Staffordshire accents

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I am hoping someone who knows the area will spot this! I heard part of a programme on the radio this morning about Stoke on Trent, and was surprised to hear that all the people who appeared had a "northern" accent. I have a cousin with a strong Walsall accent, and I had the impression that the Black Country accent was similar. I looked at a map and realised that Stoke is as near Sheffield as it is to Birmingham, so have I been under a misapprehension all my life?
  I tried to find one of the maps of linguistic boundaries, but without success.

[IgorStrav]

https://sounds.bl.uk/Sound-Maps/Accents-and-Dialects

Does this help?

British Library interactive map

[Erato]

"Does this help?"

Nope. 

[BumbleB]

This might:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL70rsV3504

[Top-of-the-hill]

  They all sound more Northern than Birmingham, so I think I must have been wrong about it!

[medpat]

Birmingham accent is different to a Black Country accent. Walsall accent is similar to Willenhall and Wolverhampton but then you get a gap to Stoke on Trent. Stoke has different verbal influences as North Staffordshire butts up to Derbyshire and Cheshire. Manchester and Sheffield aren't far either.


I'm from Walsall.

[chris_49]

If you can find "The Accents of English" by John Wells - Vol 2: the British Isles, this has a huge amount of information. It's significant that Vol 3: Rest of the World is slimmer. Wells describes the Potteries as having an accent intermediate between that of the Black Country and Manchester.

I distinguish between "dialect" which refers to local vocabulary, and "accent" which persists even when the speaker is speaking standard English.

[Jool]

Birmingham accent is different to a Black Country accent. Walsall accent is similar to Willenhall and Wolverhampton but then you get a gap to Stoke on Trent. Stoke has different verbal influences as North Staffordshire butts up to Derbyshire and Cheshire. Manchester and Sheffield aren't far either.

I'm from Walsall.

I agree with Medpat - I'm from Wolverhampton 

Added: I've worked with quite a few people from Stoke and they sound nothing like us 

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thank you - I think medpat has given the definitive answer! I saw when I looked at the map that Stoke was a lot further north.
  (Cousin was actually brought up in Brownhills.)

  Chris - I will look out for the book you mention.