What made you feel good today

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Surrey always sounds posh to those of us out here in the Shires

Surrey has the highest population of trees in any county in England. They tell you when they welcome you to Surrey on their signs!
It is without doubt an extremely wealthy county - but the real wealth is more like stealth and never seen!

In respect of the shires not sounding posh - Herford 'shire' and Cambridge 'shire' command as much wealth as Surrey.
Us folk from Suff and Nor think every one is posh - even Essex  

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Northamptonshire - formerly known as the county of spires and squires or The Rose of The Shires but now going for warehouse capital of England- does have it's posher parts. Mainly in the south of the county but there are villages only a few miles down the road from me where the only people in 'affordable' housing are council tenants. Here we've just had another massive housing development steamrollered through by this poxy government - yet houses nearby that were completed when I was looking for a new home three years ago have never yet been occupied. Where are they going to grow the food for everyone when our population reaches the figures they're estimating - we used to be a farming county! Our council is spending thousands on an advertising campaign to get people from London to move here but perhaps it would be better spent on cleaning the place up so they might actually want to

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Oh for days gone by - i can remember Suffolk and Norfolk as places of a simpler life based around agriculture.
Now Norwich is only 100 minutes from London and a quarter of the cost to live and Ipswich can be done in an hour at half the cost.

Bloody electrification in 1985 put paid to those long gone idyllic days of peace and tranquility.
As my daughters now tell me, Ipswich is the UK capital for ungrateful refugees who consider free satellite TV and meals consistent with what the locals eat as being a breach of their human rights!
Oh yeah, and they don't have to work to get it all either!

That's not a zenophobic pop, it's simple fact. It made the 6 o' clock news when it all kicked off.

[ABERS]

Spent twenty wonderful years living in Nothamptonshire, a county of two halves, with chocolate box villages and steelworks, at least when I lived there. There was an outpost of Scotland in Corby, where everyone it seemed spoke with a broad Glaswegian accent.

We started off in Towcester (toaster) where back in the 60's the local peasantry touched their forelocks when Lady Hesketh processed through the town, like Cranford with cars!

The last 10 years were spent in Rushden, which seemed to be an enclave of little terraced streets where everone worked in a boot and shoe factory. Wonderful people with a language of their own that rubbed off on to my two daughters that spent their formative years there. "Enner gunner", "Shent", and You 'aint half sharp" springs to mind.

Happy days, at least people spoke to you there, not in Surrey!

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Yes - i too miss those simpler days.
Funny you mention about daughters picking up 'foreign accents' Alan. I spent a few years living and working up Southport during my daughters language learning years and when they finally moved back to Ipswich (my youngest daughter was too young to remember it when we moved a way) they were both ostracised for speaking with a 'scouse' accent.

They would ask for lolly ices and chip barms when ever at the seaside (well Felixstowe, don't want to give any wrong ideas here  ) to the amazement of the till girls.
Sadly, they now speak with the worst accent of the lot - Ipswich Bumpkin - not a pretty accent. Full of bootifuls, toost and spuwens - oh yeah and they all work on compoo ers !

I dearly miss Suffolk, north Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire - just not my home town of Ipswich, because it's not the place i grew up in and never will be again.

[ABERS]

Ah! Bring back the 'Singing Postman', Ev yew gotta loight Bouy? Norfolk I know, but East Anglian.

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Believe it or not - the 'singin' postman' was actually from Lincolnshire.

Most people think he's from Norfolk but apparently he wasn't. My parents actually has one of his LP's (CD's for the younger generation)
The Suffolk version was "ha yu gotta lite ba" - but us bumpkins all speak a similar version of farm hand 

[ABERS]

For those not knowing what we're on about!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqmXLkJ8Bwk&feature=related

I've got a CD of all his songs that I bought for the grandkids when we had a holiday in Wroxham so that they could understand what the locals were saying!

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spending the summer going to local fetes/dog shows and country parks etc. we still travel through some of those lovely villages - we still have some chocolate box scenes - places like Castle Ashby, Mears Ashby etc. but the towns are pretty run down and the promised investment for regeneration has gone by the board with the recession. My Mum lives in Higham Ferrers which is to Rushden like Hove [actually] is to Brighton. Oh, and people in Corby still speak with Scottish accents

[ABERS]

Just for the record I'm an old Bucks Boy and were born and bred in the Chiltern Hills and regions adjacent. My old dad had the broadest Bucks accent and his sister who is still alive at the grand old age of 93 still talks in the same way, just like Nathanial Titlark.

Have a listen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUE41UHXMM8

I used to have a strong accent along the same lines and when I first met my future in-laws they were convinced I chewed straw and wore a smock during the week!

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For those not knowing what we're on about!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqmXLkJ8Bwk&feature=related
I've got a CD of all his songs that I bought for the grandkids when we had a holiday in Wroxham so that they could understand what the locals were saying!

Oh that brings back some memories- and you've got it on CD? I'll have to go and have a look. I see some one on that clips says they still sound like that north of Scole on the A140. I've spent many a weekend staying with family at Pelgrave or "Palgrav" as it was called by the locals just by Scole. Oh the happy days. And as a 12 year old i was allowed to bike all the way from Ipswich to Pelgrave by myself on the A45 (A14) and A140. Now my parents would be arrested for such wanton neglect of a minor!

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Just for the record I'm an old Bucks Boy and were born and bred in the Chiltern Hills and regions adjacent. My old dad had the broadest Bucks accent and his sister who is still alive at the grand old age of 93 still talks in the same way, just like Nathanial Titlark.

Have a listen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUE41UHXMM8

I used to have a strong accent along the same lines and when I first met my future in-laws they were convinced I chewed straw and wore a smock during the week!

What you mean you don't still have your best Sunday Smock, Wellies and Cud to chew? 
You clearly 'married up' then Alan!

[jinky]

Just got back from a beautiful snowy walk with it half way up my wellies. Should have got better pics than I did but absolutely exhausted now. I actually got lost in local woods I usually know like the back of my hand - everywhere looks the same when it`s covered in snow. Sad thing is my family did not even notice I was overdue Never have taken my safety seriously since I went missing at Lake Louise when it took me two hours longer to get down a mountain track than I thought in bear season. Luckily none of them in Meanwood today

[magicrhodes]

Just for the record I'm an old Bucks Boy and were born and bred in the Chiltern Hills and regions adjacent. My old dad had the broadest Bucks accent and his sister who is still alive at the grand old age of 93 still talks in the same way, just like Nathanial Titlark.
I used to have a strong accent along the same lines and when I first met my future in-laws they were convinced I chewed straw and wore a smock during the week!

I lived in Princes Risborough for years...

[ABERS]

Just for the record I'm an old Bucks Boy and were born and bred in the Chiltern Hills and regions adjacent. My old dad had the broadest Bucks accent and his sister who is still alive at the grand old age of 93 still talks in the same way, just like Nathanial Titlark.
I used to have a strong accent along the same lines and when I first met my future in-laws they were convinced I chewed straw and wore a smock during the week!

I lived in Princes Risborough for years...

My forebears lived in Saunderton, and on tracing my ancestry the 1841 census shows my great grandparents X 4 living in the workhouse there along with 3 children. Ah happy days!

The 1851 census shows them out of the workhouse and employed on the land. GGGGrandad as a shepherd, and two of his lads employed a plough boys, so wearing a smock would come naturally to me. Oooo Aaar!