Apologies
to anyone who lives in Lincolnshire, but I can safely say it's the only place we've had really weird neighbours. Property prices were absolutely dirt-cheap up there, and so in exchange for a nice/alright house in Surrey, we got a massive manor-house like place for about the same amount. Result, was the general consensus until we met the neighbours.
Since we were from the South we were considered foreigners. Really weird foreigners who spoke 'posh.' Two days after we moved in, the Georgian windows at the front of the house were smashed by a gang of kids from the neighbours behind the house (because of grounds no other house was nearer to us than 300m or so.) We saw a fire break out in an old woman's potting shed down the left of the driveway and my dad being a nice man got a fire extinguisher and went running. He put it out, she gave him the filthiest look I've ever seen. Turned out she was trying to claim the insurance on it. Stuff was stolen, windows smashed, car smashed. The neighbours were the purest distillation of chav it is possible to get, and simply didn't grasp the idea of restraining their children.

Luckily my brother had an air-gun or two. No revenge could be sufficient, but strolling around with this faintly realistic looking gun, and occasionally taking pot-shots at the buggers seemed to help a bit

A few years of hell, proving that bloody Location, location, location really is key.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 2 Oct 2009, 6:02, Reply)