A study of Chartism must begin with a proper appreciation of regional and local diversity. Some of the elements of diversity are measurable - rents, wages, prices, the incidence of unemployment, the degree of dependence on foreign markets. Some however, cannot be measured quantitatively. Variations in local class structure, in the content of local grievances, in the traditions of political leadership and mass agitation, and in the adaptability and persistence of the Chartists and of their opponents require detailed investigation.

Briggs' hypothesis that it is very difficult to understand Chartism without a sound grasp of its regional diversity is linked to the view that membership was strongest in areas where economic hardship was at its most pronounced - as, for instance, in the declining centres of the old domestic industry or in the new single industry towns like Stockport and Bolton.

However, whilst Chartism was more prominent in some areas than others, there is a danger in assuming that such regional diversity can be explained in exclusively economic terms.

The most intense centres of Chartist activity in England were the textile areas of Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. Each of these areas had a long tradition of political radicalism, which had been further sharpened by the development of the factory and anti-poor law movements during the early 1830s. For example, the historian J F C Harrison has pointed out how 'Leeds Chartism was determined largely by its origins in earlier Radical and working class movements.' (Briggs 1959).

These areas were followed in intensity by the North East, Midlands and London where, according to the historian David Goodway, 'Chartism inherited another metropolitan tradition form the 1790s, that of insurrectionary conspiracy.' (Goodway 1982).

In Scotland, Chartism drew its greatest support from the central valley and east coast lowlands, especially the Glasgow area.