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?

The thing to remember is - if you are in a farmer's field, you're not in a public place like a park or a town square, you are on someone else's land.

You have the legal right to use a right of way to cross that land, but you don't really have any other rights. If they say dogs on the lead, that's their call.

In my experience, having both lived in the country & in cities, country people don't rock up to city peoples homes, plant themselves in their gardens for a picnic, bang on their doors & demand to use their toilets, start playing football or some other game in their front garden, set their dogs on other animals then complain if the livestock owner isn't okay with it or treat the place like a toilet even though cities often look like one.

There are plenty of people who live in cities who are capable of visiting the countryside without acting like an idiot, however a small but significant amount shit on beaches, whinge about litter they drop, trespass & generally act like they have no brains at all.

What is the awful thing that people who live in the countryside do when they visit cities?
Blow their noses a lot because the levels of pollution mean you can smell London from 50 miles away?
Don't hide their shock at the appallingly high cost, low quality fruit & veg on sale in the supermarkets there?
Look really happy they get to go home?

Can't recall the news stories about those terrible country people causing the deaths of city animals, blocking businesses so they can't make a living, or any other other foul behaviour that is standard in country areas where 'city tourists' regularly despoil the environment.

The countryside does not exist for your twitter/insta/whatever photo ops & it isn't all public land.

You get twats everywhere, unfortunately. They are pervasive.

Some paths are also permissive paths, rather than actual ROW- on these, obviously landowners can impose any restrictions that they like.

I do understand about access land. I'm talking specifically about on footpaths where there is a public right of way and where, from googling, there doesn't seem to be a legal requirement to leash your dog.

You stick to the ROW and follow the rules of the landowner. Simple as that.

But also, if you are walking across a field with any kind of livestock in, it's common sense to have your dog on a lead.

They literally think just because they live in the countryside that they own the countryside

I've got news for you. They literally do own the countryside.

Ex Londoner here, now living in a village.

I can’t believe the rubbish that has been spouted on here.
I grew up in South London and worked in the City and the West end before moving to Yorkshire. I have met and lived near nice people in London, Leeds and rural South Yorkshire.

I don’t recognise anything in your post that happens where I live. We don’t have any of the problems that people post about on mumsnet about where they live – horrible neighbours, parking issues, high crime rates. A lot of people in our village are originally from other parts of the country so we don’t get the small-minded mentality that is often talked about on here.

I would say the main downside of living where we do is the lack of public transport.

And they constantly make awful comments about cities and city living

Erm, aren’t you doing the same about country living?

I tend to find townies on threads like this as condescending and xenophobic about the people they are complaining about. My family in South London were embarrassing uneducated about life outside of London.

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

Back at you @RambamThankyouMam

What do you hope to achieve by starting such a goady and ignorant thread @Keyansier?

It's a spectator sport @RampantIvy , akin to bear baiting!

But also, if you are walking across a field with any kind of livestock in, it's common sense to have your dog on a lead.

I disagree completely. The reason my dog is so good with livestock is because he's been taught to walk through fields of them and learn self-control. It means when we suddenly encounter sheep or cows that have escaped from a field and are where they shouldn't be (which happens frequently), it doesn't occur to him to chase them.

For anyone who's interested, the screenshot sums up the rules.

Lol if you think city folk are all tolerant and lovely to tourists go and stand on the wrong side of the escalator on the tube at rush hour!

I read that article on the wedding venue, the licence was extended from 2 x per week to 6 x per week, imagine 6 nights a week loud music until 12 then people noisily exiting, traffic everywhere at midnight, that's without the people urinating in their gardens or frightening their horses.

They aren't being miserable, they are at the end of their tethers.

I have second home owners and holiday makers here, mostly they are nice but the whinging in Waitrose that some specialist ingredient available in the Kensington branch wasn't stocked makes me want to shout then go back to London!

Such a great thread 😂

I'm rural, I don't dislike city people in general - I've lived in both!

I dislike anyone who's rude, doesn't understand the country side code, leaves gates open, doesn't know what a footpath is, leaves rubbish etc or is just generally rude. Be they city or country folk!

I have lived in London/other cities and spent 15 years on a remote farm, married to a farmer.

I think to some extent it depends on ‘how rural’. Rural Cambridgeshire I found people to be open, friendly, kind, etc. The far more remote part of the UK….I recognise pp comment that ‘ People are much more likely to be conservative with a small and big c, mildly racist/xenophobic, wary of outsiders and not very good with change’.

sweeping generalisation yes, but like I say, I recognise it.

Regarding etiquette, can I ask how to know which fields are allowed to be walked through ( on the path of course). I'm never sure if I'm allowed to enter a field. Thank you

Ordnance survey maps show the rights of way and the access land.

Alternatively, if you see a fingerpost saying "footpath" or "bridleway" on it, that will indicate a right of way.

To be fair there are signs every couple of metres about that, you'd have to be a bit daft to miss them.

Unless your dog is a trained sheep dog, you should keep them on a lead when a sign asks you to. Your dog isn’t the only animal whose welfare is at stake here. Livestock that is not used to free range strange dogs running amok can be easily spooked and cause damage or injury to themselves, you and/or your dog. Farmers usually put those signs up when the livestock in that field are either not used to dogs or have had a bad experience with dogs in the past. Your dog can cope with being on a lead for the length of one field.

I live in the countryside now but I did live in a city once. While I was there, we went away for a weekend to a country village, and we went to the pub for dinner. It was a bit like that scene in 'American Werewolf in London', we were the object of everyone's eyes and felt really uncomfortable.
It was the only pub, and we were hungry again the next day so we went back, expecting the same but were greeted like old friends. Goodness knows what would have happened the next day but we'd gone home by then!

A PP said that there is an assumption that all visitors are wealthy. Having seen the price of holiday accommodation Id say that it's reasonable to assume that those booking it are quite well off.

Like the ones in the country that say things like "please keep your dog on a lead" or "please close the gate" or "don't feed the horses"

But country folk are arses if they get upset by people ignoring them

The consequences of ignoring the sign are very different though!

I live in a beautiful little village and I find the locals hilarious. They really do complain a lot. My favourites are the ones who genuinely think (and say) that the village should only be for people who live here. One moaned on the village FB group about the village shop selling sandwiches to tourists and not keeping back any rolls to sell to locals. It just kills me 😂😂

They moan about lorries (delivering to the garden centre that we're very lucky to have), people speeding (they really aren't, but perception is weird), too many old people living here/not enough families (whilst being old themselves), people having the cheek to park on public roads, people walking past their gate 'looking suspicious', and so, so many other things.

I'm not very popular because one time I said we all live here because it's so lovely, and we shouldn't be surprised that other people also think it's lovely and want to visit. Very controversial!

The OP has form.

Are there only two places in the UK? The COUNTRYSIDE and London? You’d think that was the case reading this thread. Why is the defence of the countryside have to be anti-London? Did the OP say she was from London. Is London the only non-countryside place in the UK? Can we name a random country place and pit that against That London?

You are right. A lot of their posts get deleted.