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Wembley, the Rugby League Cup Final and Northern English Identity

In 1989 the historian Christopher Hill wondered why the North of England, with all its apparent cultural, social and geographical distinctiveness, had never achieved a separate state or even seen the formation of a 'northern separatist movement' .1 Although the broader questions of the historical development of the North of England are beyond our immediate scope, this paper does seek to shed light on the question of Northern English identity through the medium of the quintessentially Northern English cultural experience of the annual Rugby League Challenge Cup Final atWembley stadium where between 1929 to 1999, tens of thousands of people from Cumberland, Lancashire and Yorkshire travelled down to London to watch the final of the Rugby League Challenge Cup, traditionally on the first Saturday of May. It was a unique event in British sport.