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The North Midlands is a loosely defined area covering the northern parts of the Midlands in England. It is not an International Territorial Level region like the East Midlands or the West Midlands.
A statistical definition in 1881 included the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland, an area historically known as the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw. A Second World War civil defence region called North Midland included the five counties and Northamptonshire. It has remained in informal use for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, the northern parts of Lincolnshire and Staffordshire, and sometimes the far south of Northern England. A North Midlands combined authority area was proposed in 2016 for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, but cancelled later that year.
The North Midlands has remained in use as an informal term for part of the area, covering Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, the northern parts of Lincolnshire and Staffordshire, and Cheshire and South Yorkshire to a lesser degree, even though Staffordshire, Cheshire and South Yorkshire never formed part of the statistical region. For example, in the 1960s, Sheffield was described in an official publication as "the vigorous shopping and cultural centre of the North Midlands".
The introduction to J. B. Priestley's play An Inspector Calls specifies that it is set in the fictional town of Brumley in the North Midlands.
A somewhat different definition of the North Midlands appeared in David Hackett Fischer's 1989 book Albion's Seed, which detailed migrations from distinct parts of Britain to the American Colonies. It defines the North Midlands as broadly comprising Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire.David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed (Oxford University Press, 1989)
A North Midlands Combined Authority was to have been formed in 2017. South Derbyshire District Council, High Peak Borough Council, Amber Valley Borough Council and Erewash Borough Council all voted to reject the proposal, and Chesterfield Borough Council decided to sign up to the South Yorkshire Combined Authority instead.
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