Moving Away from the Southeast... What am I missing?

sitesafe

I moved southeast for work from the southwest and whilst I still have my house in the southwest ( as I can't afford to buy in the southeast) I wouldn't want to return permanently. Links to London, best of both worlds city/ country fix - some fab countryside in the southeast.
I dont know Grantham but I wouldnt choose Lincs other than Stamford. Depends where in the southeast you're moving from?

fiisch

Thanks all - plenty of food for thought. Oddly enough, I have considered Stamford - I have been leaning more towards Grantham area due to the direct train - but will look again at Stamford.

We definitely need to spend some time up there in a couple of Air BnBs before even contemplating putting the house on the market, and I take the point that it's very easy to look at the positives and ignore the downsides. Although right now I don't have a commute (very lucky break in landing a role with the only company in my industry based anywhere near my home town, more by accident than anything), typically my London commute is 40 minutes train + 15 minutes walking, so either way I will likely have a commute in some form in the not too distant future.

It's easy to drool over Rightmove and the big open spaces, the larger rooms, the double garages (which are only a feature of £1m+ new builds around our way) and think how much better life will be, but if we end up feeling isolated from friends and family and stuck somewhere we don't want to live, a 30ft lounge will be small consolation!!

zagubov

I've friends in that general area who're always going to gigs. Not so much locally; they treat London, the (west) midlands and the north as their stamping ground.

OK not every night, and they've a healthy round trip!

FBaby

Is the grammar school the only reason for considering the move? If so, I think it's madness and unfair on your child. What if they don't get in, don't like and ask to go to the crap local school, what if they go and decide that their vocation is to work for the circus?

The commuting you are considering might be fine the first months, maybe even years, but for knowing a lot of people who've done the commute for 10 or 20 years, I would not have traded their place for all the gold (or grammar schools) in the world. They are haggard, exhausted, and looking unfit as they don't have any time for exercise, let alone relaxation. What good is a dad who is always exhausted to a child?

I remember when my eldest was due to go to secondary school and my friends' child got a place in a prestigious grammar school whilst man got the below average comprehensive. Then another friend decide to take her child off and send her to the prestigious private school. Can you tell who's been where from what and where they will be studying at Uni? Not one bit, and as a matter of fact, it would be exactly the opposite.

Making a move up North because you like the place and life there, that's great, but doing it just for the schools is in my view madness.

Doozergirl

What are you going to do with a double garage, exactly?

It's all very well getting excited because you don't have one, but the reality of a garage is a bit underwhelming if you don't actually need a workshop. They're almost always full of rubbish that doesn't make it to the tip.

I'd definitely rather live a few stops closer to London and a shorter journey there than have a double garage.

victoriavictorious

Smodlet wrote: »

Helluva lot more facilities in P'boro (probably more immigrants too but if the OP is used to the Smoke, also probably not a factor) Stamford is pretty to look at but I think the property prices are over inflated for what you get.

Great for shopping & just about every other facility, as you rightly say, but cheap for a reason; most of P'boro is as rough as a badger's ****!

fiisch

@Doozergirl - My guilty pleasure is cars, so a double garage would be awesome to stick a couple of old Japanese classics in...


I will inevitably have a commute - but admittedly, from Grantham it will be somewhat longer. I work in London Insurance Market so - predictably - is very London-centric, and I wouldn't consider moving any further in than we already are.


@FBaby - No - certainly not only considering the move for Grammar schools. We are on the Sussex/Kent border - if it was solely for grammar schools, we'd be relocating to Kent. I would love to have the option of paying for private school, but as a fallback having the 11+ there and grammar system gives her another option. I have no idea if she'd get anywhere close to passing, but it's nice that the option is there.


I'd rank the motivations in order as:


- Less crowding / more rural / more open space, walks etc.;
- Much larger house and garden;
- Better schools (in general as well as availability of grammar);
- A better drive to in-laws (although not significantly closer) in Herefordshire - M-I-L had a major stroke a couple of years back and my other half thinks moving to Lincolnshire would make it easier to visit her mother - although I'm a bit dubious of this - she'd have to do the drive to see how it is before making this conclusion.

bertiewhite

Jesus, it's Lincolnshire - not Afghanistan.

Smodlet

victoriavictorious wrote: »

Great for shopping & just about every other facility, as you rightly say, but cheap for a reason; most of P'boro is as rough as a badger's ****!

You say that but there is rough and rough. We used to live in the nice bit anyway, where I was born and I would move back there in a heartbeat if I could afford to.

fudgecat

We moved to Norfolk from Surrey/London borders. Advantages: more for your money, less crowding, no traffic jams, lower cost of living, slower pace of life, friendliness of the people, lovely countryside wherever we drive, it has changed our outlook on what really matters.

Disadvantages: we will never be able to move back, distance from some family, No local full sized IKEA!

As you can see, from a balanced perspective, for us, it is a no brainer.

Re schools: in rural areas small schools can struggle to provide every aspect of the curriculum, eg school play, sports teams, cultural diversity, competition with peers academically