How do you define someone as being posh?

You could knock me over with a paper napkin ... I really can't believe the lovely things people have said & am simply floating on air at the idea that anyone imagines I could be a writer! Especially given the quality of writing here on GN. Amazing! Ta ever so, everyone. (Is it my imagination or is 'ta' vanishing from the language? I still say it all the time but young people don't seem to use it much.)

Wally, any place worth going wouldn't chuck somebody out for not being posh. Honestly. The food and company are frequently much better at the non-posh places anyway!

Hi I've done OK no complaints but I've got this old working class attitude that if I go into somewhere posh someone is going to chuck me out, unless of course you're posh then it's ask me to leave.

haporthrosie I enjoy your posts, interesting and entertaining.

Where my Mum lives there's a Laird and his elderly wife is Lady something (I forget). She speaks with a plum in her mouth, but most of the time she's nearly as scruffy as a bag lady. She's clearly had her clothing for donkey's years and they were probably expensive. Very much like Miss Marple - tweed skirt and wool sweater and sensible shoes!

Haporth that was another great post. Are you a writer?

Not that I would know!

That’s true Wally and of course if you are really posh, then you feel no need to impress anyone by dressing up ( around one’s mansion) although of course you do dress up when the occasion demands.

This is just an observation. Someone can be dishevelled and really scruffy but if they speak with a posh accent they are just eccentric, if not they are scruffy.

Haporthrosie I thought what you wrote was brilliant too - I was smiling and chuckling and nodding all through your wonderful post. And I'm glad you liked mine - that made my day.

Bellanonna & Garnet, thank you so much. That really meant a lot as I always worry about sharing thoughts, writing, doing anything really!

Jalima, if you happen to want pukkah-points you can definitely count the silver polishing! Lots of families in grand houses started doing more & more for themselves during WWII & it's gathered steam with things like the Lloyds crash, unavailability of servants, economy in general. Really surprising how many people who seem 'grand' do things for themselves now. The houses eat up so much money that it's almost a new 'noblesse oblige' to do servanty-type things. A sight I hope I never forget: a Duke in his wife's apron with knotted handkerchief on his head, standing on a ladder & dusting a chandelier! 'Sorry no one could meet you at the station, glad you made it all right. Do you know, one sees the most amazing things from up here!' You can't make these things up ...!

Of course you don't need pukkah-points, you've got Potteries-points! There's just something so funny about the whole thing.

Gabriella & Maggiemaybe, India might be worth a thread of its own. My grandfather was there for a few years and my word ... things were definitely done burra. He'd read & heard about that sort of thing but thought much of it exaggeration till he got there. G., you made the point about all of us being human v. touchingly.

Lemongrove lol!

I can't remember who wrote about some of the old familes looking down on the Windsors, but once heard a friend's grandfather refer to them as 'Bloody Germans who didn't have a pot to piss in when they came here, only been two hundred years & they think they run the show!' He was not only in a bait, he looked like he was in a Bateman cartoon as well!

Everyone's written such marvelous things I want to respond to all of you! Best time I've had since I danced with a man who danced with a girl who danced with the Prince of Wales.

Can't believe I forgot to include Martin Clunes, feel awfully guilty now. Definitely a Real 'Un & the nephew of Jeremy Brett. And just utterly marvelous.

No KirbyGirl, threads can have 1000 posts and then a new one is started as a continuation.

What else is there worth watching Ann when you could be de fleaing the labradors or out in your woods taking pot shots at local chavs poaching one’s rabbits.

Ah yes, really posh people only had a television set to watch documentaries and the BBC news.

My mum used to turn the theme to coronation street down so neighbours wouldn't know she watched it. We lived in large detached house and you couldn't have shouted to nearest neighbour!

Regarding Petra's comments, bread buns could go on a common plate ('common' in this case meaning a plate from which everyone can take a bun).

And tomato sauces bottles on the table. Nah! Stick it on the plate before you carry it through!

I thought the thread of memories of Granny was good, but this one is fabulous. Is it the longest ever?

My poshest friend was brought up in India too, Gabriella, and she and her siblings had their tiffin tins filled by the chef and delivered to school every lunchtime by the under chef, driven there at high speed by the family chauffeur, so the food was piping hot. Meanwhile over here, I'd be sitting miserably in the school hall trying to force down a piece of lukewarm, leathery liver with pipes in.

I didn't know that knowing how to clean the silver made me posh
I thought that posh people would have 'a little woman from the village who does' to clean the silver (or a butler).
The reason I know how to clean silver is because DM always made us children do it - and no, we weren't posh, they had been wedding present from the posh people that DM worked for before she got married.

Yes Wilma I do mean that Rosemary Shrager.

I never thought that this thread would get so many posts.

I had oat cakes, Gouda cheese, and a banana sliced on a plate for my lunch. I wonder if that puts me in the posh bracket ?

I never eat jellied eels which could be classed as common, or on the other hand a delicacy.

haporthrosie Love your contribution so well put into words.

I had a friend who was born in a 'posh' hotel in India, had ALL her clothes hand made by a tailoress, never ever walked anywhere, had a maid to wash and iron her lingerie and her bed and table-linen were collected, laundered and returned wrapped in tissue in a leather box. She once put a sapphire and diamond ring in a tissue under her pillow and the housemaid flushed it down the toilet. Unfortunately, her country house had a septic tank and she dismissed the idea of having it looked for. It wasn't the first time, either. 'Only £25k and not worth the effort' was her son's response. Her daughter was married to a Lord, her son a High Court judge and grandson an artist of note BUT, they were fabulous people who were thoughtful and generous...and had their problems and sadness too.

BlueBelle.

They're called side plates and tables are normally laid like that. We always did when I was a child and we had cotton napkins to match the tablecloth but they were folded, not in napkin rings.
BTW. I was born and raised in a council house.

lemongrove thank you. I'm a stickler for good dental hygiene.

Very entertaining, haporth !

Think the difference is old money and new money , some in the old money group think the Windsors very middle class ?