South to north move - aka escape to the country

Ruru10

MidnightWolf said:

My wife and I moved from the West Midlands to a village in the south of the Derbyshire Dales district just under three years ago, primarily because it’s closer to my job. If you’re willing to look at the south end of the Peak District, there’s lots of nice villages along the A50 corridor giving easy access to towns and cities like Stoke, Derby,  Nottingham and Burton on Trent (the latter three offer a reasonably quick journey into London St Pancras and from Stoke into Euston) as well as the M6 and M1.

This definitely sounds interesting.  But how do I know which villages They're probably all gorgeous.  I want to be in a safe area so checking out crime stats too.  I want everything really - safe area, not over priced property

MidnightWolf

Ruru10 said:

MidnightWolf said:

My wife and I moved from the West Midlands to a village in the south of the Derbyshire Dales district just under three years ago, primarily because it’s closer to my job. If you’re willing to look at the south end of the Peak District, there’s lots of nice villages along the A50 corridor giving easy access to towns and cities like Stoke, Derby,  Nottingham and Burton on Trent (the latter three offer a reasonably quick journey into London St Pancras and from Stoke into Euston) as well as the M6 and M1.

This definitely sounds interesting.  But how do I know which villages They're probably all gorgeous.  I want to be in a safe area so checking out crime stats too.  I want everything really - safe area, not over priced property

Although Ashbourne is our postal town, we live just outside Uttoxeter. For a small town, it’s oddly well served by supermarkets with a Tesco, Asda, Waitrose, Lidl (recently moved to a larger store) and Aldi (about to open). Anywhere larger (Burton, Derby, Stoke, Stafford) is about a 20-25 minute drive. As for crime, it was one of the reasons we left the West Midlands  Where we are now, I don’t worry about burglaries (two break ins at our old house) and even the lack of vandalism and graffiti is noticeable (bus shelf being a good example). I really don’t miss the general anti-social behaviour and drug dealing/taking that was becoming so prevalent where we used to live. Also, just walking in the village, anyone you pass will say hello.

zagubov

 If you have to occasionally commute to London, it may be useful to be near Stafford which has express non-stop trains to London Euston. (80-120 minutes each way).
Your nearest teaching hospitals may end up being Nottingham and Stoke (Keele). This might be important depending on your age/state of health. If you're somewhat chronologically enriched, travel time to a hospital, particularly an A and E may need to be factored in, as others have suggested.
Entertainment and retail therapy opportunities might be rarer and more of a struggle to access.
I thoroughly support those posters suggesting you rent first. Time spent in reconnaisance is never wasted!

seven-day-weekend

We moved from the West Midlands to Spain when we first retired.  Not on the Costas, but to a little village halfway up a large mountain, still very traditionally Spanish.  We knew one couple who lived in the next village, about a fifteen minute drive.

Although it's a different country, some of the same things apply.

Bus route (we had one a day  to and from Granada.  This is also where things like the hospital were.  It is about an hour's drive from where we lived).  You have to mconsider what would happen if for some reason you couldn't drive.

Things like mains services - we had no gas but we did have mains water, sewage and electricity and really slow internet.

Shop actually in the village (we had one which sold everything from coffee to chain saws.  There was also an artisan shop that sold jamones (Iberican ham), and a bakery that produced fresh bread every day).  I think a shop is important, you don't want to get the car out if you just need a loaf of bread.

Some form of social life available (for a tiny village with around 300 inhabitants we were well served - we had five permanent bars and another three that opened in the summer!).  There was also the church - a lot of village life revolved around this.

Other expats.  Although we wanted to integrate into the life of the village , it was nice to be able to speak English with other people whilst relaxing in said bars. We also helped each other out in learning how things worked in a tiny Spanish village - how to go to the Doctor, when the bank opened - Tuesday morning, what fiestas were coming up etc .There were about six or seven other expat couples in the village, plus our friends in the next village.  Although I don't suppose the language issues would arise in the Peak District, (!) it is nice to know someone where you are going to, until you get settled in.

We had a lovely eight years there, but it was never meant to be permanent and we came back eleven years ago.  If possible have the means to do so.

That's my two pennorth.  Hope you enjoy the Peaks, they are beautiful.

pinkteapot

We relocated from Essex to Cumbria in 2018. I would very strongly recommend renting first. We did, while we explored the area better, and very quickly ruled out some areas that on the map looked like great options. 

I understand why you don’t want to rent first, but look at the cost of a house purchase. Can easily be £20k with stamp duty and fees. Renting massively reduces your chances of forking that out again in just a couple of years’ time!

We also don’t have kids (we’re 40s) and making friends when you don’t visit the school gates is hard. Check the area for clubs, groups etc. What hobbies do you have? My husband plays golf so joined a club up here straight away. I joined a book club quickly and that meant nattering to a regular group once a month. We work locally, so at least had the social side of chatting to people at work every day while we got settled. Just be aware that with working from home, it could feel pretty lonely to start with. 

We’ve ended up in a lovely large village with friendly people and lots going on. Feeling settled takes a good few years, so be prepared for that. I seem to remember that advice to people emigrating is to give it two years before deciding to move back because it takes at least that long to really get a feel for life. 

This all sounds a bit negative! We love this place and have absolutely no desire to move back. 

mark_cycling00

I rented for 6 months and in that time my perspective of what lifestyle and property I wanted completely changed.

It's easy to enjoy places as a tourist or apply your home counties lifestyle to your new location 

I thought I needed to be walking distance to a nice cafe and be in a village big enough to have a few pubs for example. 

Then I realised that having coffee in a big garden with a countryside view beats any noisy cafe. I just did cafes because that was London life

Summer came and the village when I was renting turning into a tourist hotspot, packed, people looking in your windows, nowhere to park.

I'd recommend some period of trying out an area 

Woolsery

"Lovely little villages' come at a price and that may be more than just a hefty price tag. If you want value and flexibility with things like extending or renovating, avoid AONBs. Also, in the holiday season driving can be a nightmare and in the winter the population of villages may fall significantly.

We live in the country, having made the break from city living in 2009 when things looked bad, economically speaking. We had our list of must haves and desirables, but nothing of a good size in the well-known holiday-type locations was affordable and we didn't feel 'at home' in them anyway. We weren't going to buy something poky, just to get an idyllic  view.

We had the advantage of familiarity with this area, so we didn't need to rent here first, but we'd had winter holidays in another area over three years in order to get a feel for it. Everywhere looks lovely in June! One of us had some issues with the other area.

Looking back at the many country houses we considered, it soon dawned on us that isolated wouldn't be good. By that I mean with no neighbours, not miles away from everything. Neighbours can be a pain, but if you want to be safe, they're your eyes and ears. Besides, in the country there's usually more space around.

These days it's quite easy to research specific villages on the internet and find out what goes on in them. Ours is pretty workaday as evidenced by the number of trucks and vans, as opposed to plastic 4x4s, but a glance at houses and gardens tells you most people have a pride in the place. It also tells you which two roads not to buy in! The fact that the two pubs have just survived Covid tells the observer something too about the social life.

Some villages are particularly well located, found by plotting things like health centres, stations, social facilities and market towns on a map. We score well for health, trains, pubs, walking and golf, but poorly for supermarkets and sailing. The nearest decent beach is also a 50minute drive and the motorway 40mins. There's always going to be a few negatives.

Some townies take to the rural life straight away and never look back, especially if they make an effort to integrate. Others, even sociable types, may like it for a while, but miss easy access to theatres and other joys of city living. It's difficult to have it all. A friend lives just the other side of a large hill that separates him from the city. To all intents and purposes it looks quite like here, but one glance at the crime figures shows it's not.

Northern_Dreamer

We moved from just outside MK to Buxton in 2017, it was a bit of a whim but we'd being holidaying in the area for years previously so felt we knew the Peak District quite well. We'd considered the smaller more quaint places like Bakewell amd Castleton, but went for Buxton as it seemed more practical and much more affordable (the tourist traps can feel a bit artificial sometimes, especially in the peak of summer) 

There are some negatives to the area-  public transport is very hit and miss and the traffic can be awful at times, and if you want to go to any 'big shops' you have to travel quite a way. This doesn't bother me though, I've always found everything I need in town as I love a charity shop rummage! We also get bad weather, Buxton itself seems to be in it's own little micro climate and is always a few degrees colder than everywhere else and when it snows the whole area is impossible to move in unless you have a serious 4x4. Not such a problem if you work from home but getting supplies can be an issue! 

My parents moved to Wirksworth not long after we moved, it's a bit further south in the Derbyshire Dales just below Matlock but much nearer the M1 and Derby. It's a gorgeous little Georgian town with a quirky arty vibe and strong community, plus it's always a less severe weatherwise than us in Buxton! We've found the people up here very friendly and welcoming, there are a lot of 'outsiders' living here and we've never felt judged for not being locals! 

lookstraightahead

Ruru10 said:

Thank you so much everyone for your fantastic advice!  I think the sensible thing would be to rent first, but that feels like adding another step to it when we're fairly desperate to relocate.  But maybe some holiday let for a month or something like that would work.  It is a big risk, but we feel ready for it.
Sounds like the larger villages/towns would be a better option.  We visited Ashbourne and Tideswell recently and they were lovely.
We're in Surrey at the moment, so not right in the big smoke - but in easy reach.  

It doesn't really add a step to rent when you move location, it simplifies it.

I'm in my fifties. Grew up in the midlands, moved to Surrey in my twenties, stayed 'south' til my thirties, moved to home counties and now just this last couple of years have moved slightly south of north 😂. Always rented first. 

If you've never lived rurally with all due respect you won't know what to expect (not that it's any worse or better but it is different from urban / urban ish).

I want countryside on my doorstep but I don't want to get stuck with ice on the roads. I love the sound of wildlife but struggle with cockerels at 5 in the morning. 

I can't imagine all those trips backwards and forwards to get a feel for something. Crack on, get to where you think you might like, then rent for a year. It's a step forward.

I also have to add that my neighbours where I rented filled me in on absolutely everything. They're really good friends of ours now.

Spreadsheetman

One more bit of advice - spend some time in winter in the area you plan to buy. Some places in my area are up to 50% holiday and 2nd homes and are completely desolate in winter. They seem fine if you visit when the weather is nice.

I'm currently buying in a village with a year-round community, a shop, pub and school all within 5 minutes walk. We thought we wanted something more rural, but having spent a year in the area living a couple of miles away from facilities we changed our minds. It's fine in summer as its a quick cycle to the shops or pub, but in winter not so great. Especially since we are surrounded by farms and the sugar beet harvest makes the roads like the Somme from November to March.