This work is a truly collective output of research conducted under the auspices of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's pioneering Research Centre scheme. The North-East England Research Centre, funded for five years between 2000 and 2005, grew out of and continues as the North-East England History Institute (NEEHI), a collaboration of historians at the Universities of Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside. The grant from the AHRC enabled the establishment of five research posts to explore aspects of the history of the North East. But its overall research question was to examine whether the North East was a region over the course of the centuries.This volume is the summation of the wide range of research undertaken on different projects, here specifically directed towards answering that one question. It is the culmination of a process that involved two workshops, in which the approaches, concepts and conclusions were discussed and shared by the contributors, and the continuous interchange of ideas between editors and contributors. The developing ideas and conclusions were also put to a gathering of fellow historians whose responses and suggestions further shaped the volume.While written by many authors, it has a single focus.

The editors and contributors approached the question of regionality with different emphases, which lie in the debate about the nature of regions and identity. They hinge on the differences between an approach which bases regional cultures in demographic, landscape and economic configurations and one that focuses on the politicisation, construction and communication of consciously articulated identities.We have arrived at a synthesis, which we believe leads to a convincing resolution and provides a sound basis for enquiry into the existence of regional identities in England in the past, not only of the region known as the North East.

The editors are grateful to the contributors for their efficiency, tolerance of heavy editorialising, and above all the quality of their research. We would also like to thank many others who participated in the work of the Research Centre in the five years, and who have made invaluable and continuing contributions to our debate about regional identity. In particular we would like to thank those who steered the research at the five universities in the same direction, especially David Rollason, the director for most of the time, his successor, Bill Lancaster,Tony Hepburn and Patrick Salmon.