I have come to the conclusion that I have never quite understood the village of Brewood. It seems to be viewed in many different ways, often very different to what I know it to be. Over the years I have got use to the normal reaction of people when I say I live in Brewood. Mainly it is implied that it is a nice village, posh and stuck up!
Quite different really to the place I grew up in, really. Brewood is one of those places where a certain class system is still in place. It is very obvious at village events and when we run Brownies and Guides.
The lower classes, are often some of the more normal, nicer people who many do not believe ever live here. This is very untrue, but very often they live on the outskirts of the village, Not in the centre! Yes, Brewood has council houses, they are very nice (as I can vouch for, as I was in and out of friends ones over the years) in fact you don't realize how many we have. Most people stay in them for generations and it is these people, mixed with what people call the middle classes that stay in the village for generations.
The middle classes, live in normal houses, not grade listed ones. We live here but many of us will be forced to leave in the coming years. We are not rich enough to buy and not eligible for a house from the council. It seems a shame really. Very occasionally this 'class' will be able to mix with the higher and more established families, of the village, but do not expect dinner invites, as they are often saved, you will more likely be able to have a conversation at the most.
The higher classes of the village are what we get the villages reputation from, as being 'posh'. They live mainly in the older or bigger properties in Brewood, mainly around the village centre. They may hold good jobs within the village, such as Doctor, Vicar or parish council member. These mix with in the class. Often you will find that the children will socialize, holiday etc with only certain families. These are often families that have been in the village for years, and by tradition perhaps, their surname leads them to have a certain standing.
However over the years we have also, and I have to include them in the higher classes (simply for their money status) the townies. They came when I was growing up, changing the village, re arranging it slightly. They were rich enough to buy new and old houses, they do not look after the village, they do not help groups and shops out, simply using the place as a place to sleep. They are often, in too much of a hurry and can often look down on the people who have put so much into the village, not knowing that they have... simply judging them on the fact that they do not have so much money as them.
I am not saying that everyone is like this, the village is full of lovely people, but it is often the few that give a place it's name. Do I resent that the village is called stuck up? Possibly, I rarely tell people at work where I live, they judge you too often and who blames them? They do not know the place I grew up in, where I was allowed to wonder free through fields and into the sandpit. Where the school I went to was not brilliant and made do, where buses only come every blue moon and are liable to cancel on you, without warning. The place I remember is not stuck up it is normal as every where else, it just has a pretty church, that draws the few tourists the area gets too. But then I don't perhaps tell people as much as I know I never totally grew up there, I was between many places as a child, always mainly in Brewood. But then other places came into it too, like Wales and Codsall, I spent a lot of time in Codsall and know it pretty dam well actually and it's little cut through's.
So if anyone says that class systems do not exist any more, are quite wrong. But please do not judge Brewood on a few people who live here, we are not all stuck up and posh. I live in a bungalow that was converted by my Dad, I do not know which class I belong to, but I know it is not the higher class, we speck to them only through Brownies and Guides 
Some say it is very much like the village in Hot Fuzz, and I agree... I just hope that there are no bodies being stored anywhere :s
