Transpennine: Imaginative geographies of an interregional corridor

The Pennine Chain is the most significant physical constant in the economic and administrative geography of England. It is crossed perpendicularly by the densely urbanized belt lying between the estuaries of the Mersey and Humber. The paper attempts to conceptualize this transpennine space in terms of a shared textile history, a common upland heart, a transport corridor, an axis of solidarity in the economic geography of the north-south divide, a European trade route, an environmental artwork. The paradox that European INTERREG funding has facilitated transpennine thinking at a time when institutional factors are reinforcing the watershed, leads to a conclusion which looks forward.