A hairdresser who says his life in Oxford was made a misery because of his Yorkshire accent it to cut his losses and head back north.

Michael Stead, 43, and his partner Carol Hewitson, claim they are a living testimony to the North-South divide after a catalogue of unpleasant incidents.

The couple are now set to replant their White Rose roots in Burley-in-Wharfedale.

They moved to Thame, near Oxford, almost two years ago, but say they have had enough of being ridiculed and ignored by their southern neighbours.

Mr Stead, who is originally from Bradford, said: "We had never been so proud of Yorkshire until we left it.

"We do not like it down here. If you walk down the street and say 'good morning' people think that you are either drunk or insane.

"You do not realise how friendly people are in Yorkshire."

And Mr Stead believes that prejudice ran so high against his Yorkshire twang that he was even asked to leave his job.

He claimed: "I was taken to one side and asked to leave because my conversation was not conducive to the atmosphere of the salon where I worked - presumably because I couldn't talk about fox hunting.

"Things didn't get off to the best of starts from day one when I asked my first customer, a lady, how she wanted her hair doing.

"She said: 'Where on earth did you get a voice like that? Was it in an accident?' It sounded to her like I had dropped out of South Elmsall with my clogs on."

And he claims there was more in the same vein.

He said she asked how many horses he had and when he replied 'None' she offered to arrange for the hunt to sound its horn outside his house as a greeting.

He added: "I have over ten O levels, four A levels, a degree and am a Grade 8 piano teacher yet I had to listen to questions such as did we have any theatres up north?

"I was also asked about the ballet, which some customers assumed I would know nothing about."

But John Wakefield, proprietor of Reflections where Mr Stead worked, retaliated saying: "What a sad man! He is a very sad character, I'm afraid. If he's going to a salon up there, God help them as well."

And Thame's Town Mayor, Councillor Don Butler, said: "I have been down here since 1967 and I have found people in Thame very friendly and Thame a very friendly place.

"It's like anywhere else, people are different but a lot depends on one's own attitude. I really don't understand his comments."

The couple are now looking forward to good old-fashioned Yorkshire hospitality when they move to Burley, where Mr Stead has found a job at the Snooti a'Gouti salon in Main Street.

Its proprietor Kim Dickinson said Mr Stead was due to start there the first week in September.

She said: "I think it's quite intriguing, I do feel for him. I do know he has had an awful time but it is a delicate situation.

"He is a really nice chap, very, very witty, and speaks his mind."