Working Class Towns

[Settle59]

Inspired by another thread - and being a Sociologist (after a fashion..) -
thought I'd start this thread.

OK here goes:
Luton
Slough
Blackburn
Corby

Why is Basildon in caps? And Laindon is but not the Langdon Hills area.

Wolverhampton is a city now!

Port Talbot

Don't base your opinion on hearsay or general perception for the sake of it.

Or on John Betjeman poems, either.

BakedCam - I admit that a lot is popular perception/stereotype. The broadcaster and author Stuart Maconie writes makes some interesting observations in some of his books about why he perceives Tunbridge Wells as a middle class town. I love it personally - the Pantiles and the hot spring...good memories of there.

hippo Langdon Hills doesn't actually exist

The title of the thread is working class towns, not scuzzy or deprived towns. Oh, but I forgot - they're one and the same in many MNers' minds.

I think you've selectively quoted me there, I was a) not naming anywhere, and b) pointing out that even places with 'bad' reputations have affluent areas. When we first move here (from the south) all our friends who came to visit said 'Oh, wow, it's actually really nice here!' as we drove through the beautiful Victorian housing built when the market town expanded dramatically thanks to the wealth of the railways. It shows a complete lack of knowledge of the history of this country.

The north has always had wealth, in the medieval period the sheep farming made the northern monasteries some of the richest in Europe (which is why so many of the best stately homes in the country are in the north, think Chatsworth, Hardwick Hall, Castle Howard, Harewood House, all rich from farming and mining) and the industrial revolution made the cities very rich. So many of the northern cities mentioned here, like Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle, even Middlebrough have beautiful Victorian architecture in their centres due to the money that was sloshing around 150 years ago. The twee 'middle class' villages in the south that are now so desirable were poverty stricken in the Victorian era as their young and able population deserted them for the money in the industrial cities. 'North and South' by Elizabeth Gaskell is all about this.

Well, all I can say is thank fuck I don't live in a perceived middle class town if it's full of sanctimonious, snobby, wannabe mc twats, the likes of which are on this thread 😂

• Everywhere north of Norwich.

You've never been to Harrogate or York or ( etc....) have you?*

This made me smile.

There are plenty of working class places that have been rich, Glasgow for example.

I would argue that a lot of Harewoods wealth came from sugar and therefore the slave trade but it was still wealth.

Everywhere north of Norwich

You are aware that Birmingham is south of Norwich.
(Not to say that Brum is working class but that Norwich is much further north than people think)

That's interesting clean, every day's a school day

Us Basildonians have been calling the 'posh' bit near the country park Langdon Hills for as long as I can remember. Mind you, we also insist on calling pubs by their old name whenever they've changed. Those of us over a certain age do anyway

Byfleet. (Not West Byfleet)
New Haw (Not Woodham)
Sheerwater

@Settle59 Arksey comes under Doncaster in my little world 😂
I've lived in most pit villages in the Doncaster area too 🙈

hippo No Hungry Horse (Four Seasons) for you then

Ha ha nope. The four seasons, always. And when I was a little kid I thought the local pub was called the double silders, because The Double Six changed to The Flying Childers and my poor dad couldn't get used to it

@Svalberg

I see you were surprised too!!

@Therebythedoor The home of the Waitrose head office?

m.youtube.com/watch?v=5UXnulANF8g

In Slough, I recruited for a position based in the area and struggled to get someone for less than £50k for a role which isn't specialised in any way. It certainly didn't strike me as deprived.

That aside, it seems ironically rather lacking in class both to start a thread which seems as though its intended to be a list of poor towns to look down upon, and to join in by listing said towns.

It's also a tad weird that you've said a few times you didn't mean to offend, and then proceeded to continue your lists @Settle59??

I've had a quick look for the middle class towns you've referred to but can't see it. Could you please provide a link?

There's a link further down @BojoKilledMyMojo

The only link I can see is to a newspaper article about Slough.

hi BoJo - I'm not techy enough to provide links I'm afraid - but - if you google 'middle class towns mumsnet' it's the first thread that comes up

The one from 2 years ago??

Evidently lockdown has sent some of you a tad batshit.

Bojo - thing is there were a few recent posts on it which made people including me thinking it was recent.