General Chat

Apart from 2 Indian families I think we are 100% white British in my district. The Indian families run 2 of the 3 shops in the district, and were the only ones prepared to put in enough effort to make them pay. Previous owners went OOB within months.

We live in Hemel.......say no more.......Luton, just up the road is popular with the Asian community, London 20 miles to the south is cosmopolitan......and we have all languages around here.......a neighbour is Indian and has exotic birds in an aviary, and the calls we hear in the morning, it sounds like we are in the tropics......its lovely.....

Polish and Somalis are our latest influx.......the only problem I have is that my son is in a small two bedroom house with his wife and three little girls and they would dearly love some space, and have been trying to get a 3 bedroom for a long time........but if people come in who have no housing, and larger families, they are given priority........it is a shame, but that is what has to be done.....

Shelly -- I've got some lovely photos of that cemetery -- St Mary Magdalene is it? We didn't know at the time that we didn't have roots in the area, so we asked about cemeteries at the library, and were directed there, and the first thing we said was "no, our family wouldn't have been Catholic". ;) Not used to the very old (Norman / pre-schism) church names in the old country. The minister there did tell us there were vandalism problems, at the time.

In Wellingborough, we went to a church service on the way from our B&B to visit my father's cousin. I'm a long-time atheist, but heck, that's my history! Had to leave because of all the incense; phew. Bad allergy attack. Anyhow, when we got to the cousin's, she told us that was her church (she's disabled and not able to attend anymore) -- and the church where my grandparents were married! Very cool.

Thank you so much for the offer, and if I ever get enough of my births and marriages sorted out to start paying attention to deaths, I just might give you a shout!

Mostly, British, Dutch, Germans and a "smattering" of other nations. The Portuguese are out numbered, as this is a popular retirement areas as well as holiday resorts.

Lindy ;0)

I live in a small cul de sac and we have one Polish family.

gloucester itself though is very multi cultural, we have all nationalities there and not a lot of racial problems either.

Ann
Glos

Hi Shelly! Keppel Road, problem is I can never remember whether that's East or West Ham. A couple of blocks from the library and municipal offices, right across from a school that says "1897", I think.

We loved the area. Lovely well-kept rows of houses, multicultural, busy, friendly. Nicer than where I live in Canada, for sure. But the concièrge at our hotel near the British Museum, when we asked for directions by tube, told us we shouldn't go there and if we did, we should be very careful. When we checked out, I made a point of getting him to admit he was really talking about how many non-"us" people there were, and calling him the racist he was.

But -- no family there now. Only 12 years later, when I started all this, did I discover the family on the gr-grfather's side was really from Cornwall ... via London then Berkshire then Cheshire ... On the gr-grmother's side, it's Romford, though. And I've met a cousin on that side here at GR -- the very first contact I made here!

I must say I was disappointed to find out we weren't good solid EastEnders after all. But coincidentally, and to much the same effect, I'm still an east ender from London Ontario. ;)

I live in London 5miles from Big Ben, my area is multi cultural, we have every nationality.

We live in Corby... and there are many Nationalities in our town.

Deanna X

we have Italians on one side, polish next to them
my hubby is american, otherside are Irish descent

Where I live it is mostly Welsh. We do have one Irish lady and a couple from Newcastle and myself as I am not Welsh. I do know a lot of different nationalities though and find them all lovely. xxx

my husbands from Manchester......does that count?

Karen x

I have a Canadian one side of me and a couple (She's Indian, He's African) the other side!! They make some fabulous meals and have been known to pop food in!! ;o)

ps.... I have also lived in a number of different parts of different countries... so I have been at the receiving end of discrimination... and warm hospitality, too. For me, the one has balanced out the other.... and mostly I remember with delight the friendly encounters, lol!!

Love

Daff xxx

I don't have to look further than my own family, lol... my sister has 3 children, whose dad is Mauritian... they live around the corner from Ann of GG, lol, so they might be one of the Indian families she refers, to..... except my sis is a dark haired dark eyed Welsh girl, lol
I also have a Portugese BiL, a Chinese SiL, an Irish SiL

and me? well.... I am a thoroughly Welsh girl with her roots firmly in..... Cornwall, Devon... a little bit of Welsh, and Islington!!

So... how about that for multi culturism! ;¬))

Love

Daff xxx

Polish, Austrian, Italian, Australian, Chinese , Iranian ,Indian, Iraqi.

Me mixture Scottish, English, Spanish.

Youd think a nice quiet country village couldnt possibly have so many races in it.
What makes me laugh are the pasty-faced ginger haired kids, who the minute they leave their house start talking with a Jamaican accent... well funny!!

Next door neighbours are Chinese-Canadian. Other side used to be Portuguese-Canadian, now it's my office. Across the street are Chinese-Canadian, Italian-Canadian, old stock French-Canadian. Down the block are Vietnamese-, more Italian-, Indian-Canadian, within a two block radius are about everybody else you can imagine. With the other half being more than first-generation English- or other European-Canadian. (I'm second-generation; immigrant grandparents all round.) We're all good acquaintances, and when the kids around the block were younger, they hung out at my house and I took them on outings, and chided them if they missed their Chinese language classes on Saturday morning. And their mothers cooked me things with shrimps in them. Bleah.

When we visited England in 94, we found the house in Newham where my mother's father was born, and started snapping pics, and grew bold and knocked on the door to explain why we were shapping pics, but really to cadge an invite. And a hearty invite we got, and tea and orange juice (I hate tea) with the family to go with. And we still exchange cards at Christmas.

We tried again in Wellingborough, at the house where my father's mother grew up. There, we got a "do what you like" and a closed door.

The family in Newham were all born in Sri Lanka. The ancestors of the householder in Wellingborough are probably in the Domesday book.

I like my neighbourhood. I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in the whitest/Englishest little city in Canada, and I split when I was 16. I can choose my class and my neighours now, and I choose here!

Yes - I have got some Poms living just down my road,
but despite that they are really lovely people!
(although of course I wouldnt want my daughter to marry one!)

xxxxxx mick

In my street, there are Irish, English, Scottish, Polish, Indians, Pakistanis, Iranians, West Indians, Dutch, Germans, French, Chinese, Lithuanians.....

Come to Cardiff Issy - we've always had a coloured population here - Cardiff has always been fairly cosmopolitan because of the docks - Tiger Bay and all that. In the suburbs though where I am they are few and far between - think there are two Indian families in my road - also as we have the psychiatric hospital practically on the doorstep we have a fair number of doctors of various nationalities and colours, along with nursing staff from the Phillipines and Mauritius - those last two countries seem to specialise in psychiatric medicine