At Bromp's suggestion...
Thinking about this [white cherries thread] started me to wondering.... I'm Welsh but I largely grew up in Reading in the 60s and early 70s.
What about the rest of you?
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Born in Cork, Ireland.
Moved to Upton Park, London aged eight and gradually worked my way out to Hornchurch in Essex before moving to Fishguard, Pembrokeshire in 2001.
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Born in a Plymouth hospital in 1963, although the family lived and all came from a small estuary village (Newton Ferrers/Noss Mayo), 16 miles away.
Stayed in Westcountry until I was 17, then left for London... and 31 years later came back.
From the age of 12 until 17 lived on the edge of Dartmoor in two small villages (South Brent and Ugborough), an idyllic place to live and looking back on it, I realise how privileged I was to live there.
Now live very near both villages within Dartmoor national park.
Last edited by: Westpig on Sat 11 Jul 15 at 21:44
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Born in Guys Hospital, London, and growd up in Bermondsey, sowf Lunden. Moved to Camberwell when I was 9.
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Born in Middlesex in 1957. Moved to glorious Devon in 1987 having married and had a child.
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Born in Newark in Nottinghamshire. Left at 16 to do an apprenticeship in the electronics industry. (Newark was all heavy industry and I didn't want to make ball bearings). If any of you have the slightest interest in Newark the August Military History Monthly has a feature on Newark and the Civil War.
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>> Born in Newark in Nottinghamshire. Left at 16 to do an apprenticeship in the electronics
>> industry. (Newark was all heavy industry and I didn't want to make ball bearings).
HA! NSK!
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Sorry for late reply, Zero. Been away.
Not NHK in my day. Ransome & Marles
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Born in Ilford.
Never really grew up.
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Born in St Albans City Hospital, and until I was 18, lived in St Albans.
Lived in Scotland for a bit, then moved back to St Albans.
Growing older is compulsory, growing up is optional.
Last edited by: Slidingpillar on Sat 11 Jul 15 at 22:10
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>>
>> Lived in Scotland for a bit, then moved back to St Albans.
>>
Born in Scotland, grew up in St Albans, lived in Wandsworth for 10 years, lived in west Wales for the past 30 years.
I don't feel as if I came from anywhere, other than solidly English on all sides back into the mists of time. (With a bit of Irish, but then aren't we all?)
We were from Kent until the 19th century, then moved around with each generation. My great grandfather went up to Oxford in 1858, was ordained, and then moved parishes every few years. Since then we've had no roots anywhere.
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I'm mostly very English, but a teeny tiny bit of me is Romany. A distant ancestor was kicked out of the tribe for marrying an English woman and I'm one of the descendants.
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Born in Forest Gate East London, Lived in Canning Town, Manor park, and then became an essex boy, Wickford, then left home to move to Hounslow, and then the Surrey burbs.
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I currently live just outside Norwich. Have lived in Norfolk for thirty odd years now . Was a bit of a culture shock at first after London but I have grown to like Norwich and Norfolk a lot. Don't think I woiuld want to live in London now unless I had millions. Always fancied a house in Kew by the gardens
Does anyone have the misfortune to live in a place they really dislike and can't wait to get out of?
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Born 1953 in the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital, Huddersfield; lived a few miles away in Brighouse until I left home. Moved to west Herts in 1993.
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Born: Ashington, Northumberland,. Brought up: Oswestry, North West Shropshire. Although my little brother had a broad Geordie accent, I never did, and consider myself to be, if anything, a Shropshire lad. Still have a vague aspiration to move back one day.
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Lu'on and Lu'on (where they used to make a's - you put on yer ed).
Now moved twenty miles north.
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Born, in 1935, the son of a serving Royal Navy Warrant Officer, in King George's Merchant Seamen's Memorial Hospital in Valletta, Malta G.C.
Educated in Kent: (Rochester, Beckenham & Sandwich) lived in Kent, (except for part of wartime, I was evacuated to Somerset & later my mother & I decamped to Scotland), Nottinghamshire, Kent again, Middlesex - Greater London (Pinner & Ruislip), South Buckinghamshire, South Pembrokeshire, Spain & now Nottinghamshire again.
My birth certificate is in Maltese & English, my wife's is in Welsh & English: our daughter's is English only!
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Born in Newton Abbot General Hospital in Devon in 1945. Moved to Chorlton cum Hardy, South Manchester, soon after to a rented house that others in the family had used on and off during the Hitler spat.
I had the LNER at the bottom of the garden and the LMS across the field next to the house.
Moved in '61 a mile or so away, then on to Sale, Cheshire. Married in '69 to the current wife and then bought a house with the same railway at the end of the garden in 1971. We're still there....400 yds from the rented house. Trains have gone but the trams now thunder past at some speed !
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>> Married in
>> '69 to the current wife
Does she know you call her the 'current wife'?
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>> >> Married in
>> >> '69 to the current wife
>>
>> Does she know you call her the 'current wife'?
Thats positvely shocking, has the spark left the marriage?
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>> Thats positvely shocking, has the spark left the marriage?
>
He'll have to go to ground if she finds out. Worse if he's alternating between them.
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Its just phase he is going through
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>> Its just phase he is going through
>>
If she finds out, he'll have no Ohm to go to.
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>> >> Its just phase he is going through
Watt's that about? Do tell us more.
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Mon 13 Jul 15 at 11:51
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Born in London in August 1938. Lived subsequently as a child in Bath, Bristol, Cornwall, Sri Lanka, Bath, Bristol, Berkshire and Plymouth. Then as a late adolescent and adult in Bath, Bristol and southern Scotland. I'm half English and half Italian-Maltese, which means in effect ethnically part-Arab and part-Turkish, with a dash of Phoenician.
As an independent adult continued with a peripatetic life in north and east Africa and London again. Eventually came to west Sussex where I now live not in luxury exactly, but in great undeserved comfort and very agreeable surroundings.
Two marriages (still on good terms with first wife after rocky period during split), three children and five grandchildren all of whom I see quite often and usually love dearly. I've been very lucky so far. My mother died at 53 of lung cancer; a younger brother died tragically in infancy, another sibling was stillborn, a younger sister died at 49 of lung cancer. I drink a fair amount and have taken a lot of drugs over the years. The most damaging was amphetamine. Managed to avoid opiates after a very brief flirtation. I'll be 77 at the end of August if I make it. It's in the lap of the gods, but no sign of serious illness that I'm really willing to admit. Fingers crossed though. Cat my age can snuff it any time.
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>> Lived subsequently as a child in Bath, Bristol, Cornwall, Sri Lanka, Bath, Bristol, Berkshire and Plymouth.
God how annoying. Left out Wales (Dinas Cross, then Fishguard, both in Pembrokeshire) between Sri Lanka and the second Bath. Knew I'd forgotten something. Doh!
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 12 Jul 15 at 00:09
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Something else I'd forgotten: a long-term cigarette habit, very heavy in the past but under 20 a day usually now. Father died at 73 or 74 of a ruptured aorta, allegedly smoking-related. Having outlived both parents I must be on borrowed time. But one can't help being who one is.
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Hmm like Zero was born in Forest Gate (hospital).
Lived until I was 20+ between Manor Park and Wanstead. But at boarding school in Woodford after 11.
Then lived at Leytonstone, Seven Kings then Billericay while moving up the housing ladder.
Job move took me to Wingham in Kent (between Sandwich and Canterbury).
Then next job move brought me to Wokingham in Berkshire, where Ive' been for 26+ years.
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Born 1959 at Hyde Terrace maternity hospital in Leeds. Lived and attended school in it's more leafy suburbs (Horsforth then Guiseley) until A levels. Left at age 18 to join the Civil Service, briefly in Scunthorpe and then in London for 34yrs.
Home in London went over around ten years from a Civil Service hostel through various shared houses and bedsits to a rented flat in Harrow and finally a house in Watford. Distance from ageing parents and lack of affordable and pleasant housing inside the M25 took us to a large Northampton dormitory village in 1990. We've been here ever since.
Supplementary question - how many of you who've moved around had and retain a regional accent?
If I spoke to Mark would a recognise a Welsh inflexion?
I still have the flat vowels of the West Riding.
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>> how many of you who've moved around had and retain a regional accent?
When I was 14 or so living in Plymouth, my parents complained I was picking up a Westo accent. They could talk! - my mother always sounded a bit charmingly foreign and if you had a really good ear you could hear the odd Bristol sound in my father's accent.
I speak 'received English' and sound a little posh to some people. But it's all in the hearer's 'ear'. A really good ear will often detect regional sounds even in posh received English.
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My two older daughters speak posh RP like their mothers, although the eldest has picked up some North London music scene sounds from her funk drummer husband. The youngest has a bit of Aussie from her time there and marriage to an Ocker.
My nieces and nephews from NZ have charming Kiwi accents. Their father and his brother speak highly respectable but identifiable Yorkshire.
Personally I've always been a parrot. I sounded exotic to the other kids in Wales but my parents soon started to complain that I was sounding Welsh.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 12 Jul 15 at 16:48
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>> Supplementary question - how many of you who've moved around had and retain a regional
>> accent?
Now primarily Estuary English with a glottal stop, but I can do a very passable cocker knee.
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>> Supplementary question - how many of you who've moved around had and retain a regional
>> accent?
>>
Interesting question - how would one ever know?
As far as I'm aware my family has always spoken with an absolutely standard RP accent, regardless of where we were brought up.
I did once meet someone who without any prompting or hints said he could tell I'd been to Cambridge not Oxford, for what that's worth.
I have met people who seem to be like blotting paper for picking up whatever accents they are living amongst. But on the other hand my brother has lived in America for twenty years and has never ever uttered a single American expression or word useage, let alone any trace of an accent.
It probably goes with family characteristics, and perhaps a subconscious desire either to fit in or to remain true to some inner loyalty.
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>>
>> >> Supplementary question - how many of you who've moved around had and retain a
>> regional
>> >> accent?
to Cambridge not Oxford, for what that's worth.
>>
>> I have met people who seem to be like blotting paper for picking up whatever
>> accents they are living amongst. But on the other hand my brother has lived in
>> America for twenty years and has never ever uttered a single American expression or word
>> useage, let alone any trace of an accent.
I have observed similar, my daughter picks up accents quickly - she is a good linguist and I think I've read that the two may be related, so she currently has enough of an Australian twang after a couple of years for her teachers to think she is a native whereas her younger brother still sounds like he left Surrey yesterday. Whilst in international school in Hong Kong my daughter picked up a discernible American accent. I think I am still pretty much RP although my phraseology has changed in Australia e.g. 'no worries' instead of 'no problem' and 'g'day' on occasion.
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But on the other hand my brother has lived in
>> America for twenty years and has never ever uttered a single American expression or word useage, let alone any trace of an accent.
That's very unusual, I've never heard of that before, I've known quite a few people emigrate and met expats. Even after 20 years not a single americanism not even once I think is very unusual.
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>>Even after 20 years not a single americanism not even once
>> I think is very unusual.
>>
He knows them and presumably uses them when in America, but just treats it as a foreign language. You don't lapse into French-accented English just because you have French lessons.
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>
>> He knows them and presumably uses them when in America,
Ahh right that makes more sense.
You don't lapse into French-accented English just because you have French lessons.
>>
No I don't think I would, but I don't think it's quite the same thing.
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You could of course lapse into Dutch English to sound like a local
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhtq1ObGHy8
Or French English
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwkUMFk4yTo
NOT
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...uses them when in America.
That's my approach. Nothing shakes my BBC-ish tones but I'm happy to ask for a cab, a rental car or even a tomayto where those are the local terms.
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>>
>> No I don't think I would, but I don't think it's quite the same thing.
>>
>>
Isn't it the difference between knowing the vocabulary and speaking the accent?
You would only pick up the accent if you went native, and some people do without even trying, and some have a conscious or subconscious resistance.
I suspect family tradition has quite a lot to do with it. All the members of my family I have met sound exactly the same, regardless of where they live or were brought up.
I recently heard a tape recorded by one of my father's cousins shortly before he died in 1984.
He was born in 1912 and emigrated to Canada in 1930. During a career in the Canadian army he had obviously tried hard to sound Canadian. But it didn't work - he kept lapsing into pre-war English.
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>> Lived until I was 20+ between Manor Park and Wanstead. But at boarding school in
>> Woodford after 11.
>>
>> >>
That's interesting smokie, which boarding school was that?
I left out Forest Gate, Manor Park and Seven kings from my travels, seems a few of us lived in that manor.
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Bancrofts, Woodford Green.
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>> Lu'on and Lu'on (where they used to make a's - you put on yer ed).
>>
>>
>> Now moved twenty miles north.
>>
Same here, apart from now being 110 miles SW.
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Mines a bit dull really, born in Bristol, grew up in the suburbs north of Bristol (south Gloss as they now call it). Spent a lot of my childhood in Cornwall for extended holidays due to family there.
Moved out and bought first own place in the south of the Cotswold's - property was much cheaper there than Bristol, but still easily commutable to work.
Moved back to North Bristol when I shacked up with Mrs B, then we moved to North Somerset -mostly for the better quality of life and good schooling.
Quite happy here, but would like something a bit more rural so a move further south may be on the cards at some point
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Born Nottingham June 1960, adopted at the age of 8 weeks. Lived in a small Nottinghamshire village till I joined the army at 16. After I came out in the early 1980's, back to parents; have since lived in Eastwood, Letchworth, Stevenage, Narberth (Pembrokeshire), Derby, and now Carmarthen.
Moved here after me Dad died in 2002, having taken a liking to the slower pace and better quality of life down here when I was in Narberth; would take a lot to make me move.
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I was born in a small Dutch village Nieuweschans.On the East border next to Germany.In 1949.We all moved my brother and sister to Rotterdam big harbour city when I was five years old.I grew up in Rotterdam and speak a Rotterdam accent when in Holland.Moved to the U.K. as a young man and speak with a Geordy accent in the U.K.
We live in a l town (village) Hedon just outside Kingston Upon Hull.
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You won't tell anyone, I'm sure, but I was born on Great Yarmouth. If "growing up" means up to age 23, then Norwich, but that included 2 years away in the Army.
Incidentally, I haven't been back to Norfolk for about three years but noticed, in the preceding years, that the traditional Norfolk accent seems to have been replaced by a feeble outer-Essex one.
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Norfolk accent seems to have been replaced by a feeble outer-Essex one.
I've still got my feeble inner Essex one and I've been in Norfolk for 37 years. I guess I'll never get round to asking for a pint of bear
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>> Incidentally, I haven't been back to Norfolk for about three years but noticed, in the
>> preceding years, that the traditional Norfolk accent seems to have been replaced by a feeble
>> outer-Essex one.
I've noticed that, over 25 years or so of visiting Norfolk. It's happened everywhere I think. Vox pops on Yorkshire TV are full of yeowling whiny diphthongs that would never have been heard there 30 years back.
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Born in the midlands, grew up in Leicestershire, had a very happy childhood there but don't have the accent (parents too well spoken to allow it). Uni in Manchester, lived in the NE then Manchester then London. Work took me to US for a brief spell then Hong Kong for longer, now in Australia hopefully for a while, not sure longer term but I know I like to keep moving as I get itchy feet after any length of time anywhere, the world is too big and interesting to stay put.Just spent 3 weeks in the UK and recharged my batteries but glad to be overseas again, if I stop moving the lift will go from my wings....
Last edited by: idle_chatterer on Sun 12 Jul 15 at 16:20
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I should have added, I have no intention of ever 'growing up' - that's what I tell my kids anyhow. Although growing old disgracefully is an option I will certainly consider.
Last edited by: idle_chatterer on Sun 12 Jul 15 at 16:24
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>>now in Australia hopefully for a while, not sure longer term
About the nearest place to a stable country going, unless it is New Zealand.
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I was born at home in Elm Park, Hornchurch and lived within spitting distance of Hornchurch aerodrome which was my playground in the early 70's. Moved to rural north Essex with my parents in the early 80's and remain in the area. Most of my parents' family were from Islington and then they moved to Europe's largest housing estates in Dagenham/Barking where some still reside.
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>> I was born at home in Elm Park, Hornchurch and lived within spitting distance of
>> Hornchurch aerodrome which was my playground in the early 70's.
>>
Elm Park is where I lived in Hornchurch, just south of the station where the roads got their names from the Lake District.
Never realised so many of us were from roughly the same patch.
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>> Never realised so many of us were from roughly the same rough patch.
>>
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>> Elm Park is where I lived in Hornchurch, just south of the station where the
>> roads got their names from the Lake District.
>>
>> Never realised so many of us were from roughly the same patch.
>>
My road was Lancaster Drive. Scotts Primary School is where I was edjookated. I have fond memories of being in the 'quiet room' at school being read a story then being told by the head mistress that a WW2 bomb had been unearthed on the old airfield which was just the other side of the school boundary fence. We would be told to lie down whilst the bomb disposal lads would make it go boom and dust would float down from the celing. Happy days.
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Alnwick, Northumberland which makes me a Northumbrian not a southerner from Geordieland ;-).
Or, from Hogwarts school (Alnwick castle was used as the interior and exterior) as my youngest son's point of reference. I grew up ten miles down the coast in Amble (by the Sea - the friendliest port).
After Uni, left for the bright lights of Sheffield while working in 'arrogate, then spent a couple of years in Wootton Bassett (as it was known then) before buying a house and moving back to Sheffield while working for a company in London.
During the ten years in Sheffield I worked in Connecticut for 6 months, Amsterdam for 7 or 8 months (it all got a bit vague for some reason), Munich on and off over a 4 year period, Plymouth, Preston, Brussels, Leeds and some time in London (Sutton, Westminster). Sold the house in Sheffield and moved to Frankfurt for a couple of years then back to London for another couple of years. Back to Germany including some work which required me to go out to India every 6-8 weeks.
Now split time between Scotland and Germany.
Only really get my Northumbrian accent back when I have a heavy cold.
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>> spent a couple of years in Wootton Bassett (as it was known then)
If it isn't rude to ask, gmac, what did you do in Wootton Bassett? It has slightly military connections in my memory. I used to pass through it quite often in my hitching days but I can't even remember what main(ish) road it's on. 55 years ago mind you, and it was a place I passed through, can't remember stopping there properly. But it's in 'my' part of the country, the West.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 12 Jul 15 at 19:21
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No military connections from me, the Harrogate department (National Power) I worked in was merged into one in Swindon.
I can't remember the name of the road that runs out to Malmesbury and the west, I imagine at some time it would have been the A4 as it runs parallel with the M4.
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Born and grew up in Isleworth near the Thames ( Thistleworth was its old name , nothing to do with the river). We were within the sound Of Twickers rugby.
Isleworth was in the borough of Heston & Isleworth in Middlesex.
The address etc was confusing when I was very young.
We lived close to the borough border with Twickenham and with no Sat Nav postal addresses were more important.
St Margarets, East Twickenham was our address. Visitors from that direction were confronted with a Heston & Isleworth sign and sometimes thought they had wrong slotted.
Just to add to my confusion the River Thames did not flow West to East but South to North thus just across the river was Surrey with was further North than Middlesex.
Our first house was in Hounslow and our second/ current house is in Esher ( Eesher ).
We have both stayed with a dozen wiles from home and have no intention of moving away.
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Born & brought up in Glasgow starting in Townhead, then in Cardonald, for those who know that fair city.
Educated, until the age of 22, in Glasgow before leaving, with my shiny new Accountancy degree, to begin a career in IT in Newcastle upon Tyne. Moved south to Marlow in 1983, still in the same house there 32 years later, still working for same company, still married to same wife. You might get the impression I don't do change.
Last edited by: commerdriver on Mon 13 Jul 15 at 09:43
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I've just counted up the number if different dwellings e have living in since our conjugal conjunction and the total brings to mind the vast amount of money we have paid in legal and estate agent's fees!
Rented flat in Pinner - town house in Ruislip, detached house in Chalfont St. Peter, guest house in Pembroke, bungalow in Cosheston, (Pembrokeshire) detached house in Pembroke, bungalow in Pembroke Dock, apartment in Spain, another (much better) apartment in Spain and now a semi-detached house in North Notts..
Bit of a downward spiral latterly, but at least the place is paid for!
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Almost as many as me then Dodger = 11 gaffs since getting spliced inc. Tenerife. 3 prior to conj conj.
Making a grand total of?
^_^
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Same house for last 30 years, only 5 houses in my entire lifetime.
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Jeez, I couldn't even count.
If I count places I've lived where I owned the property rather than rented, then 9 countries.
Add in rented places, or try to count cities and I wouldn't have a clue.
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Nothing wrong with no change if you are settled.We've lived in our house over thirty years.Just the two of us now the three children all grown up.
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Born in Bedford (at home) in '74. Moved to the Isle of Wight in early '78 where I spent my formative years (under the VHF TV mast - the one with the red lights). Decamped to Uni in Manchester in '92, then Reading after graduation in '97, then Lanark in 2001, where I still am.
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Wiveliscombe, Somerset, England, Great Britain.
I still have my local accent, which was becoming rare even 60 years ago but has served me well. I found people would talk to me when they wouldn't talk to others. Years ago, on a particularly nasty murder case, some clown from The Sun tried to imitate me on the phone!
From what I've seen of England and Somerset in the last couple of days, I'm destined to die in exile.
The rain has made my car filthy, too.
Last edited by: Mike Hannon on Tue 14 Jul 15 at 08:22
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I was a wartime evacuee , for a short time, to Wiveliscombe. Don't remember much about it though.
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Well I'll be darned. You can't be very young. My grandparents had an evacuee, his name was Sidney Saville. He didn't go back to London until quite late in the war and he turned up in Wiveliscombe at odd times for decades after.
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I was born in Peterborough but as mentioned before, my Mum had itchy feet and I attended 13 different schools between starting at five and taking my 11 plus.
Among those were Barrowby, Grantham, Market Stainton, Doddington and finally Hunstanton.
On passing it, she agreed to return to Peterborough to give me a stable education for the next 5 years at Orton Longueville Grammar School.
The minute I left school we were off again and moved to Manton, Oakham, Ashwell and finally to Tilton on the Hill, where I managed to stay for a glorious 12 years and will forever call home.
Pat
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It's interesting, isn't it, this concept of 'home'? I'll be in Wiveliscombe later to see my very aged aunt. I spent the first 21 years of my life there but I've been around the block a bit since then and now I don't feel anything for the place at all - or for anywhere really. A few years ago I was talking to an ex-girlfriend from those far-off days who told me she had returned there because she thought it the best place on Earth. Well, there you go.
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>> It's interesting, isn't it, this concept of 'home'? I'll be in Wiveliscombe later to see
>> my very aged aunt. I spent the first 21 years of my life there but
>> I've been around the block a bit since then and now I don't feel anything
>> for the place at all - or for anywhere really.
Agree, I don't miss the place where I grew up and lived until I was 21. Happy where I live now, and have done for the last 10 years, but not sure I would really miss it if I left tomorrow
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Born in Bradford. Moved to Bingley aged 14, first home there aged 23. Then kept moving west to Giggleswick, NYorks, via Keighley. Now in Placerville, Northern CA, which is my 'spiritual' home where I would love to spend half the year, and the other half in t'Dales.
Best of both worlds....days on the river kayaking, trail walking, mountains, skiing and lots of sun. Rain, greenery, sheep, dry stone walls and proper pubs in the latter.
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Born in Hillingdon Hospital.
Grew up in Harlington, Nr. Heathrow.
Started work and moved to Bedfont Middx
About 14 years living in Ashford, Surrey.
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Born Taplow, Bucks - CRXMH for locals in the know.
Grew up in Windsor, then to University in Nottingham and Moscow, settled in Reading thereafter (eventually - temporary billets in Carmarthen, Windsor, Kingston-upon-Thames and Bagshot in between).
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Seems to me I knew the daughter of the vicar of Taplow. Although if you were that young when you left.....
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 20 Jul 15 at 15:04
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>> Seems to me I knew the daughter of the vicar of Taplow.
Gravestone Glenda? All the boys knew her.
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Her name was Liz.
GG was in Maidenhead.
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>> Her name was Liz.
>>
>> GG was in Maidenhead.
Oh you mean lychgate liz.
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Where were you born and where did you grow up? - Robin O'Reliant
