British Regional Stereotypes

I was curious to know more about British regional stereotypes, and was wondering if any tropers could help with that. I have read some articles and other people's forum posts and have seen the ones mentioned on the British Accents page, but I just thought it might be something to discuss on this forum. By the way, I mean British as in the British Isles in general. I know a lot about the way the English and Americans stereotype the Irish, but not as much about stereotypes within Ireland.

One thing I did notice is that the Yorkshire stereotype seems very similar to the American rural New England stereotype—laconic, bluntly honest farmers who are tight with money. I wonder if this is a coincidence or if this has anything to do with both groups being rural and in the North of a country. I also notice that in both American and British stereotypes, the Northern rural people are stereotyped as being quieter and the Southern rural people are stereotyped as being more outgoing and talkative.

edited 8th Mar '11 5:21:21 PM by Rainbow

Pity I see this just when I'm off to bed, I'll pick it up tomorrow. Could give a decent answer I think!

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One thing I'm specifically curious about is Manchester stereotypes. The trope page mentions being "mouthy" and associated with the band Oasis, but I'm not sure aside from that.

The Yorkshire stereotype definitely involves being "careful" with money, as well as hard-headed, a bit dour and a major belief in "plain speaking" - if you think someone's being an idiot, you tell them. I'm originally from Yorkshire, and I'd say it's probably based in reality. Interestingly, it's also not far from the general stereotype of Scots. I don't know about the farmer bit though - that's more from novels by the Brontes or James Herriott. Actually, most of the population of Yorkshire is urban now.

As for "Mancs", as the population of Manchester are sometimes known, the most common stereotype is indeed similar to the popular view of the Gallagher brothers, of Oasis fame - loud, rude, funny and fond of fighting (the brothers were notorious for their arguments, which eventually broke up the band). That is a bit unfair to Manchester and it has to be said that its contribution to British pop music and culture generally is massive. However, don't try and argue the point in a bar in Yorkshire as there is a traditional rivalry between Yorkshire and Lancashire, and particularly between Manchester and Leeds. Football (soccer) has often been a flashpoint.

As for London/the South, it is practically the law that anyone from either Yorkshire or Lancashire has at some point to criticise their populations as effete and unmanly. Use of the phrase "poncy Southerners" may be seen.

edited 9th Mar '11 11:27:06 AM by Captainbrass

"Well, it's a lifestyle."

From the south Northerners are variously undecipherable, uneducated and uncouth. Northern monkeys is used commonly.

From the northern view Southerners are effeminate ponces who would know a day's hard work. Southern fairies can be used here.

Of course these are just general North South divide stereotypes, there are more focussed ones as Captainbrass has mentioned a few.

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Britain, and England in particular, has a major wealth-divide. The South (east in particular) is far and away the most densely populated part of the UK, and also the most wealthy. The further north you go, the less money people have, generally. Yorkshire in the north east, and their hated enemies Lancashire in the north west (cf: Wars Of The Roses) are both very poor areas, which had in the past very strong industrial and mining communities. Now that they have fallen away, places like Sheffield - the 5th biggest city in the UK - have fallen massively into decay. Agriculture is more of a far north-east and west thing. Cumbria, which is on Scotland's doorstep in the northwest, has always been very agricultural. It's home to some of the best Scenery Porn Britain has to offer in the form of the Lake District. A boat ride over Lake Windermere is really amazing if you're ever in the area. The North Eastern counterpart to Cumbria is Northumberland, which has a fair few richer landowners in it. Again, it's near the Scottish border (the town of Berwick, famously, has the border running through the middle, and its ownership has been contested for the better part of a millenium).

Manchester, as the above post says, was the epicentre of Brit Pop in the mid 90s. Bands like Oasis, Pulp, Blur, etc were from the area, and young males in their early 20s getting "mad wi' it" are a definite stereotype. The descendants of bands like that are the likes of The Arctic Monkeys, and the football rivalry between Manchester United and Manchester City still has aspects of those days in it. Boys will be boys, really, though there is a definite undercurrent of poverty and crime in the area, Manchester being one of the few really notorious areas in the UK for gun crime for example, particularly in its southern areas.

The rich/poor divide between North and South leads to fierce stereotyping of each others' areas. The scene in Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels in which the hardened cockney gangster mutters to himself "Fucking Northern monkeys" as the to guys he was talking to mutter to each other "I hate these fucking Southern fairies" typifies this. The former also later refers to the latter as "Scouse cunts" several times, "Scouser" meaning a person from Liverpool (a Liverpudlian to use the actual term).

My brother was born there actually, and I lived there a while. It's a North Western city in Lancashire, and was massively industrial back in the day. It also had a huge shipping industry, having one of the main ports in the UK. As with Sheffield, it's now completely fallen apart, but the difference is that Sheffielders are regarded as hard-working, honest coal miners. Scousers however are mindless thugs - shipbuilders who carry with them all the "drunken Irish dockworker" stereotypes. Many a joke exists about Jesus going into a Liverpool bar and blessing people - until one guy beats him senseless, because if Jesus touches him he'll lose his right to be on benefits. Or there's the ones with a Camp Gay man hitting on a massively built Liverpudlian thug, offering him oral sex. The thug beats him up, and, when asked why, says the man was saying something about getting him a job. Boris Johnson actually had to visit the place and deliver a public apology after making light of such a stereotype in public - he managed to offend the entire city in half a minute.

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@Cassias Death Angel - Blur are from Essex, not Manchester. Hence their big rivalry with Oasis in The '90s. The point about Sheffield is fair enough, though. I remember being driven across the Tinsley Viaduct of the M1 as a kid, and if you looked down you could see flames from steel mills - all gone now. The Full Monty deals with the consequences, Played for Laughs.

"Well, it's a lifestyle."

Northern Irish stereotypes entertain me to an extent. As far as the mainlanders are concerned, we're all terrorists regardless of religious or political affiliation. To the Americans, there are heroic freedom fighters (aka the Provisional IRA) and fiendish imperialist villains (everyone else), neither of whom have progressed beyond the Dark Ages technologically.

The point wasn't that Brit Pop existed exclusively in Manchester (though I may have accidentally implied it) but it was epicentered there, and thus that "scene" affected and through legacy still does that area and its people.

Essex is another area from which I have a brother actually (Colchester specifically, and my father was born nearby) and is known for two things - being one of the major staging points for the Romans in ancient times, and home to Bodicea eventually, and for its women being whores through and through. As goes the old joke, how many Essex girls does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None, they only screw in the backseat of cars. Essentially, imagine the scuzzy underbelly of inner city life for women, and imagine it applying exclusively to women, irrespective of social standing, and in suburban surroundings. That's pretty much the Essex Girl thing.

Ireland I'm less clear on, though I know a fair bit about the Scottish stereotypes.

Wales, as I understand it, is basically the same as all the English ones on a smaller scale for each area, and everyone in all areas of the country are obssessed with sheep (and leeks to those outwith Britain, but that one is far less common internally. The English Rose is a bit more common, the Scottish Thistle is an entirely accurate stereotype, at least as far as our cultural marketing goes).

My name is Addy. Please call me that instead of my username.

Someone mentioned Manchester and Leeds having a rivalry over football teams, and also because of the War of the Roses. I have also heard that Manchester has a football rivalry with Liverpool, too, I think this is mentioned on the Friendly Enemy trope page in the Real Life examples. I read this when I was looking on Google for stuff about Manchester stereotypes, I saw some things about that.

edited 9th Mar '11 6:50:45 PM by Rainbow

Essex is the New Jersey of the UK but a little more "country".

edited 10th Mar '11 5:08:28 AM by SomeSortOfTroper

Damn I need to visit Essex, then. (writes Essex down on list of places to visit)

But remember, the "Essex Girl" trope applies to the 'New Towns' in Essex and the Thames Estuary — Harlow, Basildon, Dagenham  ^*

, more than the Colchester and the East of Essex, which is more the start of East Anglia.

And where I am right now? A Boring town, known for roundabouts, the AA, and a load of disposessed Londoners...

Keep Rolling On

Buckinghamshire, the county I hail from, is considered one of the Home Counties in the south of England surrounding London. The Home Counties in general are stereotyped as largely rural, middle-class and conservative, and it's pretty much true. I can't immediately think of an equivalent region in the US. This is not to say that there aren't any poor areas - near me, Bletchley and Aylesbury are pretty bad in places, the former in particular. It's worth noting that while the South is more wealthy than the North, the cost of living is correspondingly much higher and hits the poor even worse.

Currently I'm at university up in Sheffield. While Caissas Death Angel is correct about there being a lot of poverty here it's still a lovely place to live (I plan on staying here after graduation), and one of the safest cities in the country. Oh, and the Peak District is gorgeous.

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

Lots of football teams claim rivalries with Man U. Man City and Liverpool are the ones they're most concerned with, but yeah, Leeds claim one too. And yeah, Manchester stereotypes are pretty much summed up with the title page for the North West on here: Football Pop Musicand Flatcaps. They also have a nasty stereotype of being dishonest, though Liverpool get the same one (but worse), so that may be a North West thing. I don't meet a lot of dishonest people here.

What others do I know?

Yorkshire/Lancashire rivalry, yes. Yorkshire is traditionally the posher of the two. I live in an area of Lancashire that used to be Yorkshire and many people here deny it ever stopped being, which has led to a weird compromise where benches and doors all have red and white rose emblems on them. Local pubs here often have 'War of the Roses' specials on the menu; a Lancashire hotpot in a giant Yorkshire pudding. Yeah, we don't do a lot to discourage that.

Liverpool. As mentioned, called dishonest. Hate Mancs, as Mancs hate Scousers. They are also obsessed with football and pop music (like Manchester, there's a strong basis for these). Also, if you listen to the stereotypes, they all have perms. The newspapers describe Liverpool as "Britain's most deprived city". Plus, they have their own language.

And Southerners are wimps. If they ever come to the North, they always wear coats outside, even when it isn't cold.

edited 10th Mar '11 9:46:10 AM by ArlaGrey

That applies equally to northern English people and those from anywhere in Scotland, as the climate is generally stereotyped as being twice as rainy and at least 5 degrees colder on the Scottish side of the border. Even compared with literally 5 minutes down the road from it.

Obviously, this one doesn't actually hold true, though the climate is incredibly rugged in the north of Scotland. Anywhere North of Perth or an even West (ie, not South West) of Ayr is likely to be freezing cold, wet and windy most of the time.

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Peterborough does not exist.

Yeah, true. I haven't been to Scotland for a few years, but when I do I don't particularly want to come across as my uncle does to me; he's only lived in the South for a few years and he can't spend more than thirty seconds outside without wrapping up. It is warmer down there, but still.

Bradford has gained the nickname "Bradistan" for it's large concentration of the Asian population that live there. This has lead to the stereotype that it is literally filled to the brim with people from that that particular part of the world.

Oldham isn't much better, and what's worse is that the ethnic conflicts in the two towns are sometimes compared to relations between Israel and Palestine. This is a legitimate comparision, considering the brutal riots...

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Well being half Welsh and having spent a lot of time there I'm quite up on Welsh Stereotypes. Basically people from Wales hate the English. People from North Wales hate people from South Wales and people from South Wales return the favour. People from Cardiff dislike people from Swansea, people from Swansea hate people from Llanelli (those damn Turks :P ) and it all goes round in a circle. In fact a Welsh person can dismiss anyone who is not from there immediate community as not Welsh. Now that is not exactly true, people from Wales are generally quite friendly but there is a bitter rivalry between most areas, which can be seen in the fierce competition between the rugby clubs. The local derby between the Neath-Swansea Ospreys and the Llanelli Scarlett's is a sell out affair and passions can run a little high. And that is another thing rugby union is the be all and end all of any self-respecting Welsh person (In the south anyway, in the north soccer is preferred I believe).

Also all Welsh people sing in choirs, work down coal mines, generally not the brightest people and are quite defensive about just anything. There is also a tendency to be all doom and gloom. Though if you are of a younger generation the national skin colour is quite rapidly becoming orange because of all the fake tan used by both men and women equally. Indeed there is a prominent WAG culture developing.

One important thing though is that you never on any circumstance make fun of the language.

Milton Keynes?

I usually end up defending Milton Keynes, as I quite like it - I know it quite well since my village is only about four miles away from it - but from that description there's no other city it could be.

edited 10th Mar '11 3:22:06 PM by pagad

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

Also another thing about Wales is that (majority of England anyway) think the Welsh shag sheep. As in literally have sexual intercourse with sheep. Sad but true. (The spread of the stereotype that is)

I've never been myself. My parents visited it once several years ago and said it was the most boring town they'd ever visisted (and that's saying something, because they've almost certainly been to Armagh).