To think countryside people are condescending and moany all the time?

[Keyansier]

Does anyone else think this too? Partly stemming from the story about the people who are trying to ban weddings from being held in their village and putting up signs like "Bride and Grooms not welcome here" in order to dampen their big day and ruin their wedding photos.

People who live in cities know how to share and live alongside people. Yes, tourists can be annoying but we don't scream at them (well I don't, anyway) or tell them they are not welcome and to go away. Yet people in the country think this is perfectly acceptable and not rude behaviour. And they constantly make awful comments about cities and city living and how they would rather die than live somewhere so busy but then when there is a lot of rainfall and their places are flooded they shriek and moan that people aren't helping them fast enough for their liking.

They literally think just because they live in the countryside that they own the countryside and get to say who can go there and what can happen there. And if you're "unfamiliar" they were literally stare at you. AIBU to think this is entitled behaviour and very annoying?

We get upset, as previous PPs pointed out, when the land we own and keep up at considerable expense, is treated like a theme park by city dwellers and our animals as part of a petting zoo. When our land is trashed and our animals distressed or even killed, we tend to get the hump. But the absolute worst, are people who move from the city to the country, and who want to force some very bizzare notions on us, while not listening or indulging in any kind of dialogue. I am looking at my new neighbours who think that all the wild rabbits around here are mine, becuase I mentioned I had a couple burrows on my land and that I need to do something (kill them) asap as they are eating her veg garden. She is becoming increasingly irate at me as we are no closer to being a rabbit free zone around here. I don't even know where to start on this one.

I've been a city dweller and a country dweller, and I think some of the conflict stems from the fact that some people who spend most of their time in cities don't always realise that rural areas are also working landscapes, not just places to holiday.

You wouldn't park in front of someone's driveway in your home city and block their car in, so why park across a farm entrance?

You wouldn't climb over someone's garden fence or swing on their gate, so why clamber over a dry stone wall (which are moreeasily damaged than you might think)?

You also wouldn't randomly trespass across someone's garden, so why ignore the rights of way through a farm?

And in cities there may be street sweepers, but rurally there aren't, so it's even more important to take your rubbish home with you.

As usual, the majority behave fine, it's only a minority that spoil it for all.

I am looking at my new neighbours who think that all the wild rabbits around here are mine, becuase I mentioned I had a couple burrows on my land and that I need to do something (kill them) asap as they are eating her veg garden. She is becoming increasingly irate at me

This is hilarious!

Which parts of 'The Countryside' have you been to? Or are you basing your entire assessment of it on a click bait news story?

Not to mention allowing their animals to shit all over hay crop. We had to throw out quite a bit this year, thanks to some particularly obnoxious guests from the holiday home down the road and we have to buy in, during a drought year. So that holiday home has cost me money this year.

Grew up in the countryside and now a city person.

Countryside: no one spoke to you, if your dog so much as sniffed a hedge you'd get shouted at. Had to get a taxi to a bus stop and the amount of driving is an environmental nightmare.

City: dog walkers, parents, customers from the shop I work at all say hello, I feel I know everyone and the diversity is wonderful. I can walk everywhere and my child walks everywhere too, no being stuck in a car to get everywhere. Definitely friendlier.

Countryside seems to be full of NIMBYism, complaining about housing plans etc.

Can’t work out whether I’m a countryside person or not. Oh well.

I'm more a "suburb" dweller, though have lived on the fringes of London all my life & used to commute in daily. I also have family who are farmers.

I used to carry a tin with me everywhere (when I smoked) for fag ends, but most people who live in towns just drop theirs and tread on them. This leads to a) farm birds like chickens trying to eat them and b) when they aren't put out properly, fires.
I've had to stop people feeding bread to farmstock and birds - often their leftover bread that's gone mouldy.
I've found gates either left open, or when locked broken down by people climbing over them, letting livestock out & costing the landowner a fortune having to repair or replace the gates. Same with fences being broken.
I've stopped parents letting their kids in fields with horses. Not only are horses large, dangerous animals, but on a couple of occasions they were trying to play chasing the horses around when it was a stallion who ran out with his mares. Same with cattle.
I've seen dead wildlife tangled up in things like the plastic that holds beer cans together.
Total strangers wandering into not just the farm yard, but even the garden around the house.
People thinking it's OK to tramp across growing crops so they can either a) cut the corner or b) have a picnic & play games, ruining it.
Just about all the other things mentioned here e.g. dogs chasing & mauling livestock, gates being parked across including the main access to homes & yards.

I've also helped clear up the mess after public events in rural villages. The sheer amount of filth and litter that can be left behind is awesome. Fine if it's a local event for the local people e.g. village fete etc, but when it's something like a wedding for people who don't even live in the same county and who are only there because of the pretty backdrop for their pictures, why should the local populace be happy about having to clean up after a bunch of strangers who don't respect their village?

Definitely not all Conservative but a tendency to conservative- in that we feel protective towards our world. We want tight planning controls, protected dark skies, respect for crops and livestock as well as wildlife. It feels as if we might be right about the value of simple lives and community as we see the havoc hedonistic consumption and an entitlement that comes from an isolationisculture grows.
I suspect if one considered percentages we'd be more diverse than many suburbs and market towns, possibly even some cities.
We have about 18% non-British heritage residents, four languages spoken regularly, 10% LGBTQI+ approx. A higher percentage who would be considered disabled or with sensory loss. Ages from neonates to nonogenarians. All very different. Very, very wealthy, quite well off and people struggling financially in retirement.
All individuals.

This thread 😆

One reason I left London was because of the people. Horribly unfriendly. Never knew even one of my neighbours in the two years I lived there. Live in the countryside now and know most people in the village, the only snobby, miserable ones are the big rich estate owners - everyone's always glad when they go back to their places in London.

Maybe the reason you're viewed with suspicion is because you seem to view countryside folk in the exact same way that you're accusing them of viewing you.

As a land owner, the only person I have had the need to shout at was a man who decided to have a crap on my land.
Justified in my opinion.

Rural folk are weirdos in my experience. Closed-minded.

Jeez, generalization much!

Can't wait to hear more about your experience; not to mention your definition of weirdo.

I used to live in a city where there was a lot of tourism.

The tourists used to go around in big gangs, blocking the entire pavement, with the tour guides doing nothing to try to make them tour responsibly, like leaving a gap for other people to pass.

Basically with the level of entitlement people seem to have these days, it's hardly surprising that some people in the country get pissed off with city visitors and vice versa.

I used to live near a "beauty spot" my closest relatives live in the village. (It's a lake) since lockdown it's become horrendous. There's no parking apart from about 8 spaces yet people pack in like they are going to Blackpool. It's actually been on the news. We have found lots of cannisters of hippy crack, burnt disposable BBQs , cans and actual human waste. The farmers are actually going to fence it off as it's private land. So everyone loses out I actually look forward to the winter so I can park my car outside my father's house.

Well, things can vary everywhere, can't they?

For what it's worth, I found that many of my city friends are a lot more ghettoised than country friends. Where I grew up was very diverse in terms of race and religion, because it was where people relocated to. Whereas my city friends grew up in cities with white areas and black areas and Asian areas, and they never visited other areas in the same city. They seem a lot more prejudiced and narrow than many of my country friends.

We also had an absolute ball growing up because our parents generally assumed that we couldn't get into THAT much trouble.

Pros and cons for both, to be honest.

There are twats everywhere

There are some really rude people on here OP.

The actual landowners aren't too bad in my experience and totally fair enough to chuck people out of private land and point out stupidity.

But oh my god the "locals" can be painfully rude. I'm married to a Devonian and his family literally act like they own the county (rather than a pretty basic 3 bed bungalow). Lots of derogatory comments about "tourists" and every trip to the beach involves walking as far away from everyone else as possible. Also heaps of pretend knowledge about the "countryside code" lots of which is horseshit (coming from an actual farming family with an actual farm).

There is a very expensive food shop in a sailing town beginning with S. Its basically a corner shop, not at all fancy but priced akin to an independent deli. Its always heaving (or was until they opened the co op). The women in there literally could not be more rude to the customers. Passive aggressive and very terse. Every day is a bad day. I cheered when the co op opened that i never had to give those miserable locals another penny.

Its an attitude I have seen over and over together with an expectation that you should be able to work a minimum wage job and live in a beautiful popular area with other people that were born there. Never mind you can't do that in the city either.

A lot is triggered by jealousy and a perception that visitors are all wealthy.

This is a dispute between two country dwellers. It hardly supports the idea that country people aren’t moany.

I moved to a village recently. Yes it's rather insular, but the community really looks out for the older and more vulnerable residents, checking on on them after bad weather, helping with shopping, lifts, repairs etc. Everyone really bands together in a crisis too, in a way I've never experienced in any of the may towns/cities I've lived in.

with an expectation that you should be able to work a minimum wage job and live in a beautiful popular area with other people that were born there. Never mind you can't do that in the city either.

Tbf, often the only jobs available rurally are low wage ones. If the people doing those jobs can't earn enough to live in the area, who exactly is going to staff the shops/pubs, clean the holiday lets etc.?

All areas benefit from being accessible to people from a range of incomes, not just the wealthy.

I think the responsibility for the weddings is firmly with the churches and venues that charge top rates without thinking of the local impact.

I disagree. There are country people and country dwellers. Country people, wether they lived in the country all their lives or made the move from a city, understand the concept of things like wildlife because they are realistic about what the countryside is. Country dwellers often move out of cities with a very sanitised view of the countryside, sometimes with very definite idea of how they want their country life to be like and want to force it on the actual countryside. It never works. Rabbits are going to keep being rabbits. Perhaps she will learn one day to put netting over her veg, even if it doesn't look as nice on instagram.