Moving to Norwich - please can any locals offer advice

clippy_girl

I live in the north of the city and can walk to the cathedral in around 10 minutes. It is by mousehold Heath which would be great for walking the dogs. The main issue if you want an older house is that they are generally two bed terraces (or with a tiny 3rd room off the back bedroom) or they are massive 1million detached 8 beds! There are larger terraces in the golden triangle area with the third bedroom off a landing but they are much pricier.

As had been mentioned above the traffic in Norwich is appalling. Even if you are close by the bus can take ages to sit in traffic. It has been known to take me 45 minutes to drive 2.5 miles to work (takes 7 minutes with no traffic). So if you want to quickly be able to get into the city it is best to be able to walk.

Golden triangle is probably best for village like feel with local shops. There's not much where I am except a chip shop and tesco express but then I can easily walk down to cathedral area for food and drinks and shopping

-Kayleigh-

I'd go against what everyone has suggested here and say old Catton ( not new catton/catton) . It's suitable in your price range. Has a true village feel only 30 minute walk from the city. And loads of fields and places to walk dogs. There are fields with horses in. Has a low crime rate.

mufi

-Kayleigh- wrote: »

I'd go against what everyone has suggested here and say old Catton ( not new catton/catton) . It's suitable in your price range. Has a true village feel only 30 minute walk from the city. And loads of fields and places to walk dogs. There are fields with horses in. Has a low crime rate.

Agreed. Old Catton is an excellent suggestion.


Also look at one of your original suggestions, Thorpe St Andrew. A friend has a dog and walks him there - I'll get some details for you tomorrow when I see her. I live just on the border of Thorpe St Andrew, and it's lovely here; excellent bus service to Norwich. Sprowston is another suburban option.


Beware woodland - it may become housing or a new road - :(check the route of the NDR (new northern distributor road, being build at the moment, causing quite a bit of disruption now and in the future).


Villages outside Norwich, but reasonably near by bus: I'd look at Coltishall, Horstead, Wroxham and Hoveton, Spixworth, Acle, Brundall, Blofield, Thorpe End. All of these have shops and reasonable public transport; Brundall, Wroxham and Acle also have railway stations.

gregsayer

lets face it, most of the Norwich fringes, north, east, south or west fit the bill! and apart from the city council being hell bent on stopping cars driving through the city, its one of the nicest areas of the country

Fredthefrog

Thank you so much everyone for your suggestions and for taking the time to reply. Funnily enough Old Catton has previously been suggested so I will definitely add that to the list. The golden triangle is out of our price range really for the sort of house that we would like - have lived in too many mid terraces with noisy neighbours both sides and being a studenty area, I think that would be too high risk! We've been to Eaton and like it, but again it seems a little pricey (from what I've seen on rightmove!) if we had another £200k I think it would be much easier
We are hoping to go up in a couple of weeks for a proper look around - I think we will also drive round some of the villages and towns mentioned, as they could just fit the bill if public transport isn't too bad.
It's a lovely city and somewhere we have talked about moving to for several years - it's very much a feeling of now or never!!

Fredthefrog

Mufi - thank you for the advice on the new proposed road, it is something like that as an outsider, we wouldn't have any idea about!

Watercolour14

Have you thought about Trowse? It is the best of both worlds with being its own little village with a shop, two pubs, restaurant/cafe, village green and school which is currently outstanding. Also has Whitlingham lake, perfect for walking the dog. But is only 20-25 minutes walk from the city or Norwich train station. Or 5 minute drive. One of the nicest Norwich suburbs.

9ja4life

Fredthefrog wrote: »

Thank you very much for all your replies.
We have been torn between the whole town v village living for quite a long time now and so as we need to make our minds up soon, I thought the edge of Norwich could possibly be the comprise. I don't drive which kind of limits the choices I think... I like the idea of walking to local amenties - shop, cafe, parks with easy access to the centre of Norwich, my OH would happily live in the middle of nowhere as long as it had good broadband!

Attleborough is quite nice. 20 minute train to Norwich but 1 hour on the bus. Bus goes twice every hour. It's a perfect compromise between rural and city as it is very small. Nice centre, a few banks, good schools and has a Sainsburys and Lidl

BusyBargainz

I came to suggest Old Catton but seems others have already mentioned it
That's where I am moving and we have a nice sized 3 bed for £180k so you'd easily find something in your budget here!

Good luck with everything !

mufi

Re. Old Catton - just remembered a distant memory of a giant housing development going up between Catton and Spixworth. Not sure exactly where, and may well not impact on Old Catton, but have a look online.


Dog walking: Checked with my friend; her favourite spot is Catton Park. Also, of course, the many beaches - restrictions on dogs on some beaches, but apparently it's often only a particular part that's off-limits in high season.