Suggestions please...

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

DH and I both grew up rurally or semi-rurally, and have lived since DC were v young in a very small town (5/6k pop, but the countryside is fairly populated and there are a couple of large towns of 90k+ people in range). The town where we live is growing apace and we have definitely reached the critical mass of Too Many People, anti-social buggers that we are.

We're looking to move in the next couple of years, once the last DC has gone to uni. We can both work anywhere - DH from home provided the internet is up to it, I could do with a part-time job.

The ideal scenario is a clapped-out house with land, a mile or so outside a village with at least some of shop, pub, garage, GP, school and functioning church (we don't expect all of those, but shop and pub would be good). We'd be very happy to get involved with village life (keeping our gobs shut for the first few years, obviously...). We know ourselves well enough to know that we don't want to be in the middle of nowhere, with a two mile drive to the road and a five mile drive from there to the shop.

Norfolk is out (too close to relations...). The entire SE is out (too expensive). We've thought about N Yorks, Northumberland, Devon, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Scottish Borders... Just about anywhere where it doesn't piss with rain all the time and the winter days aren't impractically short will do us.

Does anyone have any suggestions, for either villages or general areas?

[macshoto]

Shropshire and North Herefordshire are good locations. We're in a very rural part of Shropshire (on a B road, but 2 and 3.5 miles to the nearest pubs, 2 miles to the school and 2-2.5 miles to the nearest churches). That said most of the area isn't as rural as this.

We do get plenty of rain compared to the South-East, but the sense of community is much stronger and we certainly appreciate the upsides of living here.

Things do tend to happen in their own time. It is to a degree a land that time forgot...

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

Thank you for that, macshoto. We've been to Herefordshire and it is lovely - beautiful villages, good pubs. I did wonder about the sense of community and how welcoming it is - I've lived in some pretty insular places in my time and though I like my own space, I'm definitely community-minded.

[macshoto]

We're in a village of just over 200 people - mostly spread across isolated farms. Pre-Covid it wasn't unusual to get 80-100 people to village quizzes and the harvest supper. Fewer attend things like the parish coffee mornings, but there's still 10-15% of the village at those sort of events.

People can and do keep themselves to themselves, but there's a welcoming community if you want to get involved.

Further afield (6 miles down the road) the nearest small town (population

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

Brilliant, thanks again.

Helpful info about broadband too.

[SJaneS49]

My family live in Shropshire & Herefordshire (parents in Ludlow and my sister just outside Leominster) - both offer something very different. Property is more expensive than it was 10 years ago, especially in Ludlow where you’d get little for a song. I don’t think Ludlow is what you’re after but it’s good town to be in striking distance of if you like good food and eating out. People in both Counties are pretty welcoming - rurally they can be a bit parochial, people who’ve not really travelled much or lived anywhere else. In terms of entertainment, there isn’t a great deal on offer, a cinema trip might involve a bit of a journey. There are some very good schools both at Primary and Secondary level but beyond 18 there isn’t much employment wise to hold young people - 3 of my sisters 4 left Herefordshire for University and have not returned and don’t plan to. I love visiting my family and I’d really happily live there - it’s just too ‘other’ for my South London raised DH and I think for others who’ve grown up in cosmopolitan big cities it would be too.

Have you considered East Sussex at all? We moved there from London (though we’re now in Kent). It does have far more of a genuine rural feel than West Sussex, house prices are a lot more reasonable but you can still get up to London by train in just over an hour if you want a big city day/evening.