Interesting thread, this. I live in a market town in North Wiltshire, population nowadays 39000. When I were a lad the town was, literaly half the size. While it’s a rural area, the town is, or was, pretty industrial, the main employer when I was at school being Westingouse Brake and Signal. Rudeboy would know about them, as they supplied brakes and signals for most of London Underground. As a result I was brought up by a dad who was an engineer, but who was born and raised in a little village about eight miles away with a population of around two hundred. As a result, I used to get taken for walks out into the countryside and be shown animals and plants and birds, an interest I still have forty years on, but I also have an interest in the wider world that is just as involving. I am appalled at the level of ignorance around, but not at all surprised. When it comes to country people being rude and unwelcoming, is anyone on here really that surprised? When you see the way that visitors behave it’s difficult to refrain from punching people in the face. They arrive thinking that a village is just some sort of fancy theme park, leave cars in totally inappropriate places blocking gateways and field entrances, allow dogs to run riot through flocks and herds, complain because their shiney car has got muddy, or they got woken up by birds making a noise, the church bells ringing, or the nearby farm smelling funny, then have the affrontery to complain to the local council and demand that the noise is stopped and the smell made to go away! FFS, what do these moronic **** expect, it’s a place where people work, with everything that entails. Trouble is, these people get away with it because they have a lot of money, they’ve just bought a farmhouse from a family who have gone bust after farming there for five hundred years and they now want everything just the way THEY want it. Can you imagine the resentment that stirs up? It’s like me moving to London then demanding the Tube line behind my house gets shut down because I don’t like the noise it makes at night. Dumb, dumber, dumbest.

People don’t wanna share something nice with others, for fear of it getting fecked up

Is that why the East End is so unwelcoming? 😉

I agree with everything you’ve written CountZero.

A wealthy towny friend of mine bought a converted barn in a rural area. Her hubby dug a huge pond and couldn’t understand why they didn’t have ducks in it. I gave up trying to explain that ducks aren’t pets and they need a pond with mature plants in. Every time we visited they moaned about the noise the sheep made and the morning dawn chorus.

However I do think it’s important for families to bring their children to the countryside, if only they would respect it and not just trundle 50 metres from the car, leave their litter and dog mess and run the car engines in the carpark’cos it a wee bit colder than they thought.

Oh and only 8% of the population have ever seen a badger.

Countzero is absolutely right and makes some very valid point…

Like Rudeboy I’ve seen kingfishers, owls and woodpeckers in zone 3 -4 of the tube map and a heft of other indigenous wildlife is available within zone 1-6, you don’t need to go to the countryside to see them. The country side is dull and there isn’t a great deal to do in general other than wonder round over some miserable farmers land and visit villages full of resentful locals. And don’t get me started on country pubs. Don’t you just love walking into a pub and the metaphorical tumbleweed crosses the lounge bar whilst 10 ruddy faced locals with male pattern baldness and v neck sweaters stare at you in a most unwelcoming way.

Give me a big anonymous city any day

amen to that

I’ve walked, camped and biked all over the west of the country from Devon to lochinver, I’ve been in a fair few pubs. I’ve never yet met a bunch of locals looking uninviting, I just stroll in smile and nod and order a drink. There was a time when I was paranoid and thought everyone was out to get me, fortunately these days I’ve got past that and realised that people just glance over to see the new faces. I’ve noticed I glance over at new people coming into my local. If you walk in expecting unpleasantness you’ll feed that back and you’ll get unpleasantness. IME.

Maybe you’ve never been to Gloucestershire 😉

Of course.

And in both, you will find friendly, welcoming people, as well as nasty types.

As for the tourism thing; many areas, like places near trail centres, for example, as well as places in the Lake District and National Parks and that, rely on tourism for a large chunk of their income. So, you want the coin, then you have to put up with extra numbers coming in to your little village. Or, move to a town, and get a job there. As idyllic as it may seem, to want to live amongst wilderness and nature, you’ve got to pay the bills. You can’t have it both ways.

Wunundred!

I was once in london with someone from Oswestry, travelling in a cab we rounded the corner into Parliment Square – “wow look at that big clock!!!!” she exclaimed, true.

We did piss ourselves laughing at her.

yeah, ironic considering I AM Welsh 🙁

No, actually! As there will be means to get about easily, apprently. And I hope to be at as many of the events as I can get to. Although I am opposed to the enormous cost, and environmental impact of the Games, they are a fact, and I’ll be proud to enjoy them, along with millions of others, in my Home Town.

Im pretty sure there’ll be a bit of mess to tidy up afterwards. Hey ho.

Ooh, I’d say a million or so. In London alone. Where over 300 different languages are spoken.

I can’t speak for cities such as Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham, etc…

Erm, you simply mentioned ‘city-dwellers’. Many of whom happen to have origins other than just British. Forgive my lack of telepathy, for not being able to see such an obvious point…

Quite a large percentage, I’d say.

Yes. I can imagine you’d struggle, with such a concept. Mind-blowing, is not it? 🙄

Non-existant, actually.

Back in yer box, aracer. Don’t try turning this into something it’s not. I’ve not taken anything you said out of context; you’ve simply failed to put your thoughts across propply.

The level of education in SOME rural areas can be SOMETIMES quite poor. Plus, with limited interaction with others, SOME local people fail to develop good language skills. By this, I mean they struggle to understand different dialects, and can lack the ability to communicate in a clear and effective manner, with others outside of their local community.

This is also true of SOME people who live in cities.

I’m not attacking ‘country folk’ , I’m just trying to understand why SOME resent outsiders, and why relations between Townies and rural folk can SOMETIMES be difficult. And I’ve posted some of my own observations and opinions. OK?

RudeBoy, most of your opinions seem to be that of someone who has never left the “safety” of the Greater London metropolitan area.

Likewise some of the other posters seem never to have visited a city.

I suspect those of us in Scotland and “the North” may have an easier time of this because “the city” and “the countryside” are not separated by a three-hour drive, hence it would be really very unusual for someone up here to have never seen a sheep.

No no no…

I’m NOT stereotyping ALL rural folk; please read my posts propply.

GrahamS; when I was growing up, I would stay with relatives in a small village in Cornwall. Have been there many times. I’ve also been to several rural areas of Britain, including Wales, the Lakes, Yorkshire Moors, etc, etc.

Notice that I wrote ‘SOME’, in capital letters, to emphasise that I am not generalising about ALL country folk!

Yes, I believe many could, actually. City life is far less routine than a fair amount of rural daily life, such as farming. And there is a lot more intellectual stimulus to be found in large metropolitan areas. Likewise, rural life can enable an individual to develop a more finely tuned understanding of nature and ability to cope with the environment they are in. and the ability to be able to identify sheep.

I have friends who come from rural areas. Who tell me about the narrow-mindedness and ignorance of some people they’ve known in these areas. So, from the Horse’s mouth, as it were.

And, coming from an inner-city area, I can vouch for the ignorance, bigotry and narrow-mindedness of many people here.

I’ve been in a couple in Wales where they have been openly hostile, presumably because we are English.

Are you sure? Without knowing where you were or how you were acting, it’s difficult to comment, but I’ve never had a problem with taking English friends anywhere in Wales. Obviously, if you were wearing an England football shirt and went into the Ninian Arms in Cardiff on match day, for instance, you might be ready for some aggro, but that would be a separate issue.

From recent experience though, if a group of loud English people walk into a pub in Wales and act like hooray henrys then they are likely to incur some hostility.

The thing is, Rudeboy, given your observations could equally apply to SOME city folk living in SOME urban areas, and that there are plenty of country people who don’t conform to your stereotype, your observations are essentially worthless!

FWIW I’ve always been a country person in a way – where I grew up I could see sheep from my bedroom window, despite the fact I lived in a town. Have lived in three cities though – one of them being London – and the town I grew up in was just on the edge of London, so I visited there extensively. I feel reasonably well qualified to comment therefore (and rather better than people who’ve never lived outside a city, only visited)!