Loving the common thread so much thought we should go “POSH”

I believe that Alan Clarke said of Michael Heseltine 'Poor Michael, he had to buy his own furniture you know'

My parents were both children of miners, and in amongst the hard work and poverty there were 'standards'. This included never having a milk bottle on the table, jam being decanted into a glass dish, always a table cloth, and my grandfather always wore a collar and tie and tweed jacket when not working, some others wore mufflers, but this was frowned upon. Neither of my sets of grandparents were in anyway snobbish or judgemental, and were kind and generous people, but there were standards which had to be kept. Unlike some, my grandmothers would never step outside the house in rollers or wearing slippers.

Chestnut

What we have forgotten to mention is that posh people (with class and breeding) would never use the word POSH! It's not in their vocabulary.

It goes without saying

Yes, that sorts the wheat from the chaff, I think.

TerriBull

The nuns at my convent school loved the word "breeding" and would announce to the class that certain favoured pupils had breeding, the implication being the rest of us didn't, presumably we all came about in a Dolly The Sheep laboratory type of way, except that had yet to happen back in my dim and distant school days

That reminds me of when people boast that their heritage goes back to the Tudors (or whatever) as though the rest of us have ancestors who appeared on a UFO.

Nanu nanu!

People were considered posh if they didn't buy their clothes, food and furniture from the Coop it didn't matter they might be cheaper. Nothing from HongKong it was considered inferior.
My poor mother always wanted a cleaner when asked why she always said to wash the steps. Which were whitened every week along with the window sills.
The term "Betta mu class"{better than my class} often used.
My aunt with the Beaver coat and had holidays in Italy and Austria was often referred to as better mu class.
My DH still call the milk bottle now plastic as the ............ a relations name. He says as a student he got caught by his parents with one on the table when a "posh relation" arrived unexpectedly and afterwards got a very good dressing down.

Doodledog

TerriBull

The nuns at my convent school loved the word "breeding" and would announce to the class that certain favoured pupils had breeding, the implication being the rest of us didn't, presumably we all came about in a Dolly The Sheep laboratory type of way, except that had yet to happen back in my dim and distant school days

That reminds me of when people boast that their heritage goes back to the Tudors (or whatever) as though the rest of us have ancestors who appeared on a UFO.

The prime minister Alec Douglas-Home (pronounced Hume) was the 14th Earl of somewhere or other, which led Harold Wilson to point out that he was the 14th Mr Wilson.

Class according to my mother:

Common women went to the hairdressers. Women with "breeding" went to the salon.
Common families had dinner and tea. Well bred families had luncheon and supper sapper
Common women wore a pinny. Well bred women wore an apron.
And the ultimate indicator of being well bred was if you had an astrakhan coat or, at the very least, an astrakhan collar. And no well bred woman would be seen dead in black stockings!

Anyone who talks like Rees Mogg
Drinking coffee/tea with your little finger out
Rubbing in all the big things you can afford
Going to a private school
Paying silly money for ordinary things
Anyone who points a finger ( not literally) at anyone from a poorer background
I m working class with a reasonably good education and who talks with no accent so I m allowed to use the word posh???

My friend gives a cheer to the Posh regularly. He supports Peterborough football team and they are known as The Posh.

My MIL used to say you could tell someone well bred, of good stock and ‘posh’ just by looking at them.
Apart from clothes obviously, this is a load of tosh.

Going to a private school
Not necessarily - they may have won a scholarship

Being judgemental doesnt take account of might haves, though.

You only find out those things by getting to know someone, and walking a mile in their shoes.

Oh bum!
Got my threads mixed up.
So many similar ones today...

My DH’s boss was very posh - kept his trousers up with baler twine?
His, also very posh, wife used to come round to do my pre Natal exercises with me to make sure I did them!
Their , very posh, son lived in the next house door to us with very posh friends. They used to sunbathe in the garden naked.
They were all lovely- I mean the family - not the sunbathers. Some of them not so much!

I worked in a bank in London in the 1960s where the manager never once spoke to me . He arrived each day sporting a bowler hat but got his come uppance when the bank introduced cheque books with you name printed on the cheques. He always used his middle name as it he had a double barred name so he was known as Mr. John Imrie -Brown . Sadly his printed cheques came in and he was relegated to being Mr. John . I. Brown he was not pleased.

In the 1960s I took my cousin ,who was about 5 at the time,to visit my future in laws. After the visit he was asked what they were like and he said they were very posh.They really weren't.
He was asked why they were posh and his answer was that they had Blue Band margarine and shop bought cakes.
My family used butter and had home baked cakes.
It shows the power of advertising! Blue Band was a luxury margarine and shop cakes were for the rich!

crazyH

Anyone who went to university and ‘read Classics’ as we often hear on Mastermind ….

Haha, that’s my husband you’re talking about. He also read French. Joint honours. I don’t think he’s posh, just ordinary.

maddyone

crazyH

Anyone who went to university and ‘read Classics’ as we often hear on Mastermind ….

Haha, that’s my husband you’re talking about. He also read French. Joint honours. I don’t think he’s posh, just ordinary.

I'm saying nothing on the subject!

nadateturbe

Linen napkins as opposed to a sheet of kitchen roll (common)

Oh dear, I own linen napkins but never use them. We use, guess what, a sheet of kitchen roll. Mostly anyway, although I buy those linen feel paper napkins for family dinners. I must be posh

We were considered snobs when we passed our 11+ and often people stopped talking to you from then on.
They even had a Rhyme they shouted at us as we came off the bus. In different villages referring to the school.
........snobs all in a row a pint of p.... will drown you all.
Happy days, where are they all now?

TerriBull

The nuns at my convent school loved the word "breeding" and would announce to the class that certain favoured pupils had breeding, the implication being the rest of us didn't, presumably we all came about in a Dolly The Sheep laboratory type of way, except that had yet to happen back in my dim and distant school days

Our dds attended a junior convent school for a few years. The nuns there - or at least the headmistress - apparently worshipped money - she sucked up like mad to the richest parents. It was a standing joke that at the annual prize-giving the Headmistress’s Prize for each year would invariably go to one of a very numerous, absolutely loaded, extended Catholic family - all with the same surname.

I was naive enough to be startled by this at first, but an Irish friend told me it was nothing remotely unusual for Irish nuns (which they were). ‘Sucking up to what they see as ‘the gentry’ was how she put it.

Other than that it was a very good school, though.

maddyone

nadateturbe

Linen napkins as opposed to a sheet of kitchen roll (common)

Oh dear, I own linen napkins but never use them. We use, guess what, a sheet of kitchen roll. Mostly anyway, although I buy those linen feel paper napkins for family dinners. I must be posh

Oh dear, we use linen napkins all the time in the dining room, only use paper napkins in the kitchen/diner or garden.

I do not think that you can fake class some people just ooze it, whether they are rich or poor. It’s the way they wear the clothes, doesn’t matter if they are designer or primark. It’s the way they hold themselves and how they walk .

My late FIL, a small scale builder and decorator was once doing some painting at a local big house, home of a member of the peerage.
One day, whilst up a ladder, the butler came in with the then Dowager Duchess of Westminster. They were introduced and FIL raised his paint stained cloth cap and said,
"Afternoon, Ma'am."
Later on, as he was leaving, the butler gently pointed out that one usually addressed a Duchess as "your grace."
FIL replied in a broad Worcestershire accent, "I calls all women Ma'am, then none of 'em gets offended."
His attitude was that we are all equal and that we treat everyone with the same degree of respect.

I'm not too sure what posh is any more. Perhaps it is breeding rather than wealth.
Whatever it is, I'm not it. Common as muck me!

A friend of ours used to say he knew he’d made it when his furniture arrived already assembled!