I live in Lincolnshire, a large county on the east coast of England, and after ten years of being here, I can distinguish a native of my town of Louth from one of Cleethorpes, 15 miles away. 35 miles south of here, in the original Boston, the local accent is rather different again.
Most Brits would not notice the difference as Lincolnshire accents are broadly unrecognized nationally, though any Brit (and, perhaps, many Americans?) could distinguish a Scouse (Liverpool) accent from a Mancunian (Manchester) one - only 27 miles apart. Think Beatles vs Oasis here.
Sadly, though, this does only work on true, thoroughbred natives - a small percentage of the population in most areas now due to the frequent movement of people around England.
It's funny how exact opposite Australia is. You can travel from Perth to Brisbane - 4 times the length of the UK - and even locals can't tell the accent apart from their own. There are differences, but they're not based on region.
"City" I'm in is within 10 miles of the next city and it's quite popular to make fun of each others different accents and propensity for certain dialect.
I do love it when you listen to someone talk and you can hear where they're from; occasionally I can do a Henry Higgins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Fair_Lady) and hear the overtones of where they moved on to as well. A strange delight.
The town where I grew up has a couple of dialect words that are only spoken by the working class in the environs. Fascinating stuff.
Most Brits would not notice the difference as Lincolnshire accents are broadly unrecognized nationally, though any Brit (and, perhaps, many Americans?) could distinguish a Scouse (Liverpool) accent from a Mancunian (Manchester) one - only 27 miles apart. Think Beatles vs Oasis here.
Sadly, though, this does only work on true, thoroughbred natives - a small percentage of the population in most areas now due to the frequent movement of people around England.