Best place to live in Midlands?

ReadingTim

Somewhere with "good transport links to Coventry and London" probably means a fast, direct service, rather than a slow local service from which you'd have to connect, so you're looking a larger towns and cities, rather than smaller ones.

Dunno how keen a cyclist you are, but 'no more than a bike ride away from a train station" suggests a maximum radius of 7/8 miles from the station, probably half that in reality.

This is therefore likely to place you living in said lager town or city, and incompatible with your liking of "a bit of countryside".

This is probably a location vs commute issue, which you'll probably have to resolve before thinking about where you'd actually like to live.

LittleMax

dexterwolf wrote: »

Lichfield as the train to London is something daft like 1 hour 30 minutes or around that .

I wouldn't fancy the daily commute to Coventry from Lichfield.

ibizafan_2

I recommend Rugby. Brilliant train service to Euston, and handy for Birmingham Airport (25 minutes by train). Not keen on Nuneaton to be honest.

selement

Coventry itself is decently linked with London isn't it? Pretty sure the London Euston train stops there.
I'm not keen on Coventry itself, so I guess look at areas with stations linking directly to Coventry? If you can afford Leamington Spa it has a good reputation.

easilydistracted

Depends on your budget? Coventry and Nuneaton are well connected on the train, you can be in Euston in an hour. I wouldn't have thought any of the surrounding villages were that easy a journey to Cov on public transport.

Some smaller but not really rural places have train stations but its a bit of a faff to get to both Cov and London. The only super rural train option is Long Buckby like the other poster said, but the stopping train is pretty rubbish. The buses tend to be quite expensive and take ages.

I spent ages looking, (there's a thread on here somewhere) and realised I needed to be in Cov and ended up in Earlsdon. Earlsdon is very villagey but centralish Cov, a little snobby and becoming completely crazy price wise. But it has loads of independent shops, bars and facilities and lots of green spaces.

Having recently moved to Coventry from Nuneaton I definitely prefer Cov.

Not sure I answered your question but you may not find everything you're looking for. Good luck with the hunt

LittleMax

selement wrote: »

If you can afford Leamington Spa it has a good reputation.

but not good public transport links to Coventry!

selement

A train an hour, if it is timed well that could be ok for commute? Not great I guess

Doozergirl

The best place to live in the Midlands is Rugby?

Birmingham is amazing now. Vibrant, exciting city and still only 25 minutes from the city centre to countryside.

It has the right tansport links as well.

OP, I think it does depend on what you want from life right now, but Rugby is possibly not the overwhelming favourite for the best place to live.

I live in North Worcs and am very happy indeed, but pre-mid-life without kids, I'd be in Kings Heath, Moseley or the city centre.

LittleMax

Doozergirl wrote: »

The best place to live in the Midlands is Rugby?

Birmingham is amazing now. Vibrant, exciting city and still only 25 minutes from the city centre to countryside.

It has the right tansport links as well.

OP, I think it does depend on what you want from life right now, but Rugby is possibly not the overwhelming favourite for the best place to live.

I live in North Worcs and am very happy indeed, but pre-mid-life without kids, I'd be in Kings Heath, Moseley or the city centre.

I presume the reason OP still wants to be able to travel to London easily is for their pre-mid-life without kids nights out :cool:

But if they do want to catch a gig at the Hare and Hounds, this is still easily achievable.

Rugby is a great best of both option, easy for nights out in London or Brum. Not to mention that all important extra half hour in bed every morning!

Fish&Chips

Kenilworth, Warwickshire.

It is a fast, easy bike ride to Coventry station and is a very pretty, middle class town with the castle ruins (operated by English Heritage with lots of events taking place) and old thatched cottages. It's a semi-rural town and not far from Warwick and Leamington Spa. Lovely countryside, good restaurants and decent pubs with real ale.

Between Coventry and Kenilworth is the big Warwick University campus with a superb Arts Centre with performances from top bands and artistes, dance, plays, concerts, comedians etc.