The Lemon Fool

I finally decided to move away from the rat race, and so we can move away from living near London.

Where would you choose and recommend?

We are still weighing up all our requirements, and what we're willing to trade off, but our only restriction is that it needs to be near the major hospitals, for partners work, and near a school for our 3 year old.

I really like Scotland, having lived there before, but the other half thinks the weather is too cold up north. And I'd love to live in the sticks, but the other half would prefer something not too rural.

From our initial research, scenery and value for money seem to make Wales the most attractive. Cornwall & Devon also nice, but more expensive.

In Wales we'd be restricted to the very north, near Bangor, Rhyl, or Wrexham, or the south, as the middle has no hospitals. Weather-wise can someone tell me how different it is north and south? Have only been to Wales for holidays, so difficult to know how it is all through the year.

Would love to hear any other suggestions, and where you choose.

Cheers,
EF

If not Scotland then Bristol, in my opinion. Adjust distance from city centre for desired level of rurality.

Scott.

Thanks. As it happens I was just looking at the housing market in Somerset

Bristol is nice but not that cheap these days. I stayed in Lincoln last weekend for a wedding and was very impressed, inexpensive housing but good choice of bars and restaurants.
I love living where I live but it is almost as expensive as London. Wales is OK but it seems to rain a lot. I lived in York for 7 years and loved it.

John

The weather is colder up north, I had friends move back from London to Edinburgh and they reckoned it was on average 2 or 3 degrees colder. Or felt like it as the wind was colder or something. Anyway, enough for a bit of a shock to the system.

Is Exeter a big enough hospital? South Devon is lovely. Wales, how near to Cardiff do you need to be? Or would Swansea do? The Gower is beautiful, as is Pembrokeshire - the coast is like north Devon, but with about 1/4 of the tourists.

If you wanted to avoid rain, East Anglia is the driest part of the UK I think.

Try Dorset, or perhaps Southampton, maybe even Exeter. Much warmer than up north, and once beyond Londonland affordable.

As social animals people naturally often wish to locate somewhere near to family, or near to friends or other connections or roots previously established.

If these are really of no consideration - and that may well be the case - then you have free reign to choose anywhere that fits your criteria.

However, I would think carefully about the above to ensure that's really the case to help avoid a costly mistake. It's not just expats who bail out from Oz or France after a few years but also plenty in the UK who gravitate back to an area they have connections with. I know of various people who've moved to a new location, ostensibly made a good success of it, but after a time returned to an earlier (original) location where the connections exerted a greater pull.

In Wales we'd be restricted to the very north, near Bangor, Rhyl, or Wrexham, or the south, as the middle has no hospitals
if you're towards the border there are hospitals near Oswestry (RJAH, orthopaedic) and Shrewsbury (RSH, which is fairly big)
If towards the coast Aberystwyth is the main settlement, with a big uni and a hospital.
The Weslh coast can be windy and rainy during winter (and spring, and summer, and autumn) ...

dspp wrote:Try Dorset, or perhaps Southampton, maybe even Exeter. Much warmer than up north, and once beyond Londonland affordable.

Dorset yes, but Southampton is not really somewhere that I would choose to live if a didn't have to!

Salisbury is quite nice, if a little behind the times.

John

Yes but Southampton has some big hospitals. Quite a lot of medical staff commute along the Win-Sou-Bmth-Poole-Dorch-Wey railway line which makes it easy for them to swap jobs etc and manage career risk.

regards, dspp

dspp wrote:Yes but Southampton has some big hospitals. Quite a lot of medical staff commute along the Win-Sou-Bmth-Poole-Dorch-Wey railway line which makes it easy for them to swap jobs etc and manage career risk.

regards, dspp

I'd agree with living outside Southampton and commuting in, New Forest has some lovely spots, Romsey is a nice small town with a trainline into Southampton (11 minute journey time).

Yes, a mate of mine used to live in Romsey - nice place.
Other random pleasant towns I have experience of;
Farnham, Surrey (3 miles to Aldershot, ~ 10 miles to Guildford)
Woodbridge, Suffolk (<10 miles into central Ipswich)

When I escape work i'm moving back home to Shropshire, which suits me. Herefordshire and parts of Worcestershire are also very nice.

Have you looked at the Tyne valley? There are some lovely places in the North East - very rural if you want it, lovely towns of various sizes and Newcastle a short hop on the train or car journey.

I'm biased as I live in North Wales but there are areas around Bangor, Wrexham and Aberystwyth that are beautiful and not prohibitively expensive. You could also consider living in Wales but travelling over the border to Chester which has a large hospital. I know several people who live near me but work in Wrexham or Chester hospitals. They enjoy the peace and quiet of living in the countryside but the villages are large enough to have a good social life. There are excellent schools in the areas and no Welsh Nationals to get their knickers in a twist about "English incomers", something that can be a slight problem around Bangor and Aberystwyth. One of my SIL lives in Wales but travels to Liverpool daily where there are several hospitals and of course there is Arrowe Park hospital on the Wirral, and although the nice areas of the Wirral are expensive it really is an easy commute from Flintshire and parts of Denbighshire.
Good luck with your search.

R6

In my view it's all about quality of life.

Some years ago I decided to go and live where I wanted to live in the UK, rather than stay where I was. The overriding factor was weather, and specifically avoiding rain (the number of days, not the absolute amount). Anyone who travels throughout the UK regularly, perhaps for work, or who watches TV or web based weather forecasts will know that the majority of rain falls by dint of depressions moving in from the Atlantic. The rain tends to be in a band that starts in Ireland and then moves on to cover the south west of England, most of Wales, the North West of England, and up into Scotland. These fronts tend to move north easterly rather than pure eastward. As a result, the rain bearing belt often moves northwards, and only a bit eastwards. Whilst this may seem over-simplistic, its true. Yorkshire and the North East of England is a lot drier than Cumbria and Lancashire, and the East and West Midlands are a lot drier than mid-Wales and South Wales. Obviously, the south of England, particularly the South East and east Anglia are the driest, and Scotland the wettest (other than Northern Ireland which I assume the OP is eliminating anyway). And this is not just as measured in annual rainfall as that misleads IMHO, it's more about how many days are 'good weather' (dry and bright) versus 'bad weather' (dull and damp), because that's leads to quality of life IMHO. Waking up to a dry day, and having the ability to go outside when you wish rather than just when the rain stops, and being able to plan in advance to do things at weekends without the repeated disappointment of shelving plans and sit around the house, makes all the difference.

So unless there is a very strong reason to seek locations in the 'dull and damp' areas, I'd ignore them.

I'll put my tin hat on now in anticipation of others extolling the virtues of the areas chose ignore.

BrummieDave wrote:I'll put my tin hat on now in anticipation of others extolling the virtues of the areas chose ignore.

Only been on holiday to Kent, but it seemed pretty nice, and nicely pretty.

Somewhere close by Canterbury which should have all you require, including easy access to most of the rest of the country.

It is not as dry as here in Essex, but does have at least as good weather as most of the rest of the country.

Slarti

What about Shropshire beautiful, not a million miles from Birmingham. Fabulous walking.

Somewhere halfway between Dorking and Guildford, near A25.

todthedog wrote:What about Shropshire beautiful, not a million miles from Birmingham. Fabulous walking.

No, you wouldn't like it. Really.
Full of, erm, bears and things. And werewolves.