The extent of my new world.

It's purely arbitrary but I've chosen a radius of ten miles for this project. Let's imagine that the strongly controlled borders of my new world are a mere ten miles from the spot to which I am now rooted.

I give the measurement in miles because, after decades of metrification (yes it pre-dated UK joining the EU) we still prefer to quote longer distances in miles. We use metres for shorter distances, you know the thing: the shop is about 400 metres down the road, but Manchester is 37 miles to the North, but that is just who we are whether we are Europhiles or Europhobes.  But before the blue passport and imperial units champions gloat too much about this little British victory, the standard mile was defined, in 1959 by international agreement to be 1609.344 metres.

 

So this map represents the approximate limits of my new world. 

 

Mapextract

  

Of course, there are still problems. My spot is close to the Cheshire border. It took some soul searching to decide whether I should be allowed to continue with my free movement into and out of Cheshire, after all Cheshire folk are different from Staffordshire folk and they are diluting our culture with their cheese and funny accents. Having said that Cheshire Cheese is one of the best in the world and really complements our famous Staffordshire oatcakes, a global export commodity, and no kidding. So for the sake of trade and our historic ties (and because I lived there once and before my almost retirement travelled through it each day to work - and some of my best friends live there, some were even born there  - and ... well, lots of reasons,  I have decided to allow those parts of Cheshire which have the honour of bordering the one true county be part of my new world.