Trans Female moving to Yorkshire, where should I move to ? Nervous/Worried!

xylophone

What do you think is particularly good about Ripon?

I quite often visit the area to see a relative and find it a pleasant and friendly market town.

If you drive, it is easy to get on to the motorway for Leeds - otherwise there is a frequent bus service to Leeds and Harrogate.

You can drive into York in about fifty minutes but the roads are congested and parking expensive but you can use park and ride.

xylophone

Then, Ripon had quite a lot of yoof gangs - obviously not your London gangs, but there was an atmosphere in the evenings that wasn't always pleasant.

I've been in Ripon many times over the last ten years and not seen any evidence of gangs morning or evening.

xylophone

What are peoples opinions on Harrogate/Knaresborough or Otley

I've visited Harrogate, Knaresborough and Thirsk and liked what I've seen of all three.

Bethenny555

Thank you , lots of info there for me to think about York itself is lovely but not sure my budget would stretch to a house and garden there.

xylophone

Friends have very recently (this week) moved to Harrogate (having visited frequently over the past few years) and another couple of my acquaintance moved to Ripon a few years back - I'd lost touch and it was quite a surprise when my relative told me about their arrival.

I do like Yorkshire and sometimes wonder about living there but for the moment circumstances keep me in the south east.

Bethenny555

Thank you for your reply

Hopefully you can get back to Yorkshire once circumstances change!

General_Applause

xylophone wrote: »

I've been in Ripon many times over the last ten years and not seen any evidence of gangs morning or evening.

I lived in Ripon 10 years ago and I also saw no evidence of 'gangs' either.

DaftyDuck

Well, maybe I was more timid than you two about Ripon, but out in the villages it did have a worse reputation than Thirsk. There was a small passage down by Morrisons that was plagued by petty theft from the small shops and vandalism when it was developed plus,in the evening, the market place had quite a few large youth groups that caused trouble for the takeaways and restaurants. Thirsk was always quiet.

The current crime figures on police.uk still reflect this, even taking population into account.

Of the two, for a quieter gentler life (then) I would always choose Thirsk. I would still be happy living in Ripon, however, but could understand the OP might not.

moneyistooshorttomention

I don't think I'd regard anywhere as either more or less prone to the sort of incidents you are concerned about.

Places do have their own issues and those issues will include ones that no-one would even think of in other parts of the country.

So - in this smaller, more rural area there are several issues I've noticed where there are "Differences of opinion - sometimes expressed rather forcibly":

- The Welsh language (it's West Wales here....). Noticeable number of people with very different opinion to 99.9% of people from my home city including myself:cool:

- Hunting/shooting/fishing - the opposite one to what I regard as normal. It's accepted here....

- !!!!!philes - I've seen a lynch mob form against one here and have a friend that was wrongly identified as one and they moved from the area after a beating-up because of that wrong identification.

- Support for "the military" is much stronger here than I'm used to.

- Support for Tradition is much stronger here - and I'm used to it being largely non-existent.

- Drink/driving - whew! There is a high amount of it/high acceptance of it:eek:

- Black Economy - loads of it....

Those are the differences I notice. I've not ever noticed anyone giving a hoot about whether someone is a CIS man/woman or otherwise here - but I have noticed incidents in my modern/liberal/etc home city that I am from.

So there are certainly issues in some places that literally no-one ever thinks about in other places. But I've not noticed this surfacing as an issue in this smaller/rural place I'm currently living in.

DottieDam

Another shout for Hebden Bridge, it really does has strong LGBTX links.

Otley is pretty studenty/young professional and so you could generalise Liberal.

I don't think any of the towns you have mentioned are as small as you might be thinking (in terms of size and outlook).

If you go east of York you will find some smaller villages but then I know a lot of open-minded from them (and some close-minded people).

On the whole, people tend to be nicer up North (again sweeping statements) but I like to think you would feel safe and accepted anywhere, although I can see why you would want to ask.