I am trying to find out who has more of an "accent". Myself, who hails
from Westchester county New York, or my friends who live in central
Connecticut.  I suppose the technical definition of "accent" should
weigh heavily into my query.
Connecticut (and New England) residents say certain words with the
letter A differently than New Yorkers. ?Wheel Barrow? is a good
example. I would say ?bah-row? whereas Connecticut residents say
?bear-ow?.
We have an ongoing argument regarding who "speaks English better" and
there is some technicalities and basic history of the English language
that we are ignorant of.
Important: please disregard NYC in this.  I do NOT have a NYC accent. :-)

I am English through and through (except for an Irish grandfather) and
I've travelled extensively throughout the States.

And EVERYWHERE I've gone (including NY and Connecticut) folks did have
a pronounced American accent. Quite unmistakeably.

However, I've always reckoned that the Bostonians are the nearest I've
met to having an English accent.

I guess the accent of the Bronx is probably the least English-like.

I know people from both New York and from Connecticut and neither have
a particular accent. However, I have never heard someone pronounce
wheelbarrow in the way you describe (?bah-row?) and so I'm going to
nod to your friends as having the least accent. I have heard Southern,
Eastern and Midwestern accents and I have always heard wheelbarrow
pronounced as "bear-ow." The people that I know from New York do not
pronounce it this way, as far as I know.

I personally speak in the generic "newscaster's accent" that most
people from the East, Midwest and West do, and as far as I can recall,
all the people from NY and CT that I know speak in this same accent.
Whoever is closest to that accent, in my estimate, could be cited as
having the least accent.

This is easily gauged-- do you speak like the newscasters on TV or do
they sound like your friends?

Here is the accent I'm speaking of:

"General American"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American

So I guess I need to compare the way I talk and the way my friends
talk to American General.

I believe you are probably hearing "bah-row", incorrectly in your
head.  Believe it or not, I say "barrow" the same way that most
British people do.  I'm fairly certain that the British do not say
"bear-ow".

Answer me this though: who speaks "better" English, people who sound
more like the British, or people who sound more like Midwesterners? (I
bet there's no one answer to this question)

Thanks!

Well, that all depends on where you're from and what you're used to
hearing. A British person would probably say that they speak proper
English and an American would say that they do.

Since you're all Americans, and therefore speaking an American form of
English would be "normal," I would give it to your friends on this
one. Midwestern would be more normal.

As for better? That is completely subjective. 

(I used to live in England, but perhaps I just never heard someone
pronounce wheelbarrow while I was there!)

:)

Of course, the example can't be from NYC; no one there speaks about
the things  - even if they happen to know what they are.  ;-)

Funny thing is, my nickname in real life has the same vowel sound.  Of
course, I thought I knew how to pronounce it; people in the States and
Germany pronounced it the way I expected, when I had introduced
myself.  Then in Australia, when I introduced myself, they used the
other vowel sound  - an acceptable variant of the nickname.  When I
learned to take more care  - sounded a bit artificial to me -  they
pronounced it as I expected and was accustomed to be called.

Or - maybe people who write wheelbarrow as two words pronounce it differently. :)