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Definition of “Brummie”, “Astonian” etc

Nobody´s mentioned it, but I always say I was born within smell of Cadburys. No chocolate in the world compares, however expensive it is.
My Dad´s family were Brummies back to 1760 (Still working on that one)
 
A true brummy is having the sense of humour only found in Brum, and being able to speak the queens english like a brummy.
See ya in a bit our kid.
 
Is it lawful for Jasper to say that in this day and age, I'm told the difference between illegal and unlawful
is that unlawful is to knowingly break the law and illegal is a great big bird thats feeling poorly.
 
HI LUCY ;
What do you mean no-oneknows where it is solihull was always birmingham; in years gone bye its the same as chelmsley wood ;
you only changed the barriers because they thought they want to be different its the same as chelmesly wood they are the same
asked them where they from in responce ; oh i live in solihull you get its brum; and its chelmsely wood and you cannot escape it ;
and years later we had the sutton coldfielf brigade thinking we do not want to know the birmingjham
we want to be known as the royal bourough of sutton coldfield ; you are all brummies but i would not call you true brummies on that merritt
you are only brummies if and when it needs to be said you are all born brummies
and on the subject of jasper ; well that can be taken either way i think and insult to to the forighers and to the true brummie ;; birmingham people themselves
regarding our intelllingents astonian
 
Lucy, spend as much time as you like on the forum, it beats housework,LOL.

Astonian you have got a bit of history mixed up here.

Sutton Coldfield became a suburb of Birmingham in 1974 when the changes were made to our Counties,
their council housing is now under the management of Birmingham.

Solihull has never been part of Birmingham.

Chelmsley Wood was built on land owned by Birmingham but in 1974 became part of the Metropolitan borough of Solihull
and Solihull took ever the management of the former Birmingham council housing.
Chelmsley Wood is now known as North Solihull.
BUT, I live at Bacons End, Chelmsley and as you say, if I am out of the area I say I live in Birmingham, not that I have to explain because as soon as I open my mouth it is obvious,LOL.
 
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HI Albera
i hope no- one as been offended; but taking it off the top of my head from memory ;
and as you have stated way back in 74 sutton was taken over by birmingham council , but it was way back before then in the latter part of the sixtys if i am coorect that these planns was being thought of about changing boundries then at a future stage long before they chnged the boundries
and it was discussed and it also printed in the birmingham mail about the sutton people was getting up in arms about them coming underbirmingham
if and when and hoped they never did change there boundry to brum but as you have told me they changed in 74 . which i never knewbecause i had left brum by then ; but it was then inthe early stages they wanted to be called royal bourugh of sutton ; thats where i am coming from and thats why i said that
i certainly hope lucy as not read it the wrong way ;we and i certainly want her to carry on and keep in with us on the forum;
astonian
 
I moved to the Fordbridge district of Chelmsley Wood in 1987 after it came under the control of Solihull and I must admit (after 25 years) they seem to have a more efficiently run council than Birmingham resulting in lower rates, excellent waste collection and recycling, council departments easily accessable by both phone and email and complaints quickly dealt with. Also with the River Cole running through it, plenty of green spaces and a number of woods it is a pleasant place to live with lots of routes to walk my 2 dogs particularly along the river and through Alcott Woods. This sounds like a commercial for c/w but I am just saying how I see it, credit were credit is due. Eric
 
Nearly choked on my faggots and peas when I read this one Bernard, went all down mi gansy and slopped on mi bags something 'orrible. Made my Day and thanks. Kind regards, David.
 
Sounds like Gladstone Street in the thirties, cobblestones, fog, horse muck, running gutters, smell from HP Sauce and Atkinson's Brewery and a lovely sense of belonging to the finest people you'd ever wish to meet anywhere. Kind Regards, David..
 
'Is it lawful for Jasper to say that in this day and age, I'm told the difference between illegal and unlawful
is that unlawful is to knowingly break the law and illegal is a great big bird thats feeling poorly.'

Couldn't help but laugh aloud at that, Woofy, even though I was on my own and the cat looked at me as if I'D gone out.

I feel I've got to add my tuppence-worth to this thread. I was born in Harborne but we lived in Hockley till I reached my teens, when we moved to Aldridge. I went to Cardinal Wiseman school in Kingstanding and all my family on my mother's and my father's sides go back to the 1600s and 1700-1800 respectively, all living in Aston and Handsworth. I still wonder when people don't know what a cob is, the Rag Market's still the Rag Market and we were going into town shopping (now it's going into Brum as I now live in Walsall because we couldn't get a house in Brum when we came down from Scotland where I'd lived for twenty years after marrying a Scot. We were told we either had to live or work in Birmingham. The ironic part was I got my first job in Birmingham after we'd moved to Walsall and worked there for years afterwards! Well, never mind. When were at school at St Francis in Brougham St most of our friends were Irish and St Patrick's Day was big even then. My dad was a metal spinner at Buncher & Haselers in Branston St. My family and I have retained our sense of humour despite being looked at around here as if we're a bit mad! The Scots have a saying, 'Wha's like us?!' Their pride is so strong. Well I say the same, who's like us Brummies? Only us Brummies.

Chris​
 
A couple of years ago here in Margate I got talking to one of the local 'alkies'.
Man in his early 60s with a strong Birmingham accent.On asking him if he was a 'brummy' he looked at me with indignity,Can of special brew in hand he proceeded to explain to me he was from the 'Royal borough of Sutton Coldfield'
 
Just thought I'd latch on to end of this !

Since I joined the army as a kid of 16, I was allways known as "Brum" (as my rank progressed the name was modified !).

Our Mom, now aged 95 told me the other day that before I was born they live in Cotford Rd, up the Maypole.

I was born in 1941 in Leamington Spa, (danke, Herr Goering !) and when things started to get a bit rough my Dad's family demanded that we moved back to Winson Green. Good thinking, eh ?

I grew up in the suburbs,(the Maypole).

Despite living in Cheshire for quite a while I get my Brummie accent topped up every Sunday when I visit Our Mom. She now lives 5 minutes away, since we moved her here from Wilmecote.

My ancestors were either boat builders or rope makers in Brum going way back.

I still think of myself as a Brummie.
 
I still think of myself as a Brummie .
I joined the services not too long after school , spent a lifetime travelling the world , and now have no accent .
Except when I speak to anyone else from The Great City , who say that there's a trace of Brum there .
My big regret is that my kids (now grown up) were not even born in England . I have asked them how it feels to have no roots ; they admit to envying me for my pride in being a true Birmingham Engineer .
 
One of the daft sayings going around when I was a pimply youth was, "You can allways tell a Brummie, 'es got the Argus in one pocket, a packet of Park Drive in the other and a fishin' rod in 'is 'and !
 
My dad used to smoke Park Drive but he didn't fish! I think I remember the Argus, was it pink?

Mikanmart, your children's roots are your own and I'm sure they're very proud of you.

Chris
 
Chris , I never thought of it that way . But you are right about the roots , not sure about the "proud" bit .
Being from Birmingham and having a wide knowledge of The City's industry , made me a few--a lot---of free drinks when in the RAF .
I used to say "If any of you Brummie bashers can tell me something that isn't made in Birmingham , any product that requires a manufacturing input , I'll buy the drinks " Of course , this was before the professional managers , ably assisted by the unions , ruined the whole kit and kaboodle .
Nobody ever got the free drink .
They'd come up with daft things like tea , cocoa , sauce (would you believe that ? Never sat at the table reading the sauce bottle? "Cette sauce de haute qualite......" ) aeroplanes (!!!!!!!!!!!) tyres .
Now you would be hard pushed to find something that IS made there .
 
Quote:" Now you would be hard pushed to find something that IS made there "
mikanmart, the best thing made in Brum now is more Brummies
 
Hi ed smith
re the best thing made in brum is more brummies , wheres the factory and any vacancies ?
woofy
 
Chin up folks, we're getting back to manufacturing. Birmingham and the West Midlands are amongst the few leaders bringing the country out of this awful recession.

Chris
 
No , Paul , they didn't .
Odd thing , in The Forces I found most people not from Birmingham were very insular , they hadn't much clue about what went on outside their little worlds .
On the other hand , people from Birmingham , Manchester , Glasgow , in fact all the big cities were ready to muck in and were quite worldly . The worst of the lot though were the cocky Londoners . Cocky and cockney . Gawd , did they love themselves . Knew it all , and were the forerunners of some dreadful TV programme called eastenders or something . They like to think the place is full of rapists and murderers . Weird . But it was mainly bluster , half of them talked out of the corner of their mouths , oh yurst , did they, they all had to be characters you see . Inferiority complexes to the fore .
Mind you , one of them loved me and I was so impressed that I married her .
And now I live in bloody London myself . Oh gawd , 'elp me .
 
Funny thing I got on with most people, but the one's I always seemed to end up having problems with were the lads from Liverpool, "Scousers", if ever there was a problem, you could bet your bottom dollar there was a scouse at the bottom of it, even so I did have one or two friends from Liverpool.
paul
 
Funny you should say that , Paul . My best mate in Cyprus (Nicosia) was a scouser , smashing lad .
He and I had a pet hate , people who thought they could imitate a Birmingham accent ----"Wooooo, yow from Bairmingum then?" in my case and the Liverpool accent copier in his case . The trouble was , nobody , but nobody , could get even near either accent . Sometimes , they even got them mixed up so I was accused of being from Liverpool and he was accused of being from Birmingham .
The worst bloke I came across in The Forces was a scouser who tried to knife me , and a cockney who did knife me . The latter did a lot of time in Colchester and came out a broken man . I kept quiet about the scouser , but the silly sod did it to someone else , he finished up in the Scottish Military Prison whose name escapes me .
And on the subject of accents , I was in a shop in Hong Kong and a bloke was haggling with the owner over a camera . I thought that not only did I know the accent , I knew the bloke as well . I had last seen him at school many years before , didn't even know he was in The Forces . Never met him again either .
 
we will be in trouble mike as we are a bit off thread, but I got taken for a scouse too, and the Scottish military nick was at the "highland Divisional HQ at Bridge of Don" Aberdeen, they also had a wing at Peterhead jail I believe.
paul
 
I was born in January 1940, and so missed National service by a mere few months, I have never been clear about whether I was lucky or not but I digress. I spent a number of years lorry driving and I also had people talking with a black country accent in an attempt to mimick a brummie but I must say that I got on with everyone apart from London Dock workers. I have made deliveries in every city in England Scotland and Wales with no trouble or nastiness but London dockers were dreadful and if they could not intimidate you they could/would make you wait before unloading you.
 
Being a Brummie to me is the air raid siren, the whine of the bombs, helping people to dig their buried kids out of a building, standing in front of the Salvation Army trumpet player sucking a lemon half and listen to his mistakes as his face screwed up but those born today are just as much a Brummie as me because time moves on and in a hundred years time who will remember us old fossils anyway? Kind regards, David.
 
David , you sound rather bitter ; that is not the mark of a true Brummie . Moaning , yes , as in
"Hello , mucker , How are you?" .
"Well it's me back an' me leg the cold gets in yer bonez doanit an' our Peggies down wi' summat the dog's got fleez I dunno wot the worlds cumminto"
Just remember , old fossils can tell you a heck of a lot .
Paul , I don't see that we are off thread , talking about our pride in being Brummies and the things that we experience because of it . Do you ever hear people say "Ah , you from Landan , ven?". No , I think that envy of the Brummie leads to the mick take .
And Stitcher , you are right , but the dockers got what they deserved---there are no London Docks now , they struck themselves out of a job . They were like a mafia , if your family wasn't docker , you didn't become one . My wife came from a dock area and was glad to join the RAF to get away .
I don't remember any "mafia" sort of jobs in Brum , but I do remember the suicidal car strikers . I believe that jobs in Birmingham were obtained on merit .
Except my first one , but me Dad wuz boss .
 
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