Andy Burnham’s decision to establish No 10 North, a permanent northern base for the prime minister’s office, has been hailed as an ambitious shift in state power.

Supporters see it as a long-overdue attempt to rebalance political power away from Westminster. Critics have questioned the practicalities of moving part of the machinery of government beyond London.

The idea that England has always been governed from a single political centre is surprisingly recent. Westminster may now appear almost inseparable from the state, but for much of English history, government was far more mobile.

The royal household, senior officials, courts, records and administrative departments moved with the monarch, creating what historian J.E.A. Jolliffe called “a government of the roads and the roadsides”. The scale of this movement could be extraordinary. At the height of his reign, King John (who reigned from 1199 to 1216) relocated his court and government on average 220 times a year.

Other historical centres of power include Winchester, which served as the political heart of pre-Conquest England. During the English civil war (1642-1651), Charles I established Oxford as the Royalist capital, because parliament controlled London.

But........

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