Where is the exact centre of Britain? | Notes and Queries

Where is the exact centre of Britain?

Kendrick Curtis, Bath Avon

• Well the most centre point (i.e. furthest from the sea) is a farm just outside Derby if I remember rightly. However it's still only 90 miles from the sea which I didn't think was that far. Guess I forgot we were a small isle.....

  C, Reading UK

• The Geograph website www.geograph.org.uk says centre for their image map of Great Britain is at grid ref SD8111, in Bury, Lancashire. You can see it at http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/SD8111. It really depends on how you define centre, do you just count the mainland or do you include islands?

  G Baker, S Ockendon U.K

• Blisworth, in Northants, was the site of a major army barracks in the 17th century, chosen because it was the furthest point (probably in England)from the sea.

  Stan Firkin, Watford, UK

• You're all wrong. It's Stroud, of course.

  Pete Wigens, Stroud, UK

• The place furthest from the Sea is near Little Packington, Warwickshire, Grid Ref SP 20779 85183, i.e. just west of Meriden. This assumes that the Sea starts at the last bridge on the Rivers Severn, Mersey and Welland. The distance is 75.0 miles. Centres based on other bridges (Thames, Dee, Ouse,Test, Itchen etc.) are all smaller distances.

  Dick Brown, Long Eaton, England, UK

• It's always a source of amazement that many of us live on an island (the mainland) and so few people know it's name. Great Britain is made up of around 20,000 islands. The largest is, of course, called Britain. To find the centre (balance point) a template can be cut from sheet metal. The larger the better and balanced on a pin. Costal areas and estuaries must be averaged. The centre is near Beamsley North Yorkshire in the grounds of a shop called Yorkshire Pianos. There is a small plaque at the shop. The plaque states that the calculation was made by Prof A. Riddle in 1938.

  Adam Cox , Otley Uk

• BRIGHTON! No it's Tring, Bucks.

  johnny johnson, Tring!