I used to spend my hols in Maldon, Park Drive.
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You see that makes a great deal of difference.
I remember someone posting that you were direct because you came from Manchester, when really you are an offcomer. and not entitled to be northern at all.
It is now quite obvious to me that you do not have a northern sense of humour, whereas, coming from Lancaster I do.
@Jane_Williamson it’s in my genes Jane… I must confess to having lost much of my Mancunian twang except for certain words like “path and bath” which don’t have an “r” in them and which is difficult to shake off but that comes of having moved from Manchester to Worcestershire, then Birmingham, then Essex to Hertfordshire then back to Essex over the past 50 years so perhaps somewhat of a hybrid.
Does it make a difference that my maternal Grandfather was Welsh? My father’s family were very much from the Manchester/Lancashire borders and all my siblings (5) have Scottish Christian names…
but yes, all those years living in the sarf have softened my brusqueness - particularly since marrying a Londoner born within the sight and sounds of Bow Bells (but who, like you, was adopted as an infant and began early life in Surrey with a fringe on top).
Mixed bag, but still have my sense of humour despite your doubts…
I apologise for not being a thoroughbred but, actually, I had nothing to do with it 
As a Hertfordshire country boy, I found that 20 years of living and working in London made me far more “direct” than I was as a 20 something.
Rural France has mellowed my waking state somewhat, but I can go from relaxed to full London in less than a second when needed.
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NotALot of people know that Guy 
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My mother’s family came from Manchester, but it was then in Lancashire, which I suppose it still was when your father was living there.
I was brought up around Heysham and the Lancashire/Westmorland border, so quite a bit further north.
After I was married we moved to Kent, very strange folk, not friendly at all.
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Before my time of course but I think there were associations with Oldham - indeed, there is a place called Lees in Oldham. My father, the youngest of 13, was born well after a number of his siblings had already died and during the war, because of a disability, he worked on the Manchester Ship Canal on the barges.
I found that too when I moved for work reasons to Worcestershire and similarly when I later moved to Essex and Hertfordshire.
Up north, we could leave our door open and friends, neighbours etc would pop in and say “it’s only me!” but such a thing was very alien to midlanders and southerners. Even after we married, Vanessa’s parents expected us to knock on the front door rather than just walk in round the back.
Some northern traits are never lost.
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