Can anyone name another country with so many distinct variations in accent spread over so little an area? Genuine question, not rhetorical.
No.

I was born about 35 miles away from where I currently live and the accent is totally different. In fact the Leeds accent is totally different from where I live and it's only 6 miles away. I was born in north Manchester and the accents around there can change from mile to mile. The Middleton accent is nothing like the Oldham accent and yet they are right next to each other.

My grandmother used to say that you could tell those who used to work in the mills because everything they said was with exaggeration. This was because the noise in the mills was so great that they couldn't actually hear each other and so they effectively lip read.

On the case of the south west (and to some degree Norfolk and Suffolk) it's reckoned that they people talk with that drawl as it was soothing for the animals to hear. I heard this a long time ago and it does make some sense.

Here's a helpful jock....

http://video.google.com/videosearch?...um=4&ct=title#

Enjoy.