Northern grit: What it really means

Northern grit. Maybe you’ve heard the phrase before. Maybe you haven’t, though you could probably guess at the meaning. I asked some friends to share what they thought of when they heard the phrase, and they didn’t disappoint:

“Standing out in a sea wind that could exfoliate concrete and saying ‘it’s a bit fresh’”.

“Going out in horizontal rain without a coat and saying ‘it’s not that bad’”.

“Stubbornness, refusal to give up in the face of adversity, dark sense of humour about it.”

“Someone who is stoic and resilient with strength of character”

“Someone who is tough with a ‘can do’ attitude”

All of these ideas depict a person who is tough. Hardened. Enduring. And this is how the phrase is often used - to describe resilience in the face of adversity. 

Here at Northkind, the phrase means more than endurance. Northern grit is the embodiment of neighbourliness. It is care, humour, stubborn hope, local pride, practical action, and refusing to let ordinary people or places be treated as disposable. 

This is a lot of words…yet still they don’t accurately describe the concept. Maybe you have to experience it to truly understand, but some examples might help.

Crisis response

You get bad news. 

Seemingly from nowhere, there is a mug of something hot in front of you. Biscuits that can be dunked. Someone is doing the washing up, while whipping up a meal for the kids (simultaneously of course).

As if out of nowhere, there is a plan to get the children to school for the next week or so, to contact whoever needs contacting, and put into action anything else that needs sorting.

You feel held and cared for, before you even knew what you needed.

Northern grit is practical action, with care and kindness. If you have something going on, we all feel it, and we are there to help you through it. With a bit of dark humour of course.

Someone will add: “Could be worse…could be raining”, or “at least we’re not bored”.

Protecting our elders

There is an unspoken agreement that our elders are supported by the community, in ways that are respectful, practical, and quiet. Things like:

Taking milk and bread round when there’s snow on the ground (or loo roll when there's a shortage)

Asking Jean at number 97 if she wants anything from Aldi as you’re popping down t’street

Clearing Hilda’s path when its icy, and doing the pavements too so she can go on her daily walk

Fetching a paper for Geoff at 32 when he’s feeling under the weather

Putting out the bins for Sheila at number 19

Noticing the curtains are still closed at number 54 and popping in for a quick cuppa (and sorting breakfast and washing up while you’re at it, maybe running the hoover round)

Noticing the grass needs cutting and sorting it without being asked

Northern grit is about paying attention. Noticing. Then acting quietly and unobtrusively.

In today’s busy, run 100 miles per minute society, you might wonder how on earth anyone keeps up with this. And it’s true…having time to fully participate in community is getting tougher. Yet northern grit endures. 

Keeping our local heritage alive

Local buildings are where the community thrives. Keeping them open and running is essential and one of the best examples of northern grit. It might be through fundraising, a petition, or sheer strength of character; either way, they stay open at all costs.

Take the school I write about in my first children’s picture book The Haunting that Helped. The roof leaks, the windows are draughty, and the heating system existed in the stone age. There is no budget, yet the characters in the story come together to raise money for repairs,, with some handmade posters, leaflets, and determination to save their school. In the real school this story is inspired by, the staff still run breakfast and after school clubs, still find spare jumpers and lost socks, still make children feel safe and loved, and still make childhood magical - using little more than a few paper clips, some crepe paper, and an egg box or three.

Northern grit is leaving your doors unlocked without worrying, taking a pasta bake round to the mum who isn’t well, saying ‘morning’ to everyone you see, passing on the quality children’s clothing to the next family, volunteering at the local playgroup, picking up litter blown around after the cardboard recycling collection, and donating your surplus veggies to the food bank. 

The problem 

I said at the start that northern grit is used to describe resilience in the face of adversity. It is revered as being something to strive for and be proud of.

I am a Northerner myself, proud of my ability to endure...except I internalised it, forgetting about the softer elements of grit. 

We have to let people in.

We have to rest.

We have to allow others to care for us. 

We must recognise that grit is cyclical. We we can only be part of the system when we are giving and receiving in equal measure.

Grit has become an excuse for neglect. Just because a place or community can handle adversity, it doesn’t mean they should have to survive everything alone. The north of the UK has seen huge amounts of adversity, compounded by an enduring London-centric approach from our National government. The north/south divide in England is nothing new. It has existed since Roman occupation, with the north dubbed ‘Brittania Inferior’ ....thanks Septimius Severus (the Roman Emperor who separated Britain in two around AD 197-211). Can you guess his name for the south? ‘Brittania Superior’. 

Despite the south seemingly having it easier than the north, northerners are not clamouring to move. Migration from the north to the south of England has been low since records began in 1851. Why is that? If living up north means it is harder to get a job (unemployment rates are higher), we are likely to die sooner (mortality rates under age 75 are higher), and we are likely to receive a lower standard of education with lower educational attainment, with worse housing quality? Why wouldn’t we clamour for the supposedly better opportunities that the south can offer us?

I think it is because us northerners know the real definition of northern grit. The bit that gets missed or forgotten, especially in the social media age.

Hardship and adversity on their own create exhaustion, distrust, stigma, ill health, and withdrawal, especially in places where there is little community connectedness to begin with. The south definitely sees hardship. Yet in places with shared history, social ties, trust, shared identity, local assets, and collective action, people are more likely to adapt, protect each other, and recover from adversity.

If we only celebrate the traditional understanding of grit, we risk making hardship sound beautiful. Hardship does not create northern grit. People do. Adversity might reveal it, test it, and sometimes sharpen it, but the grit is in the relationships, the humour, the memory, the care, and the stubborn refusal to let a place be written off. 

This is where storytelling comes in. Stories challenge stereotypes and preserve local memory, especially when they are told by local people. Stories help children recognise their own places as worthy; as places to invest in. This is the reason that Northkind was born. Publishing provides platforms and megaphones for voices often overlooked. We want to unearth stories rooted in real communities, and enable those communities to tell them. We will not smooth away the rough edges. We will honour place, people, and truth - with care and humour of course. If you want to join us on our journey, you can sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page.

What is your tale of grit? We all have them. You can download a worksheet that will help you to consider your story from our resources page, or contact us if you want to share your story directly.