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The midlands of a territory are its central regions.
"The Midlands" (with a capital M) usually means the English Midlands, an area generally considered to include the counties of Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland,
Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, the West Midlands and Worcestershire. It lies between South England and
North England.
Its major urban area is the conurbation that includes the cities of
Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry.
Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire are usually nowadays considered to be part of the Midlands, albeit at the far southern edge.
Similarly, Cheshire could be considered part of the Midlands, though often
associated with the North West instead.
To the east, the South Midlands is an area identified by the
government for development. This consists of Northamptonshire and
Bedfordshire with northern Buckinghamshire. Beds and Bucks are not usually considered part of the Midlands.
The region broadly corresponds to the medieval kingdom of Mercia.
East Midlands and West Midlands are administrative Regions of England, but these do not fully cover the traditional region of the Midlands. They exclude
parts of northern Lincolnshire, now part of Yorkshire
and the Humber, and Peterborough, which was once part of
Northamptonshire but is now included with Cambridgeshire in the
East of England Region.
Cities of the Midlands
See also Midlands, Zimbabwe.
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