• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Definition of “Brummie”, “Astonian” etc

I was so pleased to read your post, mentioning the steel industry. My dad, who kept his lovely Brummie accent to the day he died, worked as a Sheet Metal Worker in Saltley all his working life (apart from fighting for his Country in WWII). It was a small family firm to start with, then taken over by IMI. He worked so hard, bless him, spending some of his money on my elocution lessons (!) because he did not want me to have a Brummie accent! He believed, as it was in those days, that you only got on in life if you spoke "proper". I always smile when I say Birmingham is my home and someone says "but you don't have a Brummie accent"! Dad would have loved to hear that. But then I say something in a good old Brummie accent, just to show I have not forgotten. Awroyt our kid? Oh and by the way, I never ever felt my Dad let us down with his accent - I was always so proud of him for being the hard worker he was, and never forgetting his roots.
 
Lovely story Angela.
I myself think you can speak 'proper' and still have a Brummie accent.
An accent is really the way you pronounce your vowels.
My husbands family are true Brummies his father was born in Duddeston in 1910(he died age 96 ) although the families vowels are brummie 'i' sounding a bit like
'oi' they never used words such as ain't and dain't ,that is not an accent that is slang.
 
I was in B & Q last week when I heard some woman behind me shouting loudly down the aisle to her boyfriend / husband that she had found "sum noice loits and shades".
She was wearing a tee shirt which said " I ay a Brummie!".
I thought thank God!
 
A true Brummie is someone who ends an arguement even though he might be losing it with: "Anyway, Shakespeare was a Brummie."
 
I was born in Erdington and we went 'up the village' to shop. Often walking to it up Hunton Hill and left at the top. I've even walked to Sutton Park when younger. Mom was born behind the Blues ground and Dad Villa Park. Needless to say I went to see Villa with Dad and wore Claret and Blue in the winter. Town is town and the Bull Ring the bull ring. I still ask the family if they want 'a piece of ham or cheese and onion' Living now in Wales, I love to hear a 'brummy accent' and will make friends immediately with them. I love my heritage. The earliest we go back is 1820 and the rest of them crept in over the next 50 years or so. I haven't lived in Birmingham since 1971, but still consider myself a brummie and yes it is on my birth certificate and I will always be proud of it. I've never had an accent, and most people cannot notice one, unlike my husband who has a lovely gruff Brummie twang. Bless 'im
Lynda:)
 
hi all
all i can say is we hard working loyal and compassionate when it comes to other peoples problems and we can take the flack from people
we are hardie people and if you are a brummy you will under stand the lingo and we are generous i think
and yes if you are born betwen the radious of st martns . st phillips and aston parish churches you are a true brummie and if you was born in aston you cannot get any brummie than that
as some one said about the bow bells of london and the east end aston matches that with our summer lane kds
tera our kids best wishes astonian
 
I feel very similarly to Linda, I also left Birmingham in 1972. From 1976 I worked in Sutton Coldfield, gradually making my way right into Birmingham and worked there until I finished work in 2001. No matter where you live, it is where you feel you have roots that counts the most. I used to say I was 'going to town' when I was going into Birmingham, now I say into Birmingham, because 'town' to me is now Tamworth.

There is something magnificent about belonging to a place that, despite what those south of Watford think, actually provided about 80% of the world's brass 150 years ago. A place that gave England the Crystal Palace, Palethorpe's sausages (Palethorpe's started in Gooch Street), M&B Beer, Bird's Custard and pen nibs galore. Birmingham supplied the whole world with pen nibs!

I am now sure I agree with Astonion about you cannot get more brummie than being born in Aston, because Aston was not Birmingham until 1911, and also I was not born within the town centre, I was born at Warstock, but my birth certificate still states BIRMINGHAM. However, it is as one views onself, I guess.

I think I am probably right in saying that if people were not proud of living or being born in Birmingham - the City of 1000 trades, then they would not be part of this Forum.

Long may this Forum, and the Brummie, live.

shortie
 
My departure from Central England to warmer and near the sea climes took place in 1954.

Having been born in Solihull I accepted that I was from Warwickshire and heard that I could be counted amongst the men of Arden. ;)

I, rightly or wrongly, judged someone a Brummie by the district they lived in and whether the City buses ran there. If they didn't - and it was the Midland Reds area - then it was not Birmingham. :)(The exception being the Rover Works in Lode lane where the trolley buses went). **

Addendum:

** Three days later and I am surprised I haven't been picked up on this post! :biggrin: I overlooked the fact that City buses also went to Dudley, Bearwood, and other Black Country towns which were outside the Cities boundaries.

Subsequent posts have mentioned words peculiar to the Birmingham area. Some I remember and hear when Midland visitors are in my county are:

Ar! which I believe means a sort of 'yes!. Yow, which is another way of saying you, our kid (self explanatory surely) and I guess the list could go on. I am sure there are differentials of accents between the northern suburbs and those of the southern such as exists north and south of the Thames in London.

In Devon there are noticeable differences in the city/large town accents and they in turn differ from those heard in the rural parts. Being a large County even the rural parts had noticeable differences.
 
Last edited:
ed smith said:
Astonian
it has been a hidden policy over the years to degenerate and belittle the Brummie and his/her accent,first there was crossroads with its appaling acting,then auf wedershon pet with the "dim" Brummie ,Pat Roach As is the norm when a skit of a Brummie comes on its usually the Black Country twang and that is what niggles me, we Brummies have a twang that is like a Brummie ..unique
K.R.O
Click to expand...


Pat Roach was a real Brummie-I think you are mixing him up with Timothy Spall who played "Barry"
I think Pat Roach was from Ladywood, a smashing bloke!
 
If your place of birth on your Birth Certificate is Birmingham then you are a Brummie no matter which part of Birmingham you were born and you should be proud of it. I left Birmingham in 1975 and have never returned to live there but I am still proud to be a Brummie. My Mother was born in Manchester and my Father in London but no matter where they were from I was born and brought up in Birmingham, your accent usually comes from your School years and not from where your parents came from. I moved, during my adult years, to the North East (Durham) followed by The North West (Bramhall), Chester, Cornwall, Torquay and Finally back to Cornwall but i will always be a Brummie.
 
If i remember correctly way back in the sixties the suttononians did not want to be part or classed as birmingham they all rallied around and demanded they disassociated them selves
from birmimingham and do not want to be classed as brum
but the royal borough of suton coldfield and they published it in the evening mail
along with the chelmsley would was said said they are solihull
but solihull disassociated chelmsley wood from them
but when one talks of brummies they like brummies but the mind boggles to me
there is alot of old generations of older folk than me out here in worcesters and they oringinate from brum ther kin folks are possible in ther eighties but beleive me its getting to a state where the fore fathers whom was a born brummy say s they do not like the future brummies coming to worc now and slate a brummie off
i have personaly heard this for my self in my own shop i had afew years back
the mind boggles there aint nothink wrong in the way or where the hell you was born we are dammed human and made of the same stuff flesh blood and bone
good and bad in all walks of life that fact you had a good education and are rich does not make you any better than the person whom as nothink in my eyes some have had to endur the war in there life and poverty they went through the years
but getting back to the question what is a true brummie . ?
 
I have stated before and say again a brummie is someone born and bred 0-15yr's say and who's birth certificate states Birmingham as place of birth, these people are true brummies, there will always be an elitist clique who will say you must be born in ABC place otherwise you are not ,but these are in the minority.
 
You are right Astonian, it's funny how people change when they move out of Birmingham, but I think it is the same with all folk - not many of us like change. I remember the fuss being made by Sutton (and I can understand it) but if you look through the papers in Archives you will see that Birmingham kicked up a tremndous fuss in 1911 at the thought of having Aston as part of the City. They were furious, but that said, some of Aston was particularly bad at that time, but not all. It's a case of one bad apple...................... The only way to be is open minded and speak as you find. Personally, I don't mind what colour, creed, shape or size, if someone is OK to me, then I will be OK to them. If they are not nice to me, then that's another story.
 
Just to set the record straight Alan, Chelmsley Wood was in Birmingham and is now in Solihull. I hope so because I pay my council tax to them.
Mind you the powers that be call us North Solihull to let people know we are the poor relations,LOL.
 
Alberta - sorry to suggest you may be incorrect but I thought Chelmsley Wood was originally built by Birmingham in North Warwickshire District prior to the boundary changes that put it within Solihull MBC? I recall it as at the time I lived in Warwick Rural District Council area and money that had been earmarked for our local area's local library and community/health centre was diverted to provide those services that Birmingham argued were not part of their responsibility. Also when built the area came under the Warwickshire Police Force area.
 
Hi Bernie, My parents moved to Chelmsley in the 60's near the White Hart pub. They lived two roads across from the Crossroads shop. The bottom of their garden was the boundary between Birmingham and Warwick. They paid rates to Birmingham and the people oppposite paid Warwick. I consider myself to be a true Brummy, my Mom was born in Sherlock St, Dad in Lord St Aston and I was born in Yardley. Anne
 
Bernie, All I know is that I came to live on Chelmsley 43 years ago,I paid my rates to Birmingham until 1974 then I paid Solihull which had that year become The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull and they took over the local authority houses that had previously belonged to Birmingham.
Prior to 1974 I never heard any mention or have any paperwork that suggested we lived in Solihull.
My house was leasehold and I paid Birmingham City Council for my freehold.

Incidently some of the properties that were purchased by council tenants under 'the right to buy'who later had to relinquish them for one reason or another, reverted back to being Birmingham council houses.
My husband works for Birmingham council and often has to visit various properties on Chelmsley where the tenants still pay their rent to Birmingham.

Complicated isn't it.LOL.

This is off topic so before having to slap my own wrists we had better get back on topic.
 
Last edited:
Didnt some of it come under Meriden at one time ?

I'm pretty sure that the area around the Kingshurst end of Cooks Lane / Bacons End used to have Meriden District Council or something like that written on the street name signs.
 
Born in Bartons Bank, Aston, and subsequently living in Sparkhill and Kings Heath, I moved to Dorset in 1961, but have always had a fairly recognisable Brummie accent. All four of my children were born in the Bournemouth area and so have no real discernible accent from anywhere! However, when the boys were between the ages of 5 and 11, they spent three weeks of their school holidays in Birmingham with their Brummie cousins. It was quite funny to hear them all come back with broad Brummie accents. :D

Yesterday I met a new ex-pat from Worcester at one of our coffee mornings. Almost his first question to me was "what part of Birmingham are you from?" :)

Maurice :cool:
 
That settles it then, I am most certainly a true Brummie! I thought I was the only one to call them that.

Incidentally, not sure exaclty where, it may have been Delia Smith, but I have read that pikelets and crumpets are actually two different things, although similar.

Shortie
 
Shortie said:
That settles it then, I am most certainly a true Brummie! I thought I was the only one to call them that.

Incidentally, not sure exaclty where, it may have been Delia Smith, but I have read that pikelets and crumpets are actually two different things, although similar.

Shortie
Click to expand...

:shh::shh: shortie dont mention crumpets and pikelets if frothy is around..me and him have a long standing debate on those:D:D

right back to topic....so pleased i am a true brummie:):)

lyn
 
Last edited:
You can always tell a true Brummie bloke from a Black Country bloke. The Brummies got his hands in his pocket...... and the Black Country blokes got his in someone elses HA HA .Max
 
Whatever you call them, they are delicious, especially with a dollop of Lurpak on, and occasionally a smear of Bovril. Yum!
 
OH no not Bovril, nearly as bad as Marmite (in my opinion), used to love toast and dripping though with the meaty bits from the bottom of the basin.
 
Oh I like Bovril, it's not as sharp as Marmite, but I will even have that occasionally if there is no Bovril left. It's only occasionally I put that on pikelets, I prefer Lurpak and preferebly enough to float a boat on That reminds me, I have to put Bovril on my shopping list!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top