I was born and spent my early years in Lancashire; however, growing up in the midlands, in a village with a horrible, really horrible accent, my mum (herself with only a slight Lanky-twang) was adamant that I wouldn't sound like my school-friends. And I'm grateful to her that I don't !
Having moved back oop north, people find it very difficult to work out where I come from and generally agree that I'm posh (I'm sure ummmm can confirm that I'm not ! :o) ) for some reason.
My mother never had the chance to develop an accent. She was born in Hong Kong, lived in Germany, Edinburgh, Wrexham, Oswestry, London, Aldershot and Hereford. She's just got a very clear English accent, so I developed mine from hers. My Granddad was Manchunian but sounded more like Stephen Fry and my Nan is from Merthyr and even she doesn't have a clue what she's on about...
HELLO BOXTOPS; Ithink if you ask any person who lives in BIRMINGHAM they will tell you that BIRMINGHAM is not the black country;; and also anyone in THE BLACK COUNTRY will say ;that they do not live in BIRMINGHAM LOL have a nice day''''''
Gulliver, I agree with you entirely, I happened to live on the outskirts of Birmingham but I worked in the Black Country towns - I have no confusion between the two, apologies if it sounded as if I did.
HELLO AGAIN BOXTOPS It is very much the same in Worcester ..It is only about six miles apart from MALVERN and the accent is so different LOL enjoy the sunshine it might rain on Monday///