Moving from south to north

whofan101

We are looking at the possibility of moving from southern England to somewhere up north possibly Durham, I am a school caretaker but do not know where too start ie house prices, school for my 3 children ect any advice would be very appreciated 

ManuelG

Set a Rightmove search for areas you're interested in and the type of house, have them email you when new houses come on the market and get a feel for prices that way.

Albermarle

to somewhere up north possibly Durham,

It is bit vague, you probably want to get more certain about which part of the North you want to move first.

Do you want to live in a City, market town, big/small village, in the middle of nowhere, near the sea/hills etc etc

Big house in a more downmarket area or somewhere more posh with higher house prices( they do exist even up North ) ?. In fact Durham City is quite upmarket.

RAS

Getting the job to is going to be the prime issue, although you might find similar work in other industries.

Do you have family or friends up here? Any contacts with other people who work for any of the academy groups in the North? 

Are you looking for city, large town, smaller town? 

One thing I'd certainly suggest is avoiding any area with a history of flooding, but that's on my personal criteria for housing anyway. That wipes out a lot of the south and east areas of Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire.

bouicca21

A friend moved to Durham. Found a lovely cheap little house in an ex mining village.  He had no idea just how deprived and awful that kind of village can be.  Durham itself is upmarket, some of the ares around it, not so much.

Grumpelstiltskin

Have you any experience of Northern England?

Surely a week travelling round areas you think you might like will at least give you some ideas.

I don't know what you think the north is like but like the south there are good and bad areas.

I think your job will be the biggest problem, you can always Google school caretaker ( or whatever they are called these days ) Durham / Northumberland and see if anything comes up.

pinkshoes

I'd recommend going to stay for a week and taking a look at the different areas/villages. Some are VERY run down! I lived in Durham City for 5 years as a student and working for one year. Some areas are VERY student populated!

A friend of mine is from Chester Le Street and moved back to that area from the South as she liked it so much. 

Barnard Castle is nice if you go a bit further out. 

It depends how old your kids are. I'd start by looking at secondary schools as this will probably be a bigger sway in your location.

Houghton Le Spring was also nice, and a uni friend settled there, so it still seems to be nice!

Yorkie1

pinkshoes said:

Barnard Castle is nice if you go a bit further out. 

Only if you need your eyes testing 

(Sorry, someone had to say it  ) (I'll get my coat ... !!!)

youth_leader

I moved north with my husband when he was promoted in 1999.   When he died in 2016 I'd have loved to have gone home to Twickenham, but the house price increases in the south far outstrip the north. 

If you do move here, anticipate not being able to go back.

pinkshoes

Yorkie1 said:

pinkshoes said:

Barnard Castle is nice if you go a bit further out. 

Only if you need your eyes testing 

(Sorry, someone had to say it  ) (I'll get my coat ... !!!)

Sorry... I don't get it! (Autistic)

YoungBlueEyes

@pinkshoes From memory - a few  years ago (during lockdowns etc) Dominic Cummings (a govt. advisor) was caught out breaking lockdown rules by taking his family on a jolly on a car trip to Barnard Castle from London. His excuse reason was that, as he had covid he needed to make sure his eye sight was alright, and decided the only way to do this was to load the family up and drive to BC, where it just so happened his family home was.