the
East Midlands Hub It would also have served the region via "classic-compatible" tracks serving
Chesterfield and
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
, the latter of which is just outside the region in
Yorkshire & the Humber.
Water

The
Trent is a
navigable river used to transport goods to the
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Trent, Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms ...
, as well as passing by many power stations. The Trent is the only river in England able to supply cooling water for power stations for most of its length; it has the largest water capacity in England, although it is not the longest.
Several rivers in the region gave their name to early
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
jet engines, namely the
Nene, the
Welland, and the
Soar.
Trams
Nottingham is the only city in the region served by a light railway system, operated by
Nottingham Express Transit
Nottingham Express Transit (NET) is a tram system in Nottingham, England.
The concept of a modern tramway to reduce road congestion and promote urban renewal was formally identified during the late 1980s while detailed planning was undertake ...
.
Transport policy
As part of the transport planning system, the later defunct Regional Assembly was under statutory requirement to produce a Regional Transport Strategy to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involved region wide transport schemes such as those carried out by the
Highways Agency
National Highways (NH), formerly Highways England and before that the Highways Agency, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England.
It also sets highways standards u ...
and
Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...
.
Local transport authorities in the region carry out planning through a
Local Transport Plan (LTP).
The most recent LTPs are for the period 2006–11. The following East Midland transport authorities published an LTP online:
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
,
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...
.
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
,
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
,
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
and
Rutland
Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town.
Rutland has a ...
U.A.
The
unitary authorities
A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
of
Derby
Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
,
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
and
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
They have each written a joint LTP in collaboration with their respective local county councils.
History
Romans
A historical basis for such a region exists in the territory of the
Corieltauvi tribe. When the
Romans took control, they made Leicester (
Ratae Corieltauvorum) one of their main forts. The main town in the region in Roman times was
Lincoln, at the confluence of the
Fosse Way
The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia ( Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis ( Ilchester), Aquae Sulis ( Bat ...
and
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earninga ...
.
Anglo-Saxons and the Danelaw
After the withdrawal of the Romans, the area was settled by
Angles, a
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 to the west. The region also corresponds to the later
Five Boroughs of the
Danelaw
The Danelaw (, ; ; ) was the part of History of Anglo-Saxon England, England between the late ninth century and the Norman Conquest under Anglo-Saxon rule in which Danes (tribe), Danish laws applied. The Danelaw originated in the conquest and oc ...
, 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
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between ...
. Evidence of the Danelaw can be seen in place-name endings of the region's villages, particularly towards the east. The Danes under
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
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
were the
Battle of Naseby
The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Roundhead, Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, Sir Th ...
in northern Northamptonshire on 14 June 1645, and the
Battle of Winceby on 11 October 1643 in eastern Lincolnshire.
Scientific heritage
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...
, born in
Grantham
Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...
in 1642, is perhaps the most prolific scientist. His accomplishments include
calculus
Calculus is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations.
Originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the ...
,
Newton's laws of motion
Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws, which provide the basis for Newtonian mechanics, can be paraphrased as follows:
# A body re ...
, and
Newton's law of universal gravitation
Newton's law of universal gravitation describes gravity as a force by stating that every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force that is Proportionality (mathematics)#Direct proportionality, proportional to the product ...
, 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
The radian, denoted by the symbol rad, is the unit of angle in the International System of Units (SI) and is the standard unit of angular measure used in many areas of mathematics. It is defined such that one radian is the angle subtended at ...
in 1714, but the term was not named until 1873.
Henry Cavendish, loosely connected with Derbyshire, discovered
hydrogen
Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
in 1766 (although the element's name came from
Antoine Lavoisier
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794), When reduced without charcoal, it gave off an air which supported respiration and combustion in an enhanced way. He concluded that this was just a pure form of common air and that i ...
), and Cavendish was the first to estimate an accurate mass of the Earth in 1798 in his
Cavendish experiment
The Cavendish experiment, performed in 1797–1798 by English scientist Henry Cavendish, was the first experiment to measure the force of gravity between masses in the laboratory and the first to yield accurate values for the gravitational cons ...
. The
Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...
at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
is named after a
relative.
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in '' ...
coined the term "
survival of the fittest
"Survival of the fittest" is a phrase that originated from Darwinian evolutionary theory as a way of describing the mechanism of natural selection. The biological concept of fitness is defined as reproductive success. In Darwinian terms, th ...
" in 1864, which was once strongly linked with
social Darwinism
Charles Darwin, after whom social Darwinism is named
Social Darwinism is a body of pseudoscientific theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economi ...
.
Sir John Flamsteed was the first
Astronomer Royal
Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the astronomer royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the astronomer royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The Astro ...
of the
Royal Observatory, Greenwich
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in Gre ...
in 1675.
Robert Bakewell, of
Dishley in Leicestershire and known for his
English Leicester sheep, arrived at
selective breeding
Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant m ...
; his
English Longhorns were the first
cattle bred for beef.
George Boole
George Boole ( ; 2 November 1815 – 8 December 1864) was a largely self-taught English mathematician, philosopher and logician, most of whose short career was spent as the first professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork in Ireland. H ...
, pioneer of
Boolean logic
In mathematics and mathematical logic, Boolean algebra is a branch of algebra. It differs from elementary algebra in two ways. First, the values of the variable (mathematics), variables are the truth values ''true'' and ''false'', usually denot ...
(upon which all
digital electronics
Digital electronics is a field of electronics involving the study of digital signals and the engineering of devices that use or produce them. It deals with the relationship between Binary number, binary inputs and outputs by passing electrical s ...
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
Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist, cryptographer and inventor known as the "father of information theory" and the man who laid the foundations of th ...
. Boole's grandson, the physicist
G. I. Taylor
Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor Order of Merit, OM Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (7 March 1886 – 27 June 1975) was a British physicist and mathematician, who made contributions to fluid dynamics and wave theory.
Early life and education
Tayl ...
, made significant experimental contributions to
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
. The first practical
demonstration of radar was near
Daventry
Daventry ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, Daventry had a populati ...
in 1935.
Robert Robinson, of Chesterfield in Derbyshire, invented the circular symbol in 1925 for the
pi bond
In chemistry, pi bonds (π bonds) are covalent chemical bonds, in each of which two lobes of an orbital on one atom overlap with two lobes of an orbital on another atom, and in which this overlap occurs laterally. Each of these atomic orbital ...
s of the
benzene
Benzene is an Organic compound, organic chemical compound with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar hexagonal Ring (chemistry), ring with one hyd ...
ring, as found on structural diagrams of
aromatic compounds.
Nicola Pellow
Nicola Pellow is an English mathematician and information scientist who was one of the nineteen members of the ''WWW Project'' at CERN working with Tim Berners-Lee. She joined the project in November 1990, while an undergraduate maths student en ...
, a maths undergraduate at Leicester Polytechnic, whilst at CERN in November 1990, wrote the world's second web browser.
Silicone
In Organosilicon chemistry, organosilicon and polymer chemistry, a silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer composed of repeating units of siloxane (, where R = Organyl group, organic group). They are typically colorless oils or elastomer, rubber ...
was discovered in 1899 by Prof
Frederic Kipping at University College, Nottingham.
Michael Creeth of Northampton discovered the
hydrogen-bonding mechanism between DNA bases, allowing the
structure of DNA to be discovered. Nottinghamshire's Ken Richardson was in charge of the team at
Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral (New York City), The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 184 ...
in Sandwich, Kent that in 1981 discovered
Fluconazole
Fluconazole is an antifungal medication used for a number of fungal infections. These include candidiasis, blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis, cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis, dermatophytosis, and tinea versicolor. It is also used to pr ...
(Diflucan), the world's leading
antifungal medication, especially useful for those with
weakened immune systems. It has few side effects. Richardson is one of the few Britons in the
National Inventors Hall of Fame
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a US patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operate ...
.
Don Grierson at the University of Nottingham was the first to produce a
Genetically modified tomato
A genetically modified tomato, or transgenic tomato, is a tomato that has had its genes modified, using genetic engineering. The first trial genetically modified food was a tomato engineered to have a longer shelf life (the Flavr Savr), which was ...
, which became the first GM food on sale in the UK and in the United States.
Louis Essen
Louis Essen OBE FRS(6 September 1908 – 24 August 1997) was an English physicist whose most notable achievements were in the precise measurement of time and the determination of the speed of light. He was a critic of Albert Einstein's th ...
, a Nottingham physicist,
made advances in the
quartz clock
Quartz clocks and quartz watches are timepieces that use an electronic oscillator regulated by a quartz crystal to keep time. The crystal oscillator, controlled by the resonant mechanical vibrations of the quartz crystal, creates a signal with ...
in the 1930s at the
National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, to produce the quartz ring clock in 1938, and the caesium clock, known as the
atomic clock
An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betwee ...
, in 1955. During the war he invented the
cavity resonance wavemeter
An absorption wavemeter is a simple electronic instrument used to measure the frequency of radio waves. It is an older method of measuring frequency, widely used from the birth of radio in the early 20th century until the 1970s, when the develop ...
to find the first accurate value of the speed of light. The atomic clock works on differences in
magnetic spin. Before Essen's invention, the
second
The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
was defined in terms of the
orbit of the Earth round the Sun; he changed it in 1967 to be based on the
hyperfine structure of the
caesium-133 atom.
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communicat ...
(UTC), in Paris, takes the average of 300 atomic clocks around the world.
On the early morning of Tuesday 26 February 1935 the
radio transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna with the purpose of signal transmissio ...
at
Daventry
Daventry ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, Daventry had a populati ...
was used for the "
Daventry Experiment
Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal Early-warning radar, early warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Initially known as R ...
" which involved the first practical demonstration of
radar
Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
, by its inventor
Robert Watson-Watt
Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt (13 April 1892 – 5 December 1973) was a Scottish radio engineer and pioneer of radio direction finding and radar technology.
Watt began his career in radio physics with a job at the Met Office, where he be ...
and
Arnold Frederic Wilkins. They used a radio receiver installed in a van at
Litchborough (just off the
A5 about 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
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
Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal early warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Initially known as RDF, and given the off ...
, which provided a decisive advantage to the
RAF in the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...
in 1940.
Culture and identity
Language and dialect
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
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent of British English regarded as the Standard language, standard one, carrying the highest Prestige (sociolinguistics), social prestige, since as late as the beginning of the 2 ...
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." 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.
A new area of the
North Midlands has been proposed, but this has not taken off. In
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.
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, the
Bakewell pudding, and the
Bramley apple.
The arts
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...
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
Heanor (/ˈhiːnə/) is a town in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. It lies north-east of Derby and forms, with the adjacent village of Loscoe, the civil parishes in England, civil parish and town council-administered area of He ...
; 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 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
(; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design. The term ''haute couture'' generally refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the ...
'', ostensibly as the world's first true fashion designer.
Religion
William Booth of Nottingham founded
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...
in 1865. Another religious order, the
Pilgrim Fathers, originated from
Babworth near
Retford. The
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...
, also known as the Religious Society of Friends, were founded by Leicestershire-born (
Fenny Drayton)
George Fox
George Fox (July 1624 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 13 January 1691 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English Dissenters, English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Quakers, Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as t ...
, who had an inspiration whilst living in
Mansfield
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...
in 1647.
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a theologian, leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He is honoured as a Oxford Martyrs, martyr ...
from Aslockton compiled the Church of England
Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the title given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christianity, Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), fi ...
.
Industrial heritage
The region can claim the world's first factory,
Sir Richard Arkwright's
Cromford Mill. The world's oldest working factory can also be found in the area, producing textiles at
Lea Bridge, owned by
John Smedley. Both sites are part of the region's only
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
, the
Derwent Valley Mills
Derwent Valley Mills is a World Heritage Site along the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England, designated in December 2001. It is administered by the Derwent Valley Mills Partnership. The modern factory, or 'mill', fact ...
. An opportunist employee of the Derbyshire textile factories,
Samuel Slater of
Belper saw his chance and (illegally) eloped in 1789 to
Rhode Island
Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...
in the US after memorising the layout of the textile machinery while working at
Jedediah Strutt
Jedediah Strutt (1726 – 7 May 1797) or Jedidiah Strutt – as he spelled it – was a hosier and cotton spinner from Belper, England.
Strutt and his brother-in-law William Woollat developed an attachment to the stocking frame that allowed ...
's
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
Calverton () is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England and of some in size. It is in the Gedling district, about north-east of Nottingham, south-east of Mansfield, and situated, like nearby Woodborough and Lambley, on one ...
by Rev
William Lee; these were the first known
knitting machine
A knitting machine is a device used to create knitting, knitted fabrics in a semi or fully automated fashion. There are numerous types of knitting machines, ranging from simple spool or board templates with no moving parts to highly complex mec ...
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
A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system.
Although some were driven ...
to be powered by water.
John Barber of Nottinghamshire had invented a simple
gas turbine
A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...
in 1791 (when living in
Nuneaton
Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire to the north-east.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...
).
Lincoln was the site of the first
tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...
(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
Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...
the first
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...
(in 1892). The
jet engine
A jet engine is a type of reaction engine, discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...
was first
developed in the region in
Lutterworth
Lutterworth is an historic market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, close to the borders with Warwicks ...
and
Whetstone, with the
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can takeoff and landing, take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust- ...
engine also (initially)
developed in
Hucknall. The first jet aircraft flew from
RAF Cranwell
Royal Air Force Cranwell or more simply RAF Cranwell is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station in Lincolnshire, England, close to the village of Cranwell, near Sleaford. Among other functions, it is home to the RAF Colleg ...
in May 1941. During the Second World War,
Derby
Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
was an important strategic location, as it was in Derby that
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
developed and manufactured their iconic
Merlin
The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...
aero-engine. During the Second World War, all of R-R's engineering staff had been transferred to Belper.
Derby was home to two railway workshops,
Derby Works
The Derby Works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby railway sta ...
and
Derby Litchurch Lane Works
Derby Litchurch Lane Works, formerly Derby Carriage and Wagon Works, is a railway rolling stock factory in Derby, England. It is presently owned by the multinational transportation manufacturer Alstom.
Derby works originally commenced productio ...
initially for the
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...
, then the
London, Midland & Scottish Railway, and finally
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...
.
British Rail Research Division
The British Rail Research Division was a division of the state-owned railway company British Rail (BR). It was charged with conducting research into improving various aspects of Britain's railways, particularly in the areas of reliability and e ...
in Derby invented the
APT (
British Rail Class 370) and
Maglev
Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation'') is a system of rail transport whose rolling stock is levitated by electromagnets rather than rolled on wheels, eliminating rolling resistance.
Compared to conventional railways, maglev trains h ...
. The first steel rails were laid in 1857 at
Derby railway station for the
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...
. Derby Litchurch Lane Works remains in operation under the ownership of
Alstom
Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...
At its peak,
Corby Steelworks was the largest in Britain. The collapsible
baby buggy was invented in 1965 at
Barby, Northamptonshire
Barby is a village and civil parish about north of Daventry in Northamptonshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 2,336. Barby is located right off the M45 motorway a short spur from the M1 motorway to the A45 Trun ...
by
Owen Maclaren.
Ford's £8 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 , and is situated opposite the
Cummins
Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, electric vehicle components, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipmen ...
factory.

The largest camera in the world was built in 1957 in Derby for Rolls-Royce, which weighed 27 tonnes and was around high, wide and long, with a lens made by
Cooke Apochromatic. Cooke Optics and
Taylor-Hobson were major supplier of lenses for Hollywood; ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
'' 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
The focal length of an Optics, optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the Multiplicative inverse, inverse of the system's optical power. A positive focal length indicates that a system Converge ...
of the camera for the 1930s
Technicolor
Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...
Process and for
vignetting
In photography and optics, vignetting ( ) is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation toward the periphery compared to the image center. The word '' vignette'', from the same root as ''vine'', originally referred to a decorative b ...
.
Arthur Warmisham of Taylor & Hobson invented the first non-telescopic 35 mm
zoom lens, the Cooke Varo 40– 120mm Lens, in a camera manufactured by
Bell & Howell of the US. The popular 35 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
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
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
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
(from an American-led design scheme). The first modern-day traffic lights were installed in
Piccadilly
Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...
from August 1926.
Edgar Purnell Hooley, a Nottinghamshire surveyor, in 1901 was in Denby and found a stretch of
road surface
A road surface (British English) or pavement (North American English) is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past, gravel road surfaces, macadam, ...
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
Tarmac, a name which he patented. Radcliffe Road (A6011) in
West Bridgford in 1902 was the first tarmac road ( long) in the world.
Mettoy was a firm in the
St James area of Northampton, which from 1933 produced
Corgi toys (mostly made in
Swansea
Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...
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
Palitoy was a British toy company. It manufactured some of the most popular toys in Britain, some original items and others under licence. Its products included Action Man, Action Girl, Action Force, Tiny Tears, Pippa (doll), Pippa, Tressy, Mainli ...
, another world-famous firm in Coalville;
General Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...
bought it in 1968, but production ceased in 1984 and the site was closed by
Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...
in 1994.
Pedigree Dolls & Toys (
Sindy) was in
Wellingborough
Wellingborough ( ) is a market town in the North Northamptonshire, Unitary Authority area, England, from London and from Northampton, north of the River Nene.
Originally named "Wendelingburgh" (the stronghold of Wændel's people), the Anglo ...
, closing in 1982. The first plastic
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 later owned by
ASDA
Asda Stores Limited (), trading as Asda and often styled as ASDA, is a British supermarket and petrol station chain. Its headquarters is in Leeds, England. The company was incorporated as Associated Dairies and Farm Stores in 1949. It expanded ...
.
Much
integrated circuit
An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...
and semiconductor research was carried out by
Plessey at
Caswell near Towcester, ahead of the achievements in America by
Jack Kilby
Jack St. Clair Kilby (November 8, 1923 – June 20, 2005) was an American electrical engineer who took part, along with Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor, in the realization of the first integrated circuit while working at Texas Instrumen ...
; Plessey invented a model of the integrated circuit in 1957. Caswell was later a site for manufacturing
monolithic microwave integrated circuit
Monolithic microwave integrated circuit, or MMIC (sometimes pronounced "mimic"), is a type of integrated circuit (IC) device that operates at microwave frequencies (300 MHz to 300 GHz). These devices typically perform functions such as ...
s in the 1990s by
Marconi. On 15 December 1966, the first electronic telephone exchange in Europe opened at
Ambergate
Ambergate () is a village in Derbyshire, England, situated where the River Amber joins the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent. It is about south of Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock.
The village forms part of the Heage and Ambergate ward of ...
in Derbyshire.
Torksey 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 station (north Nottinghamshire) at .
Nottingham Combined Heating and Power Scheme is the largest
district heating
District heating (also known as heat networks) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heater, space heating and w ...
system in the UK, centred on the Eastcroft incinerator, opened in 1973.
Second World War
Most of the region was protected by a solitary RAF station,
RAF Digby near
Sleaford
Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. On the edge of the The Fens, Fenlands, it is north-east of Grantham, west of Boston, Lincolnshire, Boston, and sou ...
, part of
No. 12 Group RAF and controlled from
RAF Watnall. Within the East Midlands, only Nottingham was
heavily bombed during the Second World War's
Blitz, due to the presence of a large
Royal Ordnance factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...
. However, much of the
aerial obliteration of Germany was directed from the region, with two bomber groups based in
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
(
No.1 and
No.5), and a few squadrons in South Nottinghamshire. The proliferation of Second World War airfields in Lincolnshire led to it being known as Bomber County.
Regional governance
The government office region was created in 1994. Government funding decisions moved from
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray () is a market town in the Borough of Melton, Melton district in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, Leicestershire, River Eye, known below Melton as the Rive ...
(the
East Midlands Regional Assembly) to Nottingham (the
East Midlands Development Agency) in April 2010.
Demographics

For
teenage pregnancy rates in the region, Nottingham is the top-tier authority. Of the council districts,
Corby
Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...
has the highest rate. Of the top-tier authorities, Rutland has the lowest rate for any district in England. The council district with the lowest rate is
South Northamptonshire, although it has a rate greater than that of Rutland. Rutland has the highest
total fertility rate
The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that are born to a woman over her lifetime, if they were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through their lifetime, and they were t ...
for
British counties (top-tier authorities). The
borough of Boston has the highest TFR for district councils.
The region has the second-lowest overall population density in England (after
South West England
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it is one of four regions that altogether make up Southern England. South West England con ...
), eased by the
low population density of
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
and
Rutland
Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town.
Rutland has a ...
. In 2007, the region had a lower percentage of degree-educated people than the English average. Of the region's population, 29.5 per cent live in rural areas.
Ethnicity
Religion
Social deprivation

The region as a whole is less deprived than the
West Midlands and regions in the
North of England
Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...
. By measurement of
Lower Layer Super Output Areas, the East Midlands has more in common with the South of England (except London) than the North, in that it has more areas in the 20 per cent least deprived areas than the 20 per cent most deprived areas, but less so than regions in
Southern England
Southern England, also known as the South of England or the South, is a sub-national part of England. Officially, it is made up of the southern, south-western and part of the eastern parts of England, consisting of the statistical regions of ...
. This has been explained by academic statisticians, who claim the area straddles the
north–south divide.
The region does not show typical economic characteristics of Northern England (which the West Midlands does), although it is not as affluent as large parts of the South of England. Economically, the East Midlands bears a similarity to
South West England
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it is one of four regions that altogether make up Southern England. South West England con ...
.
In March 2011, the average
unemployment claimant count for the region was 3.6 per cent. Nottingham and Leicester were the highest with 5.8 per cent each. Next were
Corby
Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...
and
Lincoln with 4.9 per cent. The lowest were Rutland and
South Northamptonshire with 1.4 per cent each, and
Harborough, with 1.6 per cent.
Elections
The East Midlands is represented by forty-seven
Members of Parliament (MPs), a gain of one after
the most recent Periodic Review. At the
2024 general election, the region elected twenty-nine
Labour Party MPs, fifteen
Conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
, two from
Reform UK
Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Nigel Farage has been Leader of Reform UK and Richard Tice deputy leader since 2024. It has five members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons and one membe ...
and one
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
. Labour Party MPs were primarily elected in Derbyshire (where they won all eleven seats) and Nottinghamshire, whilst Conservatives were mostly elected in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.
In 2009, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire county councils changed control from Labour to Conservative. From 1993 to 2005, Northampton was controlled by Labour, but has since been controlled by the Conservatives. Lincolnshire and Leicestershire have historically been Conservative, hence all the main county councils are Conservative controlled.
MEPs
The East Midlands was a five-member constituency for the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
.
Regions
Eurostat NUTS
In the
Eurostat
Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...
Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics
Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS () is a geocode standard for referencing the administrative divisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard, adopted in 2003, is developed and regulated by the European ...
(NUTS), the East Midlands form a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKF", which is subdivided as follows:
Local government
The official
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
consists of the following subdivisions:
Economy

The
Manufacturing Advisory Service
The Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) is a former government agency in England and Scotland.
History
It was founded by the Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI, which became Department for ...
for the region was based on the
A606 in
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray () is a market town in the Borough of Melton, Melton district in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, Leicestershire, River Eye, known below Melton as the Rive ...
, next to
East Midlands Councils.
Manufacturing
In 2003, 23% of economic output in the East Midlands was in manufacturing, compared to 15% in the UK.
For engineering,
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
(the world's second-largest maker of
aircraft engine
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Aircraft using power components are referred to as powered flight. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbin ...
s) in
Sinfin and
Rolls-Royce Marine Power Operations are both in Derby.
Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery (former
GEC, then
Alstom
Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...
) make industrial
gas turbine
A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...
s in Lincoln, with a former division making aero-engine components, part of
ITP Engines based at
Whetstone, next door to
Hardinge Machine Tools UK (former
Bridgeport).
Cytec Industries UK (owned since 2016 by
Solvay) have a composites research centre in the south of Heanor.
Meggitt
Parker Meggitt (legally Meggitt Ltd) is a British international company specialising in components and sub-systems for the aerospace, defence and selected energy markets. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the F ...
Polymers & Composites (formerly Dunlop) are on the A512 in Shepshed, who make seals for aircraft.
Triumph Motorcycles and
Ultima Sports (
sports car
A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...
s) are in
Hinckley.
Cummins
Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, electric vehicle components, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipmen ...
make diesel engines in
Daventry
Daventry ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, Daventry had a populati ...
, and build
AC generators in
Stamford, with its spares division at Wellingborough (near Mahle). 80% of the world's
Formula One
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
cars are made in Northamptonshire. At the north of Motorsport Valley,
Cosworth
Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for auto racing, automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream Automotiv ...
and
MAHLE Powertrain (Cosworth Technology before January 2005) are next to the Nene in Northampton, with an
engine block
In an internal combustion engine, the engine block is the structure that contains the cylinders and other components. The engine block in an early automotive engine consisted of just the cylinder block, to which a separate crankcase was attach ...
plant in Wellingborough.
Force India and
Delta Motorsport are at
Silverstone,
Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains is in
Brixworth, and
Mercedes-Benz F1 at Brackley.
Near Leicester,
Noble are in
Barwell and
Fenix Automotive in Braunstone.
Eibach UK (shock absorbers) is off the B581 in
Broughton Astley.
KTM UK (high-performance motorcycles) is at Buckingham Industrial Estate in southeast Brackley; to the west, next door was
Brawn GP
Brawn GP was a Formula One constructor which competed in the 2009 Formula One World Championship, with drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. The team was formed in 2009 by a management buyout led by Ross Brawn of the Honda Racing F1 T ...
(
Honda F1 before 2008) in
Evenley.
Van Hool
Van Hool NV () was a Belgium, Belgian coachbuilder and manufacturer of buses, Coach (bus), coaches, trolleybuses, and Semi-trailer, trailers.
Most of the buses and coaches were built entirely by Van Hool, with engines and axles sourced from C ...
UK (
coachwork
A coachbuilder manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.
The trade of producing coachwork began with bodies for horse-drawn vehicles. Today it includes custom automobiles, buses, motor coaches, and railway carriages.
The word ...
) is in Wellingborough.
Caetano UK is based near Coalville, a UK coachwork distributor for
National Express
Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...
.
AGC Automotive UK make
automotive glass (
tempered glass
Tempered or toughened glass is a type of safety glass processed by controlled heat treatment, thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength compared with normal glass. Tempering puts the outer surfaces into Compression (physics), comp ...
and
laminated glass) on
Round Spinney Industrial Estate in Northampton.
Plastic Omnium Automotive make automotive exteriors in the west of Measham. On a former
airfield
An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...
is
Lippstadt-based
Hella UK (LED automobile lighting, and Europe's largest automobile lighting manufacturer) in
Chipping Warden and
Aston le Walls.
Ilmor
Ilmor is a British independent high-performance auto racing, motor racing engineering company. It was founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan (engineer), Paul Morgan in November 1983. With manufacturing based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and ...
is in Brixworth, and
Bowler Offroad is in Belper.
JCB Power Systems is near
Foston, Derbyshire and nearby
Toyota Manufacturing UK (TMUK) is at
Burnaston, where its 3,000 employees make the
Auris and
Avensis
The is a Mid-size car, mid-size/large family car built in Derbyshire, United Kingdom by the Japanese automaker Toyota from October 1997 to August 2018. It was the direct successor to the European Toyota Carina E, Carina E and was available as a ...
.
Resonate Group (formerly DeltaRail Group) is in Derby, and train manufacturer
Bombardier UK (
British Rail Engineering Limited before 1996 then
ABB Adtranz) is at
Derby Litchurch Lane Works
Derby Litchurch Lane Works, formerly Derby Carriage and Wagon Works, is a railway rolling stock factory in Derby, England. It is presently owned by the multinational transportation manufacturer Alstom.
Derby works originally commenced productio ...
, in
Litchurch
Litchurch is a historical area in the city of Derby, in Derbyshire, England. From Medieval times it was a rural Township (England), township associated with Derby but outside the borough , burgh boundary, before experiencing rapid urbanisation an ...
; it built the
Nottingham Express Transit AT6/5 trams in 2004, the
Electrostar,
Turbostar and
Aventra fleets, and
London Underground trains.
APPH (part of
BBA Aviation) make aircraft
landing gear
Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, s ...
next to
Kirkby-in-Ashfield railway station.
Raleigh Bicycle Company
The Raleigh Bicycle Company is a British bicycle manufacturer based in Nottingham, England and founded by Woodhead and Angois in 1885. Using Raleigh as their brand name, it is one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world. After being acquir ...
is based in New
Eastwood.
Essentra Packaging (formerly Payne) nearby in Giltbrook, next to
IKEA
IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services.
IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...
, makes
tear tape, owned by
Essentra.
Giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''wiktionary:gigas, gigas'', cognate wiktionary:giga-, giga-) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''gia ...
UK (high performance bicycles) on the Charnwood Edge Business Park in
Cossington.
Mettler Toledo UK (
industrial weighing) is in the west of Beaumont Leys.
Ferodo is in
Chapel-en-le-Frith
Chapel-en-le-Frith () is a town and civil parish, in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England.
It has been dubbed the "Capital of the Peak", in reference to the Peak District, historically the highland areas between the Saxon lands (below ...
, having made
brake pads since its founder
Herbert Frood invented them in
Combs in 1897.
Carbolite, which makes industrial furnaces, is in the
Hope Valley.
FKI who own
Brush Electrical Machines
Brush Electrical Machines is a manufacturer of electrical generators typically for gas turbine and steam turbine driven applications. The main office is based at Loughborough in Leicestershire, UK.
History
Charles Francis Brush, born in Cleve ...
is in Loughborough, home to the
Energy Technologies Institute and
John Taylor & Co
John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell (instrument), bell foundry. It is locat ...
, which although entering
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people.
** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...
in 2009, is the largest
bell foundry in the world.
Eco-Bat Technologies, based in
South Darley,
smelt,
mine lead, being the world's biggest producer, and own eighteen sites across the world.
Scott Bader develop and manufacture
polyester resins for glass-reinforced plastic (
fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...
, and
gelcoats) at
Wollaston.
Tata Steel Tubes Europe is in Corby.
Barnes Aerospace have their European headquarters in central Derby. JJ Churchill make
s for jet engines in the east of
Market Bosworth
Market Bosworth ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Leicestershire, England. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 1,906, increasing to 2,097 at the 2011 census. It is most famously near to the site of the decisive final battle of the ...
. Ross Ceramics north of Derby make
ceramic cores for casting turbine blades (at Rolls-Royce). The
Alumasc Group
Alumasc Group plc is a United Kingdom-based supplier of building and engineering products, with a specialism in Sustainable building, sustainable building products designed to manage energy and water use in the built environment. The company is li ...
is in
Burton Latimer
Burton Latimer is a town in North Northamptonshire, England, approximately southeast of Kettering and 4.5 miles north of Wellingborough. At the 2021 census, its population was 10,444.
History
Burton (Latimer) appears in three entries in the ...
.
Sealed Air UK on the Telford Way Industrial Estate, makes
Bubble Wrap
Bubble wrap is a pliable transparency (optics), transparent plastic material commonly used for protecting fragile items during shipping. Known for its cushioning air-filled bubbles, it has also become a cultural icon, celebrated for its satisfy ...
, which its parent USA company invented in 1960.
The
Motor Industry Research Association
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into motion (physics), mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroe ...
has an important test track at
Higham on the Hill.
Hendrickson Europe make truck suspensions at Sywell Airport.
Timsons make printers in
Kettering
Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...
.
Heckler & Koch is in Lenton. On the Dukeries Industrial Estate, Worksop Galvanizers (
Wedge Group) have the largest
galvanizing bath (zinc) in the UK.
Cooper Bussmann (formerly Hawker Fusegear) makes
electrical fuses in
Burton on the Wolds. Pearce Signs, one of the UK's largest sign-makers, is based in
New Basford. Nylacast is an international
engineered plastics company based in
Humberstone, Leicester.
Sapa
Sapa or Sapë may refer to:
Places
* Sapa, Mississippi, a community in the United States
* Sa Pa, a district-level town in Lào Cai province, Northern Vietnam
** Sa Pa (ward)
** Sa Pa (ward), Sa Pả (ward)
* Sapë, a town in Albania
* Roman Cath ...
are on the Saw Pit Lane Industrial Estate with Storetec, the UK base of
Wanzl shopping trolleys.
RPC Group in
Rushden, is a large (international, the largest of its type in Europe) packaging company, and make the bottles for
Heinz Tomato Ketchup. Granger's, on the Clover Nook Industrial Estate at
Pinxton, make Cherry Blossom
shoe polish
Shoe polish, also known as boot polish and shoeshine, is a waxy paste (rheology), paste, cream (pharmaceutical), cream, or liquid that is used to polish, polishing, shine, and waterproofing, waterproof leather shoes or boots to extend the footwe ...
. Fusion Provida based in Chesterfield makes pipe jointings and
electrofusion
Electrofusion is a method of joining MDPE, HDPE and other plastic pipes using special fittings that have built-in electric heating elements which are used to welding, weld the joint together.
The pipes to be joined are cleaned, inserted into the ...
fittings for the oil and gas industry.
Vaillant UK (Hepworth Heating before 2002, with headquarters in
Remscheid
Remscheid () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third-largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on the south side of the Ruhr area.
Remscheid ha ...
) make
Glow-worm boilers near
Belper School
Belper School and Sixth Form Centre is a foundation secondary school located in the north-east of Belper, Derbyshire, England. In October 2019, Ofsted reported that its overall effectiveness is 'Needs Improvement'.
It has received Healthy Scho ...
.
The
Watchkeeper WK450 UAV is built jointly by
Thales
Thales of Miletus ( ; ; ) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic Philosophy, philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Seven Sages, founding figure ...
and
Elbit
Elbit Systems Ltd. is an Israel-based international military technology company and defense contractor. Founded in 1966 by Elron Electronic Industries, Elron, Elbit Systems is the primary provider of the Israeli military's land-based equipme ...
in west Leicester; it is tested at
Aberporth Airport in Wales; 54 are on order, costing £1bn.
BAE Systems Land & Armaments had a tank factory, which closed in May 2011 when it lost the
FRES contract, given to General Dynamics; the site, owned by Thales, initially made naval radar systems. The large Sunningdale site on Braunstone Frith was the
British Shoe Corporation.
Chemring Defence UK (military
pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating fireworks, but also includes safety matches, oxygen candles, Pyrotechnic fastener, explosive bolts (and other fasteners), parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, q ...
) is at
Draycott and Church Wilne.
Invicta Plastics (
injection moulding
Injection moulding (U.S. spelling: injection molding) is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting molten material into a mould, or mold. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials mainly including metals (for ...
) is on Scudamore Road.
Hoval, near Newark Northgate station, make industrial boilers in Lincoln for international customers, and have a
Royal Warrant.
Jayplas, the UK's biggest
plastic recycling
Plastic recycling is the processing of plastic waste into other products. Recycling can reduce dependence on landfills, conserve resources and protect the environment from plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling rates lag beh ...
company is based in
Great Oakley, with a plastic recycling site in
South Normanton.
Fairline Boats are based on the Nene in Oundle; nearby are
Poclain Hydraulics UK on the Nene Business Park.
Laser Performance makes the
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...
sailing boat in Long Buckby.
Abbott & Co.(Newark) Ltd, Established in 1870 and based in The Newark Boiler Works, made boilers in the 1870s for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
and since then design and build a large range of
pressure vessel
A pressure vessel is a container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure substantially different from the ambient pressure.
Construction methods and materials may be chosen to suit the pressure application, and will depend on the size o ...
s, some of which were used on
HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08).
Spector Lumenex (part of
Tyco) make warning systems in
Mapperley.
Flowserve UK (formerly
Worthington-Simpson, then
Ingersoll-Dresser) in Balderton are the largest manufacturer of industrial pumps in the UK.
Hako Machines UK, a
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...
supplier of
industrial sweepers and
road cleaners are in Crick.
Bostik, which from 1930 until 1990, was owned by
British United Shoe Machinery of Leicester, still has a main factory and research site (its construction division) in Belgrave; until 1962 it was made by
BB Chemical, with its other main brand being the water-resistant
Prestik for making
sealing strips.
Taylor Hobson (an international metrology company) is in Leicester, bought by
Ametek
AMETEK, Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate and global designer and manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with headquarters in the United States and over 220 sites worldwide.
The company was founded in 1 ...
in 2004; with a former division of the company, Cooke Optics, a camera lens manufacturer, further north in Thurmaston. The
Gent fire alarm company, owned by Honeywell since 2005, is north of Humberstone.
Matsuura Machinery UK (CNC
machine tool
A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, Boring (manufacturing), boring, grinding (abrasive cutting), grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some s ...
s) is in Coalville.
Ardagh (
Metal Box from 1962, then Impress Group) make
tin can
A steel can, tin can, tin (especially in British English, Australian English, Canadian English and South African English), or can is a container made of thin metal, for distribution or storage of goods. Some cans are opened by removing the to ...
s north of Fabrikat;
Pandrol UK in Worksop make resilient
rail fastenings.
ThyssenKrupp
ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It resulted from the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg and E ...
UK is in Lenton, and further north is
ZF Services UK (wind turbine and automotive gears). In Nottingham is
Thomas & Betts UK (formerly
W & J Furse, and bought by
ABB in 2012), a world leader in
lightning
Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...
and
earthing protection.
Construction and building materials
Topps Tiles are in Enderby, with the national distribution centre of British Gas, the largest warehouse of gas spare parts in Europe, next door.
Aggregate Industries
Aggregate Industries UK Limited, a member of the Holcim Group, is a company based in the United Kingdom with headquarters at Bardon Hill, Coalville, Leicestershire. Aggregate Industries manufactures and supplies a range of heavy building materi ...
(part of
LafargeHolcim since July 2015, when Paris-based Lafarge merged with Swiss-based Holcim) is based at Bardon Hall in
Bardon.
Mountsorrel has the largest
granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
quarry in Europe, owned by the French company,
Lafarge (owned by
Redland plc until 1997).
BPB plc (British Plasterboard), the world's largest manufacturer of
plasterboard (
calcium sulphate
Calcium sulfate (or calcium sulphate) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic Salt (chemistry), salt with the chemical formula . It occurs in several Hydrate, hydrated forms; the anhydrous state (known as anhydrite) is a white crystalline solid often ...
) who own
British Gypsum, is based in
East Leake, Nottinghamshire. They also have a large site at
Barrow upon Soar.
Artex Ltd., part of the same company, is in
Ruddington.
Hörmann UK (
garage doors) is in Coalville.
Barratt Developments (housing) is in
Ellistown and Battleflat (Bardon), southeast of Coalville;
Ibstock is the largest brick manufacturer (900 million a year, with twenty factories) in the UK, nearby; .
Lafarge Aggregates & Concrete UK is in
Syston.
Roca UK and
Laufen UK (
sanitaryware) are in the north of Coalville, on the Hermitage Industrial Estate, towards
Stephenson College.
Krohne UK at Wellingborough make
Coriolis mass
flowmeters. AvantiGas (former
Shell Gas LPG) is at
Duckmanton in
Staveley.
Sandvik Mining and Construction UK are on the Astron Business Park, Swadlincote, near Brunel Healthcare.
DSF Refractories & Minerals are the UK's last main
refractory
In materials science, a refractory (or refractory material) is a material that is resistant to decomposition by heat or chemical attack and that retains its strength and rigidity at high temperatures. They are inorganic, non-metallic compound ...
company at
Friden.
Caterpillar Building Construction Products makes
backhoe loader
A backhoe loader, also called a loader backhoe, loader excavator, tractor excavator, digger or colloquially shortened to backhoe within the industry, is a heavy equipment (construction), heavy equipment vehicle that consists of a tractor-like u ...
s,
wheel loaders,
telehandlers, and mini
excavator
Excavators are heavy equipment (construction), heavy construction equipment primarily consisting of a backhoe, boom, dipper (or stick), Bucket (machine part), bucket, and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house".
The modern excavator's ...
s.
Terex Pegson make mobile caterpillar-tracked
crushing machines next to the railway in Coalville.
SAME Deutz-Fahr
SDF Group is an Italian agricultural machinery manufacturer founded in 1927 and with its headquarters in Treviglio (Bergamo), Italy. SDF is one of the world's leading manufacturers of tractors, combine harvesters, and diesel engines. The group's ...
UK, is a tractor manufacturer based in
Barby north of Daventry, owned by
Treviglio of Italy.
Premier Pitches of
Nether Handley, at
Unstone in northeast Derbyshire, made the pitch for Wembley Stadium, as well as many other main pitches. Hewitt Sportsturf,r in
Cosby, supplied the turf (360 rolls) for the Olympic Stadium (London), Olympic Stadium in March 2011, although it was grown near Scunthorpe; a division of the company, Petersfield Growing Mediums, which supplies compost, has a Royal Warrant. Werner Co., Werner UK (Britain's leading manufacturer of metal step ladders) moved its ABRU site to Essex in 2016.
Textiles and clothing
The fashion company Paul Smith (fashion designer), Paul Smith is in Lenton. The high end metallic thread supplier Lurex is based in Whetstone, Leicestershire. The lingerie companies Gossard, Aristoc, Pretty Polly (hosiery), Pretty Polly, and Berlei (formerly owned by Courtaulds, later CUK Clothing) were based in Daybrook; most of their hosiery was made at West Mill in
Belper.
Speedo International Limited is near Experian, (formerly in Bobbers Mill near Basford, Nottingham, Basford before 2010). Its LZR Racer suit helped Michael Phelps win eight golds at the Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 Olympics. In Enderby is Next (clothing), Next, created by George Davies (retailer), George Davies in 1981, which is the largest company in the region (and the Midlands) by number of employees with 59,000, and has the second largest turnover (£3 billion) of companies headquartered in the region, after Boots (£6 billion).

Boden (clothing) is on the Meridian estate in Leicester. Wolsey (clothing) is northeast of Leicester, east of Rushey Mead. Scott Nichol make traditional socks in Hinckley. Per Una have a factory near Cossington. Much of Britain's lingerie and hosiery is made in the region. Guilford Europe (former Guilford Kapwood), at Somercotes, makes fabric (warp knitting) for sports clothing and automotive products, and have been owned by Lear Corporation since 2012.
Many footwear companies such as Shoe Zone (which bought out Stead and Simpson), are based in Leicester. Brantano Footwear, Brantano Footwear UK, based in Leicester before 2002, were in
Ellistown and Battleflat until March 2017, just south of
Coalville, near Nestlé's national distribution centre. Loake make shoes at Kettering, and have a Royal appointment. Church's, Church's Shoes are at Northampton. Tricker's shoes in Northampton have a royal warrant. Sanders & Sanders and Grenson make shoes in Rushden. Crockett & Jones make shoes in the northeast of Northampton. The BLC Leather Technology Centre is in Moulton and SATRA, in west Kettering, both conduct footwear research. Aspex make sports sunglasses in Moulton, near Moulton College.
Sports Direct is based in Shirebrook. At the Trent Business Centre is Sunspel, who introduced the t-shirt to the British market; nearby Meadowmead make premium furniture, and Aga Rangemaster Group make kitchen sinks. Duresta Upholstery is in Long Eaton, with a factory of DFS (British retailer), DFS opposite. W&G Sissons on the Chesterfield Est, owned by Franke (company), Franke, has been the UK's largest manufacturer of stainless steel sinks since the 1950s. Parker Knoll make high-end furniture on the Greenhill Industrial Estate, south of Alfreton. Gunn & Moore (GM), north of Trent Bridge cricket ground, is an exclusive cricket bat manufacturer.

Wild Country (company), Wild Country, on the Tideswell Industrial Estate, are the UK's leading manufacturer of rock-climbing equipment. Blacks Leisure Group (previous owner of Blacks and Millets (retailer), Millets before financial failure and takeover by JD Sports) was based in Duston, in the west of Northampton, and is on the Swan Valley Ind Est, near the UK & Ireland base of Levi Strauss & Co. Joules British country clothing, country clothing is east of Market Harborough and the Northamptonshire boundary at Dingley, Northamptonshire, Dingley.
George at Asda, based at Lutterworth, in 2009 overtook M&S to become Britain's leading fashion retailer. TW Kempton are a main manufacturer of uniforms for the armed and police services opposite the National Space Centre in north Leicester; they also own the Fortis body armour and make Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops, PASGT nylon fibre helmets for troops.
Retail
Wilko (retailer), Wilko head office is at Manton, Nottinghamshire, Manton,
Worksop
Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located south of Doncaster, south-east of Sheffield and north of Nottingham. Located close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbys ...
; it was founded by James Kemsey Wilkinson in Leicester in 1930. In Lenton, Nottingham, Lenton, are the head offices of Games Workshop, the producers of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer miniatures. Pendragon PLC, the car dealership and the Sherwood Park industrial area is in Annesley. Sytner Group is in Enderby, a prestige car retailer. Dunelm Group, the furnishings company, is next to Lafarge in
Syston; the company is named after Bill Adderley's house on Greenhill Road in Coalville; nearby is Pukka Pies. In Leicester is the nearly-defunct photographic equipment company Jessops, bought and relaunched as Jessops Europe by businessman Peter Jones (entrepreneur), Peter Jones and Fox's Confectionery (maker of Fox's Glacier Mints), with both on the Braunstone Park & Rowley Fields, Braunstone Frith estate. Also in Leicester are the bookmaker Mark Jarvis (next to Radio Leicester), the European HQ of National Car Rental, and Otis Elevator Company, Otis UK (Elevator, lifts, near the National Space Centre). Jacobs (photographic retailer), Jacobs is on the Meridian Business Park in Braunstone Town, Braunstone. Machine Mart is near BioCity in Nottingham. East of the Walkers plant in Beaumont Leys is Office Depot UK (and Viking Direct UK) on the Bursom Industrial Estate. Crown Crest in Belgrave owns Poundstretcher. Goldsmiths (retailer), Goldsmiths (jewellers) are based at the western end of Braunstone Frith.
In Northampton is Avon Products, Avon Products UK; its products reach 6 million women per week. East Midlands Railway has its head office in Derby. Porterbrook, one of the UK's three Rolling stock company, rolling stock companies is in Derby. The former East Midlands Electricity is owned by E.ON UK (public electricity supplier, supply, since Powergen bought EME in June 1998) and Western Power Distribution (Distribution network operator, distribution, who bought Central Networks in April 2011), which is based in Long Whatton and Diseworth; the area has around a 5,000 MW demand for electricity. Nearby at Castle Donington is the home of the (separate) headquarters of BMI (airline), BMI (in Donington Hall) and bmibaby. Sixt, the car rental firm, has its UK base in Chesterfield, the base of Auto Windscreens. Booker Group, the Cash & Carry, (Happy Shopper and 2,700 Premier Stores, and famous for the Man Booker Prize, Booker Prize) in Wellingborough.
Maclaren, the Baby transport, pushchair maker, is next to Long Buckby railway station; BabyStyle is in Sileby. There are three main distribution centres in the area at Magna Park in Leicestershire (the largest of its kind in Europe), and Brackmills and the Daventry International Railfreight Terminal in Northamptonshire. J D Wetherspoon have their main distribution centre at Daventry, and Currys (founded in Leicester in 1888 on Belgrave Gate) have theirs at
Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent () or Newark is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...
. Oxford University Press have their national distribution centre at North Kettering Business Park in Rushton, Northamptonshire, Rushton). Monsoon Accessorize have their national distribution centre to the east on Octavian Park in Irchester. In Kilsby on the DIRFT estate, Tesco have their Daventry Grocery, the largest supermarket depot in the country. North of the A428 is Tesco's Clothing Distribution Centre.
Food processing

British Sugar, Silver Spoon makes all of its Natural brown sugar, demerara and brown sugar at
Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent () or Newark is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...
. Swizzels Matlow makes children's confectionery in
New Mills. Carlsberg Group, Carlsberg has been brewed in Northampton since 1974, with twelve UK depots, and also brews Holsten Pils, and has brewed Tetley's Brewery, Tetley since 2011. Cott, Cott Beverages UK is in Kegworth. Greencore, Greencore UK (former Derby-based Hazlewood Foods) is at Barlborough, Barlborough Links; its site at Manton, Nottinghamshire, Manton Wood Enterprise Zone, Worksop claims to be the world's largest sandwich factory. United Biscuits has a large factory in Ashby-de-la-Zouch where it makes its KP Snacks including Hula Hoops, Skips (snack), Skips and Nik Naks (British snack), Nik Naks. Oxo (food), Oxo, Saxa (food product), Saxa salt, Super Noodles, and Bisto are made by Premier Foods in the west of
Worksop
Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located south of Doncaster, south-east of Sheffield and north of Nottingham. Located close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbys ...
. Tangerine Confectionery are at Holmewood (formerly Trebor (confectionery), Cadbury Trebor Bassett).
Cat food such as Whiskas is made in
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray () is a market town in the Borough of Melton, Melton district in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, Leicestershire, River Eye, known below Melton as the Rive ...
by Pedigree Petfoods, Masterfoods; their Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition claims to be the world's leading authority on petfood research. Also southwest of the town next to the Birmingham to Peterborough Line, railway, Samworth Brothers have owned Ginsters since 1977 and Soreen since 2014, and have 8,000 UK employees. Whitworths, the food company, is in Irthlingborough; they also have a Victoria Mills flour site in Irchester.

The crisp company Walkers (snack foods), Walkers (owned by PepsiCo and the UK's biggest grocery brand) makes 10 million bags of crisps a day at the biggest crisp factory in the world at Beaumont Leys. Beaumont Park is PepsiCo's main research centre in the UK. Pork Farms is in Lenton, Nottingham. Thorntons is a big employer south of
Alfreton in Swanwick, Derbyshire, Swanwick on a Swanwick Colliery, former colliery, since the factory opened in 1985. At Latimer Park (Burton Latimer) is Alpro, who make Soy milk, soya milk products, and a huge Morrisons depot. To the west is Weetabix Limited, Weetabix, which sources its wheat from a radius around Kettering, and also make Weetos in Corby; Ready Brek was bought from J. Lyons and Co., Lyons in 1990.
Long Clawson Dairy are the biggest producers of Stilton cheese in the UK; the cheese, with Shropshire Blue, is also made in Cropwell Bishop and Colston Bassett. Faccenda Group of Brackley is the second largest Poultry farming, processor of chicken in the UK; the company also has the former Cranberry Foods site at Foston and Scropton, Scropton in Derbyshire, the second biggest turkey processor in the UK after Bernard Matthews Ltd, Bernard Matthews. In Wigston Magna, Wigston, Charnwood Foods (former Rank Hovis McDougall, RHM Group) make pizza bases for Pizza Hut and is owned by Premier Foods; Rossa Ice Cream is next to the Grand Union Canal and nearby is Jacob's Bakery who make 25 million biscuits a week. Délifrance UK is in north-west Wigston.
Greencore Prepared Foods on Moulton Park make half of Marks & Spencer, M&S's sandwiches and sandwich filler pots. Sealord UK make all of Waitrose's Whitefish (fisheries term), white fish products near Caistor. Kettleby Foods, part of Samworth Brothers, make most of Tesco's ready meals in
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray () is a market town in the Borough of Melton, Melton district in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, Leicestershire, River Eye, known below Melton as the Rive ...
. PAS (Grantham) (owned by McCain Foods, McCain) make chips at Easton, Lincolnshire, Easton. Isoma of Swadlincote makes food handling equipment; Interlevin Refrigeration at Castle Donington is near the M&S distribution centre; Parry Catering and Fabrication in Draycott, Derbyshire, Draycott make catering appliances and equipment.
Roquette Freres, Roquette (former ABF-owned ABR Foods) produce starch and Biofuel, bioethanol at Corby near RS Components, and a Morrisons frozen-food depot is near Weldon, Northamptonshire, Weldon. Opposite Charles Lawrence in Newark, Laurens Patisseries (owned by Bakkavör UK) are Europe's largest manufacturer of cream cakes. Kerry Group, Kerry Ingredients make Homepride flour in Gainsborough.
Health care

Boots UK is based in Lenton, Nottingham, Lenton in Nottingham, with 2,500 UK stores, where Stewart Adams (chemist), Stewart Adams developed Ibuprofen in the 1960s on Rutland Road in West Bridgford, and Vision Express are nearby. Boots was the biggest chemist chain in the world; A.S. Watson Group is the world's biggest health retail company. Crookes Healthcare, formerly Boots and later Reckitt Benckiser, make Strepsils and Optrex, and Boots Contract Manufacturing (BCM) make products for other firms; it makes Benylin for McNeil Consumer Healthcare, McNeil. On the ng2 business park, Specsavers have their corporate eyecare and contact lens division. Three out of the four main UK opticians are sited in Nottingham. The Magnetic resonance imaging, MRI scanner was developed at the University of Nottingham by Sir Peter Mansfield; MRI scanners were developed mainly by GEC Medical; MRI is based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) of the Hydrogen atom, hydrogen nucleus; Raymond Vahan Damadian of the USA also claims invention of MRI.
Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) is one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe, and the largest hospital in the UK. The CT scanner (X-ray computed tomography) was invented by Newark's Sir Godfrey Hounsfield. Both inventions received Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prizes for Medicine (2003 for MRI and 1979 for CT). Glenfield Hospital (under the UHL NHS Trust) is one of England's main hospitals for coronary care and respiratory diseases; it has a strong international reputation for medical research in cardiac and respiratory health and carried out the world's first percutaneous coronary intervention on a two-year-old child in August 2012 with the largest ECMO unit in the UK.
East Midlands Ambulance Service, EMAS is based in Bilborough. There are three (charity-funded) Air ambulances in the United Kingdom, air ambulance services: the western one is based at East Midlands Airport, EMA, the Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, eastern one is based at RAF Waddington, and the The Air Ambulance Service, southern one (shared with Warwickshire) is at Coventry Airport. NHS East Midlands is at
Sandiacre. 3M Health Care (former Riker Laboratories) has a factory in the north of Loughborough with its head office next to the Loughborough railway station, railway station.
BioCity Nottingham is an important centre for State of the art, cutting-edge bioscience. Slimming World, who help people lose weight, is in
Pinxton, near
Alfreton; on the other side of the railway NHS Supply Chain was formed in 2006 in Somercotes; nearby Diversey, Inc., Diversey UK (formerly JohnsonDiversey) has a manufacturing plant, and is at Weston Favell. Dalatek Plastics make pharmaceutical containers on the Maun Valley Ind Park at Sutton in Ashfield next to the Robin Hood Line, railway.
Brunel Healthcare (formerly Peter Black, Perrigo then NeutraHealth), owned by Elder Pharmaceuticals, in Swadlincote makes Dietary supplement, food supplements. At Carlton in Lindrick north of Worksop, Robinson Healthcare makes first aid equipment. Patterson Companies, Patterson Medical UK (including sorbothane insoles) are in Huthwaite, Notts, and Fresenius Medical Care UK (provides most of the NHS's kidney Kidney dialysis, dialysis) are there too.
High technology
Belkin, Belkin UK (and Linksys) UK is in
Rushden, Misco is in Wellingborough, and RS Components is in Corby. Pegasus Software, producer of well-known accounting software, is in the south of Kettering. Serif Europe is in West Bridgford; Serif developed PagePlus in the 1990s which was the first low-cost Desktop publishing, DTP software. AVG Technologies has its UK head office on Newark's industrial estate. Experian have a large data centre at Fairham House south of
Ruddington, with two others in Texas and Brazil. The Ruddington site is connected by a 640 Gbps Dark fibre network, dark fibre and runs on IBM's IBM System z10, z10 with IBM Tivoli Framework, Tivoli. Inter-Activa is at the LCB Depot in Leicester city centre.
Nexor is in Nottingham. Entalysis, a business performance management software company, is located in Burton upon trent, Burton upon Trent town centre. Amphenol, Amphenol Jaybeam in the west of Wellingborough makes Network switching subsystem, cellular telephone base station antennas. Texas Instruments UK have their Semiconductor Design Centre at Northampton, formerly in Bedford from 1957 to 2005. GE Measurement & Control, GE Sensing UK is at Groby. Oclaro UK (formerly Bookham), at Caswell Research Centre in Greens Norton makes indium phosphide wafers and researches photonic integrated circuits and Distributed Bragg reflector, DSDBR tunable lasers.
Finance
Since 1997 Capital One, the Virginia-based credit card company, has had its European HQ at Trent House in Nottingham's city centre in a former Boots UK printing works next to the Nottingham railway station, railway station since 2009 have taken over the company's Loxley House, Nottingham, Loxley House next door as their HQ. Dublin-based Experian, one of two UK Credit bureau, credit-referencing companies, was founded in the city in 1980 (owned by GUS (retailer), GUS until 2006) and has a large UK HQ to its south west, near the River Trent. TDX Group in Nottingham, is owned by Equifax. Santander (former Alliance & Leicester) is based in Narborough, Leicestershire, Narborough. Barclaycard is headquartered in Northampton, and Nationwide Building Society, Nationwide has a large administrative centre at Moulton Park. Egg Banking was on Pride Park in Derby, until Barclays closed the site in 2011, and moved the business to its Northampton credit card site.
Castle Meadow Campus is the name of a large HMRC site in Nottingham, being the national arm of HMRC that looks after the Enterprise Investment Scheme, Corporate Venturing Scheme, Venture capital trust, Venture Capital Trusts, and Enterprise Management Incentives, HMRC's Pension Schemes Services, and the Tax residence, Residency department, which deals with Double taxation, Double Taxation Treaties and Inheritance Tax (United Kingdom), inheritance tax. It has the Valuation Office Agency for the East Midlands and East of England. Royal Mail have a main administrative centre at Rowland Hill House, opposite the Queen's Park Sports Centre in Chesterfield (Human resource management, HR, pensions, and Vehicle Services). Royal Mail have their National Distribution Centre at Crick. The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (United Kingdom), MPC Agency for the East Midlands is near Experian and its economic data.
NatWest Group has a documents centre (Williams Lea) in Shepshed, where it prints its statements for England and Wales. Orion Security Print, north of Stanton Ironworks, Stanton steel works in Ilkeston, produces Odeon Cinemas, Odeon cinema tickets and library cards. An office of RR Donnelley west of South Wigston, next to the Birmingham to Peterborough Line, railway, deals with all of Barclaycard's mail. Barclaycard have their Payment Acceptance Centre in Northampton.
Rural
Lincolnshire and Rutland are very agricultural, with much of the UK's Arable land, arable crops grown in this area. The
RAF have many bases in this area, with the main RAF College Cranwell, RAF College at RAF Cranwell, Cranwell near
Sleaford
Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. On the edge of the The Fens, Fenlands, it is north-east of Grantham, west of Boston, Lincolnshire, Boston, and sou ...
; the East Midlands Universities Air Squadron is at Cranwell, also home of the Eastern Region of the Sea Cadet Corps (United Kingdom), Sea Cadet Corps, and the Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre. The RAF's six Airborne early warning and control, AWACS Boeing E-3 Sentry, aircraft are at RAF Waddington. 16th Regiment Royal Artillery is in Rutland.
After Norfolk, Lincolnshire is the second largest potato producer in the country, and grows 30% of the country's vegetables. Interflora has its UK HQ in Sleaford; Lincolnshire is the world's leading producer of daffodils (Narcissus (plant), narcissus family); 40% of the flowers bought in the UK are grown there; Butters Group supply many bulbs (Amaryllis) from Low Fulney. The county produces each year enough sugar beet for 350 million bags of sugar and enough wheat for 250 million loaves. Dart Group, Fowler-Welch Coolchain are based in
Spalding, as is Bakkavör (formerly Geest) which is the UK's largest provider of fresh prepared foods.
Princes (company), Princes (formerly Premier Foods) have a large operation in Little Sutton, Lincolnshire, Little Sutton near Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, Long Sutton canning vegetables with Fray Bentos meat, and Batchelors peas. Magnadata Group in Boston have the contract for the UK's rail tickets (for Association of Train Operating Companies, ATOC); the orange-style tickets have been in operation since 1990. Silver Spoon's Bardney plant makes the market-leading Askey's dessert toppings. Deere & Company, John Deere have their UK base at Langar, Nottinghamshire, Langar on the Nottinghamshire/Leicestershire boundary. The British Geological Survey is in Keyworth. Weatherbys in Wellingborough administer the British horseracing industry, having produced the General Stud Book since 1791.
Entertainment
Skegness and the
Lincolnshire coast provides seaside entertainment for many in the East Midlands with its Butlins 200-acre resort at Ingoldmells. Nottingham and Leicester are both popular night time destinations.
Center Parcs UK opened their first leisure facility at the Sherwood Holiday Village site at Rufford, Nottinghamshire, Rufford, near Ollerton, together with their headquarters and call centre in Sherwood Energy Village business park, built upon the former Ollerton Colliery site in Ollerton, Nottinghamshire.
The Youth Hostels Association (England & Wales), YHA is based in Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock. Gala Coral Group, Gala Bingo is based in Nottingham; Coral have over 1,800 UK shops. Twycross Zoo is just south of Measham in Leicestershire, and the National Space Centre is in Belgrave, Leicestershire, Belgrave in north Leicester. Carlsbro (electronics and speakers) are at South Normanton. Peavey Electronics UK (loudspeakers), are southwest of Corby.
Rockingham Motor Speedway is in Corby, and other racetracks include Donington Park motorsport circuit, Donington Park and Mallory Park in Leicestershire, and Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. Silverstone Circuit hosts the British Grand Prix, although the southern half of the track is outside the region. Rutland Water is popular for sailing, fishing and bird-watching. The Peak District National Park became the first national park in the United Kingdom in 1951.
Education
Secondary education
Most secondary schools in the East Midlands are comprehensive school, comprehensives, although Lincolnshire retains fifteen state grammar schools.
There are around 180,000 students in the region's secondary schools; this is the second lowest number of students in a region in England, after the North East England, North East, and more than 100,000 lower than the figure for the
West Midlands. Some of the East Midlands' urban secondary schools hold truancy rates above that of the national average, whereas truancy rates in the region's rural secondary schools tend to be lower than the national average.
Nottingham City schools tend to perform less well in terms of General Certificate of Secondary Education, GCSE standards, with some Leicester schools suffering a similar problem. Rutland (amongst the highest-performing areas in the region where GCSE standards are concerned) has one of the highest percentages of pupils reaching the threshold of five grade A–C GCSEs (including Maths and English) in England. On a District Council level, Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire tends to attain some of the region's best GCSE results. Leicestershire and Derbyshire also regularly tend to produce GCSE results at a standard greater than the national average.
At GCE Advanced Level, A-level, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire regularly generate results greater than the national average. Nottingham tends to produce better results at A-level than it does at GCSE.
There are eighteen further education colleges in the region, including: New College Nottingham, Central College Nottingham, Leicester College, and Lincoln College, Lincolnshire, Lincoln College.
The regional Learning and Skills Council was headquartered at the Meridian Business Park in Braunstone Town, southwest of Leicester. The LSC has been replaced by the Young People's Learning Agency, and the Skills Funding Agency.
Top twenty state schools in the East Midlands (2015 A-level results)

#Caistor Grammar School (1079)
#The Becket School,
West Bridgford
#Brooke Weston Academy
#The King's School, Grantham
#Kesteven and Sleaford High School
#Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ashbourne
#West Bridgford School
#The Ecclesbourne School
#Queen Elizabeth's High School,
Gainsborough
#William Farr School, Welton, Lincolnshire, Welton
#The Priory Academy LSST,
Lincoln
#King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth
#Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Alford
#Spalding High School (UK), Spalding High School
#Branston Community Academy
#Lady Manners School, Bakewell
#Anthony Gell School, Wirksworth
#Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School
#Bourne Grammar School
#Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle (858)
Universities

The East Midlands' universities include:
; University of Nottingham : The region's largest university by student population, with around 33,000 students. The university is often ranked in the British top seven for research power. It is famous for its academic reputation, consistently ranking highly in university league tables. It is the only Russell Group university in the East Midlands. The university has produced several Nobel Prize winners.
; Loughborough University : In addition to its more traditional academic work, Loughborough University is well-regarded for its sporting heritage. One notable sporting alumna is British gold-medallist Paula Radcliffe. The British Olympic Association, British Olympic athletics team trained at the university as part of their preparations for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The adidas Jabulani football, the official football for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, 2010 World Cup, was designed in the university's Sports Technology Institute.
; Nottingham Trent University : Nottingham Trent University is the East Midlands' second largest university (and one of the largest universities in the United Kingdom), with a student population of approximately 24,000.
; University of Leicester : The university has established itself as a leading research-led university and has been named University of the Year of 2008 by the Times Higher Education. The University of Leicester is also the only university ever to have won a Times Higher Education award in seven consecutive years. The university is most famous for the invention of genetic fingerprinting DNA, the discovery of the remains of King Richard III and Space research. It houses Europe's biggest academic centre for space research, in which space probes have been built, most notably the Mars Lander Beagle 2, which was built in collaboration with the Open University. It is a founding partner of the National Space Centre which is based in Leicester.
; De Montfort University : The region's third largest university. It is a public research and teaching university. The university has one of the largest numbers of Teacher Fellows of any UK university and was awarded Centre of Excellence status for its performance practice teaching and student support
; University of Northampton : The only university in
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
, with two campuses in
Northampton
Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
and a developing partnership with Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone.
; University of Derby : Formerly a centre and college for teacher training, Derby University works closely with businesses of the area with its University of Derby–Corporate programme and has a history of academics dating back to 1851.
; University of Lincoln : An English university founded in 1992, with origins tracing back to the foundation and association with the Hull School of Art 1861.
; Bishop Grosseteste University : The newest university in the East Midlands, formerly a university college.
The region has the lowest proportion of part-time students in England. The region has a higher influx of young people into the region at the university stage than out of the region into other regions' universities. Only 25% of the region's students undertaking a first degree are native to the region.
Sports
The region has a good sporting tradition, with some of the most well-known sports personalities –- David Gower (Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Leicestershire C.C.C.), Gary Lineker, Rory Underwood (Leicester Tigers) and Jonathan Agnew.
The British Gliding Association is based in Leicester on Meridian Business Park, in Braunstone. The National Ice Skating Association is based in Nottingham (and many of Britain's Olympic ice skaters train in Nottingham); Nottingham Panthers are in the Elite Ice Hockey League. The British Caving Association is at Great Hucklow, the UK sports governing body. The British Canoe Union is in Bingham.
The first 1978 BDO World Darts Championship was held in Nottingham, in February 1978, being largely the idea of Nick Hunter, a BBC sports producer, and the event first introduced Sid Waddell.
Football
Notts County F.C. is the world's oldest professional football club, with Nottingham Forest F.C. being the oldest football league side after Notts County's relegation to the National League (division), National League in 2019. Sam Weller Widdowson brought in shin pads in 1874. The first Referee (association football), referee's whistle was at Nottingham in 1872.
Admiral Sportswear at
Wigston in Leicestershire made the England Kit (association football), football strip from 1974 to 1982, when the company went bankrupt; in 1974 it was the first company to introduce replica kits. Umbro took over the England national football team, England kit after the Template:England squad 1982 FIFA World Cup, 1982 World Cup in 1984. Nike make the England kit today.
The East Midlands is home to several professional and semi-professional association football (soccer) clubs.
Rugby Union
The East Midlands is home to two top-tier (Aviva Premiership) clubs.
Leicester Tigers are an English rugby union club based in Leicester at the Welford Road stadium and play in the Aviva Premiership. They were formed in 1880; their colours are green, burgundy and white. Leicester Tigers are one of the most successful Rugby Union teams in Europe and the most successful English club since the introduction of league rugby in 1987, having won the European Cup twice, the first tier of English rugby ten times, and the Anglo-Welsh Cup seven times.
Northampton Saints are a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They were formed in 1880, and play in black, green, and gold colours. The team play their home games at Franklin's Gardens, which has a capacity of 15,500. Their biggest rivals are Leicester Tigers.
Cricket
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, Nottinghamshire (Trent Bridge), Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Leicestershire (Grace Road), Derbyshire County Cricket Club, Derbyshire (County Cricket Ground, Derby) and Northamptonshire County Cricket Club, Northamptonshire (County Cricket Ground, Northampton) are in the Cricket NatWest t20 Blast, T20 North group; Northamptonshire was formerly in the Friends Life t20, Midlands group.
Basketball
Leicester Riders, who play at Leicester Arena, are the oldest club in British basketball, founded in 1967.
Motor sports
RML Group (Ray Mallock) British Touring Car Championship, BTCC and World Touring Car Championship, WTCC motorsport team is in
Wellingborough
Wellingborough ( ) is a market town in the North Northamptonshire, Unitary Authority area, England, from London and from Northampton, north of the River Nene.
Originally named "Wendelingburgh" (the stronghold of Wændel's people), the Anglo ...
, next to the UK HQ of Vredestein Banden B.V., Vredestein tyres (Dutch). Craft-Bamboo Racing WTCC are at
Silverstone.
Swimming
The Amateur Swimming Association is the world's first swimming governing body, founded 1869, and based in
Loughborough
Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...
. British Swimming have one of its three Intensive Training Centres at Loughborough University's Loughborough Pool in their Sport Development Centre.
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'' from Waltham transmitting station, Waltham. This excludes most of
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
, north
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
and north
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
.
Most of Lincolnshire is covered by the BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire region based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, with its ''BBC Look North (East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire), Look North'' programme from Belmont transmitting station, Belmont; north Nottinghamshire (
Retford, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Worksop and
Bassetlaw), northeast Derbyshire (
Chesterfield), the eastern High Peak, Derbyshire, High Peak (
Hope Valley) and northern area of the Derbyshire Dales (Tideswell and Hathersage) are covered by BBC Yorkshire from Emley Moor transmitting station, Emley Moor, with its ''BBC Look North (Yorkshire and North Midlands), Look North'' from Leeds.
The western area of the High Peak, Derbyshire, High Peak (Buxton, Derbyshire, Buxton, Glossop, Derbyshire, Glossop, New Mills, Derbyshire, New Miils and
Chapel-en-le-Frith
Chapel-en-le-Frith () is a town and civil parish, in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England.
It has been dubbed the "Capital of the Peak", in reference to the Peak District, historically the highland areas between the Saxon lands (below ...
) in Derbyshire are covered by BBC North West from Winter Hill transmitting station, Winter Hill and Granada Television, both based in Salford. Most of
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
is part of the BBC East region based in Norwich and has the BBC Look East, Look East programme from Sandy Heath transmitting station, Sandy Heath.
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, Northamptonshire, Brackley and Towcester, Northamptonshire, Towcester) receiving the Thames Valley micro-region of ITV Meridian (the former Central South region) and the Oxford opt-out of South Today, BBC South Today from Oxford transmitting station, Oxford. ''Central Tonight, Central News East'' also covers the East Midlands, broadcasting from Lenton Lane in Nottingham from March 1984. The studios closed and became the King's Meadow Campus of the University of Nottingham. These studios had been responsible for ''Family Fortunes'' and ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK game show), Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?''. Central News East continues, broadcasting from Central Independent Television, ITV Central's Birmingham Studios.
Northamptonshire has Anglia Television's ''Anglia Tonight'' programme and most of
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
and eastern parts of Nottinghamshire has Yorkshire Television's ''Calendar (News), Calendar''. Digital switchover dates in the United Kingdom, Digital switchover took place in April 2011 for the Nottingham and Northampton areas; Waltham and Belmont (including the local repeater stations) changed in late August 2011. Midlands Asian Television, MATV, based in
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
, caters to the area's large South Asian population.
Radio
*BBC Radios BBC Radio Derby, Derby, BBC Radio Leicester, Leicester, BBC Radio Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, BBC Radio Northampton, Northampton, BBC Radio Nottingham, Nottingham, BBC Radio Manchester, Manchester (for
Glossop
Glossop is a market town in the borough of High Peak (borough), High Peak, Derbyshire, England, east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock. Near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Mancheste ...
, Whaley Bridge and
Chapel-en-le-Frith
Chapel-en-le-Frith () is a town and civil parish, in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England.
It has been dubbed the "Capital of the Peak", in reference to the Peak District, historically the highland areas between the Saxon lands (below ...
) and BBC Radio Sheffield, Sheffield (for
Chesterfield,
Bolsover,
Worksop
Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located south of Doncaster, south-east of Sheffield and north of Nottingham. Located close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbys ...
and
Retford). BBC Radio Leicester was the first local radio station in the United Kingdom.
*Many commercial, student and community radio stations: Capital Midlands (formerly Trent FM, RAM FM and Leicester Sound), Hits Radio East Midlands (formerly Gem and Heart 106), Heart East (Northamptonshire) (formerly Northants 96), Demon FM (
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
), Peak FM (North Derbyshire), Peak FM (Chesterfield and North Derbyshire), Hits Radio Lincolnshire (Lincolnshire and Newark-on-Trent), Takeover Radio (Leicester & Nottingham), Fosse 107 (
Loughborough
Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...
and
Hinckley), Harborough FM, The Eye (radio station), The Eye (Melton Mowbray), Greatest Hits Radio Stamford and Rutland (formerly Rutland Radio), Boundary Sound (
Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent () or Newark is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...
), Mansfield 103.2 FM, Greatest Hits Radio South Yorkshire (formerly Trax FM) (Bassetlaw), Ashbourne Radio (Ashbourne on 96.7FM & 101.8FM Wirksworth & Ecclesbourne Valley), Amber Sound FM, Erewash Sound, High Peak Radio (
Chapel-en-le-Frith
Chapel-en-le-Frith () is a town and civil parish, in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England.
It has been dubbed the "Capital of the Peak", in reference to the Peak District, historically the highland areas between the Saxon lands (below ...
), Smooth East Midlands (formerly Connect 97.2 & 106.80, Corby, PCR FM 103.20, Kettering & Wellingborough), Sabras Radio, Salaam Radio, and Hindu Sanskar Radio, URN (Uni of Nottingham), Fly FM (Nottingham Trent Uni), Leicester Community Radio Local Radio for over 35's in Leicester 1449AM.
*National radio on DAB and FM comes from Sutton Coldfield transmitting station, Sutton Coldfield in the west,Belmont transmitting station, Belmont (the tallest structure in the region) in the northeast, and Holme Moss in the northwest.
Newspapers
There are a number of daily newspapers, the largest of which include the ''Derby Telegraph'', ''Derbyshire Times'', ''Leicester Mercury'', ''Lincolnshire Echo'', ''Northampton Chronicle and Echo'', and ''Nottingham Evening Post''. Most of the daily papers are owned by Trinity Mirror.
Magazines
There are many regional lifestyle publications, the largest and most widely read being ''Life&Style Magazine'', ''FHP Magazine'', ''Nottinghamshire Life'' and ''City Life and County Living''. National magazine publishers in the region include Key Publishing, Mortons of Horncastle and Bourne Publishing Group.
See also
*
Midlands
The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...
*1185 East Midlands earthquake
*East Midlands Regional Select Committee
*List of schools in the East Midlands
*Scouting in the East Midlands
*South Midlands, a name for the southern part of the East Midlands.
References
Further reading
* Allen, R.C. ''Enclosure and the Yeoman: the Agricultural Development of the South Midlands 1450-1850'' (Oxford UP, 1992)
* Beckett, John V. ''The East Midlands from AD 1000'' (Addison-Wesley Longman, 1988).
* Dewindt, Edwin Brezett, and Edwin Brezette DeWindt. ''Land and people in Holywell-cum-Needingworth: structures of tenure and patterns of social organization in an East Midlands village, 1252-1457'' (PIMS, 1972).
* Laughton, Jane, Evan Jones, and Christopher Dyer. "The urban hierarchy in the later Middle Ages: a study of the East Midlands." ''Urban history'' (2001): 331–357.
* McWhirr, Alan. ''The Early Military History of the Roman East Midlands'' (1970
online
* Stafford, Pauline. ''The East Midlands in the Early Middle Ages'' (Leicester University, 1985).
* Stobart, Jon. "Regions, Localities, and Industrialisation: Evidence from the East Midlands Circa 1780–1840." ''Environment and Planning A'' 33.7 (2001): 1305–1325.
* Tompkins, Matthew. ''Peasant society in a midlands manor, Great Horwood 1400-1600'' (PhD Diss. U of Leicester, 2006
online
* Townsend, Claire. "County versus region? Migrational connections in the East Midlands, 1700–1830." ''Journal of Historical Geography'' 32.2 (2006): 291–312.
External links
East Midlands CouncilsEast Midlands Regional StrategyRegional Development FundGovernment's list of councils in the East MidlandsClimate East Midlands
{{Authority control
East Midlands,
Regions of England
NUTS 1 statistical regions of England
NUTS 1 statistical regions of the European Union