Places to live

[H-Bomb]

I've lived in villages in Northants, Nottingham, Med Island, Northampton, London, back to village in Northants.

My favourite was London but sadly can not afford to live there. I am currently pondering where my next place will be.

 

[mjr]

Lincolnshire has a great sky, some time ago the local paper wrote the 15 things to do in Lincolnshire, it only managed 9 before it run out of idea's and three of those was visit Macdonalds.

Don't most local papers pretty much hate their areas because the reporters working on them were filled with dreams of writing for the nationals and living in London when they were young, but they got a starter job on a local paper and then got stuck there forever until they became bitter and twisted?

[QUOTE 4500125, member: 76"]My mother and brother live in Brandon near Thetford, blimey how dull is East Anglia?[/QUOTE]
Brandon's not the best of it. Lots of evergreen forest which is nice but doesn't change much during the year. Convoluted cycle routes to get anywhere unless you like too-busy badly-driven A/B roads or MTB tracks and sand roads. A slow train service with changes at Ely, Norwich or Peterborough before you get to faster services.

Most of East Anglia is a very growing area that changes colour through the year, from snowdrop, bluebell and aconite drifts early, through fields of daffodils and tulips in spring, then I think the magnolia trees and yellow crop fields, then cherry blossom, into roses in high summer with a side smattering of sunflowers, then the main harvest of golden wheat and now local orchards are holding their Apple Day events while the fields are turning lush green with winter veg. Then you get the human madnesses like river festivals, free music festivals, colour dashes, fireworks (which they seem to go in for in a BIG way... firebugs), santa dashes, new years swims... it's a fascinating place.

Currently in West Norfolk - which is good triking country but I can't cycle in an Easterly direction from here or my trike will go rusty. (As there is only the Wash to the East)

Got your compass backwards?

And there's a load of flakiness in Glastonbury.

I was following a car there once with a sticker saying "Stay Back - I Brake For Pixies, Fairies and other things that only I can see". Pretty much typical, I think!

[QUOTE 4500304, member: 76"]The area around Wells/Cheddar Valley is perfect. Mainline train stations at Castle Cary (25 minutes) or Yatton (25 minutes) both get you direct to London or the far South West, Yatton will also get you to Wales and the West Coast and Scotland.[/QUOTE]
Cheddar to Yatton is about 11 miles and you either have to climb over the Mendips or use the Shute Shelve tunnel which is a stonedust surface. Can you really cycle that at 26mph average?

 

[pplpilot]

i'd happily see my time out photographing the Northumberland coast.

 

[GM]

Born and bred in the East end, moved to a leafy North London suburb in my early twenties. Been here for over 40 years, we're thinking of down sizing next year not sure where to though. Mrs GM would like to move back to N Ireland, it may happen, we shall see.

 

[swee'pea99]

Got the London kick again last night - went out to an exhibition just off Brick Lane, and wandered afterwards, a three minute walk, to the best parade of Vietnamese restaurants in the country, in one of which we had an absolutely wonderful meal for under £30, with tip.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Not enough roads for the traffic would be my observation, and not close enough to the SE for a really pronto return - no sensible train service, and the drive requires a long dog-leg round or through Bristol, or a more direct but very busy diversion through Bath. And there's a load of flakiness in Glastonbury.

The longer I live where I do, tucked out in the Chilterns but within easy reach of London, the more I appreciate it. It's got most of the benefits of Kent, Surrey and Sussex in terms of countryside and decent transport links but without the downside of overcrowding and overdevelopment.

Never gone anywhere near Brizzle or Barth to get to Wells.... A272 to Winchester and then go west young man.

 

[keithmac]

As much as I like to moan about it York isn't a a bad place at all to live.

Maybe down to Devon or up to Northumberland when I retire but happy where I am for the time being!.

 

[srw]

[QUOTE 4500304, member: 76"]
Why would anyone drive to the South East via Bristol from Wells? You go to Frome, join the A303, then the M3 at Basingstoke and London and the M25. Or Frome, Salisbury and the South Coast via the A27.[/QUOTE]

Never gone anywhere near Brizzle or Barth to get to Wells.... A272 to Winchester and then go west young man.

That depends on which bit of the South-East you're coming from. From this part of the South-East, the A272 to Winchester and the M3 to Basingstoke are exotic far-away roads. It's the A404 and the M4 all the time.

From either 'sham, it's a good two-and-a-half-hours. Which from here is enough to get to the Norfolk Broads or the Brecon Beacons or the Shropshire Hills or (very nearly) the Peak District.

 

[Saluki]

[QUOTE 4500125, member: 76"]Yaaaaay, come to the Mendips! Where is Radlett, I have lived here for nearly 20 years, cycled probably every road in a 50 mile radius and have never come across Radlett! How have I missed a whole village?

I live in Cheddar, I love it. I grew up in Buckingham, then moved around for years living all over (but never North of Northampton). My mother and brother live in Brandon near Thetford, blimey how dull is East Anglia?[/QUOTE]
Midsomer Norton is the town we were looking at. I am sure it said Radlett but probably wrong.

 

[Cubist]

Hmmmm, I was born in Warwickshire, went to school in Oxford for ten years, and to be fair that's all the city I would ever need. I studied in Sheffield and married a Yorkshire lass, so work brought me to West Yorkshire. Although the landscape I live in is stunning, ( the sort of moorland scenery that meant "holidays" to my childhood) there is no soul to the communities. We both have a hankering to move to North Yorks. I have already started the process for when Mrs Cube retires in a couple of years time, and am currently in the process of temporary accommodation in N Yorks. I'm starting a business with an ex colleague who now lives near Ripon, and I'm looking at a move to somewhere north of there up as far as Richmond. House prices mean we won't have to downsize.

I have no family ties as such, my generation are spread between Cotswolds, Cornwall, Warwickshire and here, and certainly feel no roots in West Yorks. My new work and my pastimes need open spaces and the kinder, rolling countryside of N Yorks as opposed to the bleak, cold south Pennines.

 

[screenman]

To quote mjr "Don't most local papers pretty much hate their areas because the reporters working on them were filled with dreams of writing for the nationals and living in London when they were young, but they got a starter job on a local paper and then got stuck there forever until they became bitter and twisted?"

If I remember correctly the paper asked the locals to write in as well.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

That depends on which bit of the South-East you're coming from. From this part of the South-East, the A272 to Winchester and the M3 to Basingstoke are exotic far-away roads. It's the A404 and the M4 all the time.

From either 'sham, it's a good two-and-a-half-hours. Which from here is enough to get to the Norfolk Broads or the Brecon Beacons or the Shropshire Hills or (very nearly) the Peak District.

Not on a Friday, from this 'sham any way.

And I've always contended that the SE England has to be south or east of Charing Cross

You live in the Home Counties, not the SE.

 

[srw]

Not on a Friday, from this 'sham any way.

And I've always contended that the SE England has to be south or east of Charing Cross

You live in the Home Counties, not the SE.

[QUOTE 4501361, member: 76"]I agree, the South East is south of the Thames and to the east of the A3![/QUOTE]

The government would disagree with you... And from my perspective, any definition which excludes Guildford from the South-East is flawed.

I admit I may be slightly jaundiced about Wells and Somerset - my father lives there, and until my mother-in-law moved to be close to us the journey to her in southern Shropshire was far preferable, in all sorts of ways, to the journey to Wells.

 

[MarkF]

I live in the Aire Valley, north of Bradford and I love it, I can cycle to Skipton and further without any hills, 25 miles+, or I can go left or right and have absolute leg burners......for miles. I live right on the canal, near the river and have large woods with deer, I can cycle to Leeds in an hour on the newly surfaced towpath and have 2 rail stations within 10 mins cycling. The airport is 5 mins drive away and it's one I use regularly for short trips away with Jet2/Ryanair/Vueling.

The quality of life from Skipton to Leeds is hard to beat for smiles per £'s IMO, and with my income I think it's the best I can do and I am very happy with it.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

The government would disagree with you... And from my perspective, any definition which excludes Guildford from the South-East is flawed.

I admit I may be slightly jaundiced about Wells and Somerset - my father lives there, and until my mother-in-law moved to be close to us the journey to her in southern Shropshire was far preferable, in all sorts of ways, to the journey to Wells.

The BBC disagree too. But they are all wrong.