[Closed] returning to the UK - where would you live ?

Where are you coming from?

Scotland if they get independence.

Swindon. I hear the trails are gnarly.

Scottish Borders?

Under the promote where you live theory 😉

Depends what you are interested in - Lakes or Peak are lovely.

I love the coast so Hampshire or Devon for me. I do miss living in Surrey Hills for the riding and walking

Huddersfield!!!
Easy access to Peak District. Motorways E/W and N/S, on the train line to Manchester and Leeds. Great real ale pubs.

Take the BBC test, it'll tell you where you'll be happiest living: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3g487h

Mine came out as Stratford upon Avon weirdly

I just did that test, it reckons I should live in Ryedale (64% match). Currently live in Hackney, London (58%). Not sure what to make of that really! 🙂

I'm happy on the Manchester edge of the Peak District. Good riding, walking, climbing, running etc from the door. Friendly people. Decent local community and facilities on one side. And a 30-minute train ride into Manchester on the other if you want culture, shops, good restaurants etc.

On the downside, it rains a bit. And I spend most of my disposable income on brake pads over winter. But it works for me most of the time. Isn't ruinously expensive. Seems like a good balance all round and feels 'right' for me, but pretty obviously it all comes down to individual preferences.

I quite fancied N.Yorkshire but when Brexit makes the while U.K. go tits up I don't really know :(. Not sure I trust the SNP to make a good job of Scotland but that would be my preferred location

Well that BBC test got it right in that London would be hell for me but its suggestion of Hampshire as best was pretty crap. I hate the place.

Having had a similar choice a few years ago, we chose the Dales. Honestly, though they are beautiful and great for a big day out the lakes would be a struggle for me for everyday cycling/running/living, many parts v crowded in holiday season (or indeed any good weather). Here, I can go for a ride out the door in several different directions, easy or tough, including as hard as you like off-road expeditions, without having to carry up (and down!) the hills. And the roads are mostly empty.

.K. go tits up I don't really know :(. Not sure I trust the SNP to make a good job of Scotland but that would be my preferred location

Bradford on Avon has a couple of good tracks and trails around...

I've never left Sheffield (yet),so keep that in mind, but anybody I meet who comes to Sheffield seems to question why I might want to leave, it's among the top few friendliest cities in the UK (apparently), and it's pretty good for mtbing and general outdoors stuff.

Post Brexit, with my Scottish grandmother, I'm crossing my fingers Scotland vote in favour of independent and follow Ireland's lead re citizenship, so I can hang onto my EU passport, though. If Scotland becomes the socially aware and compassionate utopia which some Sottish people make noises about it becoming compared to England, that could be the better bet to live in. 🙂

Bath - if i had a fair bit of money.

Swindon. I hear the trails are gnarly.

Lol, totes need elbow pads and 140mm just to stay alive.

...

I live in Devon 30 mins from the moors and 45 mins from the nearest surfing beach....it's ****ing shit, nobody else move here.

Liverpool from experience is actually quite good, it's a hellhole to live in and the people are detestable but you are always approx 2hrs drive from The Peaks, The Lakes and North Wales. Which if you're a climber/rider has got to be about the best spot in the country!

With internet shopping, i increasingly love the idea of finding somewhere quite rural, that does not usually get chilly in winter and in summer the temps stay reasonably sane. Less motor traffic on the roads would be lovely.

Somewhere off the beaten track towards Cornwall?

North yorkshire is tough to beat, East coast mainline, Moors and dales, Dalby, Sutton bank, Hamsterley and Northumberland, York, Beaches, easy to get to lots of airports, sensible house prices, beer, civilisation really.

Thirsk/Coxwold area is very affordable. Outside of York it ain't busy.

Or Alnwick in Northumberland..

Took that BBC test

Suggests craven nr Skipton as my ideal spot... Seems quite accurate really

If you don't need to work, or you have a trade, Shropshire.

It's beautiful, it's quiet, but not too quiet, and as this thread demonstrates, no-one really knows about it.

How about down the west coast of Scotland?

Asking myself a similar question and thinking about Edinburgh as a mix of nature and culture.

Surely for most people it depends on occupation/commuting/etc? Unless of course you're retired/work-from-home/...

Italian Alps in winter Portuguese coast in summer - simples!

Herefordshire could be worth a ponder, it's similar to Shropshire in it's 'below the radar' status.

Took that BBC test

Suggests craven nr Skipton as my ideal spot... Seems quite accurate really

Same here. And I live here already. Happy days!

I live in North lakes, nowhere I'd rather be. However, if you like cities it's a long way to any of them. I don't like cities 🙂

Edinburgh!

I did actually have a fairly free choice when I ended up in Edinburgh. My criteria was north of Chesterfield ( everything south of there is too crowded and no hills) south of Perth ( north of there is too far away from family and friends) and preferably on the coast. Edinburgh fitted the bill well

for me I need to live in a city or decent sized town, living on a trainline is important being able to cycle into the countryside is important

North or west lakes, though really depends on what you do and how much cash you have to move.

I took the BBC test and got Market Rasen - whatever that is.

As far from London as possible.

And I did the BBC test. WTF is West Lindsey? Surely I'd get speared by the natives?

Fortunately where I am is also a close match. 🙂

I'm sure there are loads of decent places.... but many of the 'ideal' places tend to be perhaps more extreme in some ways that might be hard to quantify especially as you get older.

Given you're returning to the UK you might also be less up to date on mundane stuff like doctors waiting lists etc. (I returned nearly a decade ago)

I know I don't want to be in a big city... but equally retired Mum lives in a beautiful village and it's starting to get hard for her... driving at night or in snow etc. and she's starting to question having an upstairs even though she presently walks miles every day... (She's quite often at Guisburn Forest)

I ended up in a small town ... nothing spectacular or unspectacular...
I've got decent riding 30 mins in either direction etc. but its got doctors and services etc.

So rather than a specific ideal I'd say perhaps define the type of place and
work from there... the deeper into the Lakes you go the more isolated you are..and once you are "in" then you can spend as long just going from one place to the next

There are lots and lots of smaller towns with services within 30 minutes of great countryside...

As an Englishman who lived in Scotland and then moved back south you'd be a fool to not go back to NE Scotland. While there are some cracking bits of England, like the Lakes and the Peak (where I live now), it's just not as good as Scotland.

The riding isn't as good. Good, but not as good. I really struggled with my mojo when we moved down here because I just didn't want to ride trails that weren't as exciting as I could find in the Highlands.

The Lakes have almost twice as much rainfall as much of NE Scotland.

And, well, people aren't as nice. The generosity, kindness and friendliness of the majority of Scottish people takes some beating.

And if you're lucky you won't have to leave the EU, and you'll have a more forward thinking and compassionate government.

KELD

The test reckons I should live in the City of London.

I use to live in Buckinghamshire and commuted for years in/around London, I now live in the (very) rural Scottish Borders.

The test's flawed IMO 🙂

stevextc makes good if depressing points. My parents seemed to have it sussed, living in a nice place with decent facilities. Then my father got ill and can't drive, and it's a long way for us to travel to give my mum the help she needs. Realistically it's too late for them to move, so we're all stuck 🙁

Moved to Perth and Kinross a few years ago. It's great as you get the benefits of living in a rural location but not that far away from stuff. I'm 30-45 mins drive from Edinburgh and Glasgow. 10 minutes (8 miles) from a supermarket. Ochils are easy to access and trails from my doorstep. Nice drive though Glendevon and jump onto the A9 and head north.

Downside there are no train stations immediately nearby

[quote=DrJ"]stevextc makes good if depressing points. My parents seemed to have it sussed, living in a nice place with decent facilities. Then my father got ill and can't drive, and it's a long way for us to travel to give my mum the help she needs. Realistically it's too late for them to move, so we're all stuck

Yep, sorry it's depressing but less so if you can mitigate it before hand.

I'd take a glass half-full approach though and put my bets on somewhere that provides services you might really need but within easy drive/public transport of the stuff you really want.

A 20 minute drive is not much for pleasure but in the dark and potentially inclement weather to get a prescription when you're ill is a different matter.

I guess it's also about finding the balance of stuff you actually DO vs stuff you like to "reserve the right" to do but then rarely (and sometimes never) get round to it and how that changes as we get older.

I know places I definitely don't want to live (mainly big cities) and places I think would be ideal but would turn out less so if I actually lived there and there are IMHO literally hundreds of places that are a good compromise but that compromise will probably be more important the further into retirement I manage.

Well that BBC test got it right in that London would be hell for me but its suggestion of Hampshire as best was pretty crap. I hate the place.

Fighting talk. Though to be fair Hampshire does have a quite variable niceness curve, Gosport isn't really the same as the view out of my window right now.

Did the test and where I live already gives me 79%, almost as high as the best option of 84%.

Bit depressing really seeing as I am surrounded by a load of self entitled horse riding brexiters. Says more about me than I wanted to know....

We're selling up in NE England and moving back home to Aberdeen. Looking forward to being able to cycle out of the city within 20 minutes but not looking forward to the insane house prices. We'll be lucky to get £80K for our three bedroomed house here and lucky to buy a two bedroomed place in Aberdeen for less than double that amount.

I have very mixed feelings about it tbh - it wouldn't be my first choice! Can be pretty grim up there in Winter (but where we are now is pretty grim all year round in terms of lack of culture, architecture, work prospects etc). But the surrounding countryside is excellent and varied.

No choice now anyway as Mrs Removed has already moved up with Little Removed so we need this place gone ASAP - it's lonely by yersel'!

Somewhat simplistically where you move will depend on what you want to do when you live there. Years ago a friend listed all the places that he went climbing and worked out where was most convenient for them - Kendal as it happened.

I'm from The Lakes but as mentioned above it's now so busy that it's not pleasant much of the time - even twenty years ago you had to get to where you wanted before 9am and all the traffic got bad. I now live in the Skipton area: The Dales are on the doorstep; it's about 75mins to Staveley; The Peak is a couple of hours; N. Wales and the Seven Stanes are 3hrs. The area's pretty central really. Away from sport, despite living in a rural location (two other houses within a 400m radius), the local General Hospital is less than ten minutes away, there's decent takeaways in the local village. There's good train services to Leeds and Bradford.

You need to live somewhere you can find work in a particular field?

If not, I don't understand why you'd be thinking of switching from Scotland to England now.

Unless you're excited at the prospect of the riches that are bound to follow Brexit of course.

I took the BBC test and got Market Rasen - whatever that is.

Coming up with that answer must be the equivalent of looking at an inkblot test and seeing your mother being murdered by Eddie Wareing.

I live in South Wales and absolutely love it, but if I was to pick somewhere else, it would have to be, without a moment's hesitation, Northumberland.

Interesting to see the number of votes for somewhere around Skipton/Dales area. It's obviously not just my genius in seeing the potential here!

Interesting. Also having lived in Aberdeenshire most of my adult life, i loved it, other than a remoteness from major cities, sports events, etc.
I like the borders too.
Had lived in the lake District in my teens.....
Having a choice I'd a good thing.
I'll look at Skipton.,.

Test gave me somewhere in midlands i have never heard of or have any intention of visiting.

I d aim for Hove, good jobs, genteel atmosphere, nice cafes, beaches, public transport to airport.

Sadly its near London prices as everyone else wants the same thing.

Hmm, Market Rasen for me too. At least I know where it is. Don't fancy it though. Honorable mention for the Peak District which is more like it, though I too have been considering Skipton area.

I guess the thing to be careful with when looking into moving somewhere rural, is to try and get a feel for the locals. A friend moved to somewhere near Skipton, and has found that the locals tend to be people who have moved to their 'pile in the country' types, who are rather snobbish and materialistic (she lives in a cottage in the area), with the other people being farmers who are into hunting. Being a hippy animal loving type, she's not got loads in common with the people she generally comes into contact with in her day to day life.

It's sometimes harder to find people who are on the same wavelength when moving to somewhere rural, compared to a town or city etc.

I reckon if she'd moved to Skipton itself, her experience could have been different.

Sheffield. nice big city. close to the peak district. close to M1. has trail centres. Makes cotic bikes 😀 friendly people (on the whole) lots of green space and hills within the city. Has 2 failing football teams! well they're not premiership.

Makes cotic bikes

What really, as in [u]makes[/u] them?
"Engineered in Great Britain"

BBC test rubbish. Says best and worst places for me are both Lincolnshire. Am in reality happiest in the semi-wilds of the West Country

Ok, Cotic bikes are available to purchase in the city without travelling very far.

I always thought I'd go to Sheffield for reasons mentioned above. Test says Skipton, which is not a bad prediction since my first smalltown choice would be Kendal or thereabouts. Arbitrary though, there's very little, if anything, tempting me back to the UK.

Skipton itself might not be ideal for a cyclist, routes into the dales are a little limited (both on and off road) though it's not exactly poor... Of course we all have different priorities for facilities/schools/transport/jobs, there's probably not much point trying to pick the one "best" place.

Personally I've found the locals to be very open, friendly and interesting, which was a bit of a surprise as I'm hardly the most social type myself.

Another shout for Sheffield - just moved there myself. retirement age looms in a few years and not much of a pension to look forward to.

I can ride to Wharncliffe, Greno, Parkwood Springs and out into The Peak in minutes. Part time work seems easily available. Beer's cheap, only downside is the amount of litter lying about everywhere.

Love it!