North Essex / Suffolk villages

lionheartedgirl

I'm in North Essex, in a small village just to the east of Colchester. My mum and dad just outside Sudbury (just inside the Suffolk border).

I found the difference between south Essex and north Essex to be huge - people are very friendly here, less so a bit further south. That is just my opinion though. I also find that lots of people have lived here or not far from their families for most of their lives and it can take a little while to settle in to a group. Not that you are an outsider based on where you are from, just that you are new if that makes sense?

None of my family are from this area but we have settled well. The only thing for me is that as a single girl with mostly married friends, if I want a social life I have to trek into Colchester. Which is great for live music btw!

I don't know how important transport links are to you - the train line between Sudbury and Colchester is not great, and the Maldon area you refer to is also a bit of a trek to the main line, you would go to Witham or Kelvedon I think. Also it's a bit of a way to the motorway network - with family up north it is a trek to get around. Traffic congestion can be a problem - the A12 is pretty notorious but if you pick your times it's manageable.

Like anywhere, I think it's about making the effort to fit into the local community and doing your bit to make friends.

If I could choose anywhere to live I would live in Bures - halfway between Colchester and Sudbury, with some fantastic rural pubs in Lamarsh and Great Henny :T - these are tiny little villages where you feel like Postman Pat driving round to get to them!

Good luck x

PS where I am and where my mum and dad live, walking the dog gets a polite hello/good morning each time. Walkers are not so obliging

phoebe1989seb

I'm afraid I can't advise on the BME issue, but we moved from Southsea in Hampshire to North Essex in 2007. The house we bought was between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea. Unfortunately we weren't at all happy with the area we chose and even though we had a beautiful home we really hated living there. One of the few highlights for us was to visit some of the villages on the Essex/Suffolk border......our personal favourite was Dedham, which whilst I believe is in Essex, always felt more like a Suffolk village to us. We also liked the area around Flatford Mill, although with the Constable connection this could get a bit touristy.....

After three years we'd had enough of living there so decided to move last year, but if we hadn't needed to relocate closer to our families, we would have been happy to live in Dedham or thereabouts.......although I have to say that after being used to a hilly landscape down south, we found the flat scenery terribly uninteresting

Good luck and hope it all works out for your ex......

gil13

Yep, Bures is a nice traditional village with a couple of decent pubs, then you have Sudbury which is a cracking little market town really and still doing well, Great Cornard is on the way up too with some good value to be found and a couple of newer developments, prices probably that bit better value than Colchester. This area either side of the river Stour has decent links road and rail London via A12 or A120/M11 and A14 into the Midlands not far away. You could also consider Manningtree/Mistley on the Essex side the former being on the main rail line into London. Good Luck in your search.

SingleSue

I am South Suffolk very close to the Essex border - the border is half a mile away from the main town as the crow flies.

We tend to be a little less strange than those further up in Suffolk (Stowmarket etc) and because it is the site of one of the largest ports in Europe, we have a good mix of different nationalities etc, so pretty much anyone is accepted.

Property prices are quite reasonable depending on which part of the town or surrounding villages you are looking at (I am in a village just outside the town and prices can be a bit ouch here) and the A14 runs right through to the town.

A train can take you into central London in just over an hour if you travel to Ipswich first, or around an hour and a half if you take it direct from Felixstowe.

Depending where in the town you live, there can be an element of not being accepted straight away, the first time I encountered it was when I moved to my current house..but then that is the village life for you. My original home, being on the sea front and tending to be families which originally hailed from London, was and still is, extremely friendly.

The village I am in has that rural feel to it with lots of fields and farms but also has the bonus of being pretty close to the bigger shops, a lovely town centre and only 15 minutes away by car, Ipswich with its much more mainline shopping centres plus of course, a great beach and seafront only a few minutes drive away.

VfM4meplse

Well, I've shared this thread, I can do no more. Thanks all for your words of wisdom!

VfM

inmypocketnottheirs

Try Braintree or Halstead, the former being slightly larger predominantly dormitory town, or out towards Haverhill and the villages The Hedinghams. Some very nice places out that way.

benham3160

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Try Braintree or Halstead, the former being slightly larger predominantly dormitory town, or out towards Haverhill and the villages The Hedinghams. Some very nice places out that way.

...with the exception of Haverhill itself lol

Regards,
Andy

VfM4meplse

benham3160 wrote: »

...with the exception of Haverhill itself lol

Noted with thanks!

phoebe1989seb

benham3160 wrote: »

...with the exception of Haverhill itself lol

Regards,
Andy

Totally agree.....went there a few times on business when we lived in Essex and it was awful

Crazy_Diamond

We recently moved from a village near Haverhill (for work reasons) and I can recommend the area (if as others have said you avoid Haverhill itself). Prices are very reasonable and if you live to the south and west of Haverhill you have the option of either Cambridge or Saffron Walden for shopping. London is 50 minutes by train from Cambridge and the drive in is not too bad as the rural roads around there tend to be relatively quiet.

The population of village were pretty elderly - I think due to the lack of jobs in the area but were very friendly. We were pretty dependent on a car though. If I was picking a village I would make sure it had a good pub and shop and lots of nice walks off the road.