Monday 5 September 2016

Brazen hussies in leopard-skin mini-skirts


Melvyn Bragg has begun a new series on t' North which celebrates the under-celebrated achievements and importance of the vast bit of land between the Scottish Borders and t' South.

The reason he has had to bring t' North to our attention is because all of us soft, London-centric Southerners have either been ignoring the place for hundreds of years, or we have claimed all the world-changing innovations as our own, under the umbrella of 'Britain'. He has a point. It is a bit like a Scotsman losing the men's final at Wimbledon, but a Brit winning it.

Being brought up in the heart of the Southern South with its soft, rolling downs and proximity to London, I was taught to despise and fear the North, with its dark satanic mills and rough-handed labourers who called a spade a spade in a funny accent, and I actually did live in dread of being exiled to somewhere like Preston or Hull for some childhood misdemeanour.

In the early sixties, our attitude toward the other half of England was formed by deeply depressing (to me), black and white, 'kitchen-sink' dramas, or Coronation Street.  Because we did not have a colour TV, I thought that the North was permanently grey, but I knew from first-hand experience that the South was beautifully coloured and I automatically used a mental palette when watching TV pictures of it.

It didn't help that the whole of the five-year period of school history lessons leading up to exams were about nothing but the Industrial Revolution. The Flying Shuttle and the Luddites, etc.

I'll tell you what shocked me the most about the Greater Manchester area when I was a kid - that women would not only go to the pub (albeit relegated to The Snug), but go to the pub with their hair-curlers still in!

33 comments:

  1. I am not sure whether I am still speaking to you after this post or not Tom!

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    1. I'm just explaining how I was indoctrinated as a kid, Weave. I love the North now - or maybe you still go to the pub in hair-curlers?

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  2. I was very fascinated by "up North" as a teenager as a result of which I moved to Newcastle at 19. I had a geography teacher who greatly inspired me. I worked in a shipyard office in Wallsend, saw ships on the Tyne high above the terraced streets, and I couldn't understand a word anybody said. I stayed for 6 years and loved every minute of it. Up North lived up to my dreams at the time.

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    1. That must have been a good experience.

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    2. I am not sure of the sincerity of your reply to me but, yes it was. The industrial North East was a great contrast to being brought up on a farm which is what I wanted to experience and set out to do and did.

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    1. That is a very intersting post for me. I did not know that there is such a defference between south and north,( now i know that it is every were in the world).

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    2. It depends on the shape of the country and where your percieved enemies live, I think. Crete is divided East to West, as was Germany before unification brought back the old Bavarian emnity.

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  4. I believe that in Liverpool (up North and to the left a bit) it is de rigeur for young women to walk around in curlers; it shows that they have a date that evening.

    I've only once been to Sheffield. As we drove closer we could see black clouds ahead and presumed it was raining; it wasn't.

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    1. H.I. is from Sheffield, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how nice I found the place, the couple of times I visited.

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  5. Like you, I grew up in the Southern part of the country, and was instructed from early childhood in the evil to be found in the North.

    When I graduated from college in 1967, I moved to New York straightaway, to experience living in the 1960s rather than continuing to relive the 1860s. Many decades later, this divide can still be found, as is apparent in the current election season.

    Best wishes.

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    1. Yes, when places get chopped up, old tribalism returns. Serbo-Croatia, Slovenia and the rest of Tito's old empire after the Ottoemans, our ours after the Raj and partition.

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    2. I cannot be arsed to correct that - you know what I was trying to mumble.

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  6. Fascinating, the post and the discussion. It's as if you never visited, except Rachel. My country is vast, compared to yours, my family definitely lower middle class, yet my parents saw to it we visited every part of this country, and appreciated it.

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    1. Oh, I have visited. It's only 200 miles up the road, but in a place like Belfast, 200 feet could be noman's land between people.

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  7. I grew up 'up North',albeit in the Dales, and never saw a woman in the streets with curlers in her hair! Did see occasional man with a bit of twine round his trousers though - maybe to keep his ferrets safe. Eeh it's grim up North!!

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    1. Down here, we tie string round our trousers to keep our balls safe from ferrets. Eee, it's a different world.

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  8. Like others, I found this very interesting.

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    1. Strange - I don't know why this post should be any less boring than the others, but I guess it is revealing to learn of unspoken prejudices and fear in a country you have not known from birth.

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  9. This is very interesting, Tom. We have the same north/south divisions here too, as Yael says, the world is the same all over.
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. Where are you? USA? The land to the South still bears the scars of the Civil War down there, doesn't it? When I was young, the grass and tree stumps were still black, and - as you know - I am still young in comparison.

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  10. You could live in the Midlands and get the best of both worlds. I'm at my friends in Cornwall at the mo and read your post out to her (and the comments) she says that when she visits me in Derbyshire she notices more people smoke and are fatter than "down south" I reminded her that they were also friendlier and less "stuck up".

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    1. I went into the Peak District once and enquired about a room in the Hathersage Inn. When they quoted a stupidly high price, I turned around and walked out, but the receptionist said that they could do it cheaper if I wanted, so we came to a deal. I always thought it was cheap up North, but not when it comes to tourists. Yes, I agree that Northerners are so much more friendly than us Southerners, but I don't know about fatter. I smoke.

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  11. Nowt wrong wi 'ull, and I'll bost any on yer who sez different...once I've teken out me rollers . Me 'usband is from 'ull. City of Culture,don't you know , next year.

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  12. Nowt wrong wi 'ull, and I'll bost any on yer who sez different...once I've teken out me rollers . Me 'usband is from 'ull. City of Culture,don't you know , next year.

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    1. I put this through Google Translate - both of them - and am still waiting for a result.

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  13. I miss sheffield
    Its warmth, its accent, its rough n ready attitude
    The welsh seem harsh in comparison

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    1. Yes, I was impressed with the open friendliness of Sheffield. I was warned off going into a noriously rough pub on an estate, but they were all welcoming and curious about me. I have to say that I have had some bad experiences in North Wales - not being served in a village shop because I was a stranger in the village and mistaken for the boyfriend of my host - you know, living in sin. That was a long time ago, but I still have a niggling prejudice - not against the Welsh, but their social set-up. Trelawnyd sounds very friendly, though.

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  14. I met a woman from Cambridge, England today at work. She seemed to think it was the very best part of England. I mentioned that I'd like to visit Yorkshire and she wrinkled her nose a bit...I wonder why?

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    1. Cambridge - wher I briefly lived - is a city of the elite. At least, that's how they like to view themselves. It is 80% intellectual snobbery, but I know some very nice people who live there too, of course.

      Only a few years ago, you could not find anyone in the University with a Yorkshire accent. They just would not have been accepted. Yorkshire is a wonderful place. H.I. was born in Sheffield, and that ex-industrial town is surrounded by stunningly beautiful landscapes and places like Chatsworth House.

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    2. Oxford - Cambridge's arch rival - has a sound industrial base to it which keeps its feet on the ground, but Cambridge is a place of pure imagination - and spies.

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    3. But then there's more of a town-gown problem in Oxford.

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  15. New England - reticent to the point of rudeness
    The South - notoriously friendly
    Philadelphia - a mid-Atlantic city - outgoing, welcoming with just the right touch of ethnic sarcasm.

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