LIVING IN NORFOLK

I love Norfolk, but I was born here and apart from a few years in Bristol have always lived here.

It’s true that outsiders (especially Londoners) are viewed poorly. My dad is from South London, has lived in Norfolk for over 35 years and still gets called an outsider 😂

I’d avoid the coast tbh. It’s very expensive and a pain in the arse to get anywhere. If you don’t drive you’ll feel very cut off from anywhere. Public transport is a nightmare in rural areas. I’m talking one bus a week and no return.

I’m in Norwich centre now and adore it after living in North Norfolk for a long time. But it’s definitely not for everyone, and you do have to have a certain mindset to love living in Norfolk I find. Either grow up here or have spent plenty of time here before moving.

"transport links are important" : why? Where do you need to go other than hospital?

Anyway, try Gorleston.

That budget would get you v, v little in the parts of Norfolk it sounds like you would be wanting. Our village is throwing up new builds and/or barn conversions all over the place, not one priced less than 600k. The mid terrace just down the road (nothing special) just went for 515k. Marketing is v much aimed at proximity to North Norfolk coast.

And as other posters have said, not driving is a big problem unless you go for towns eg Hunstanton, King's Lynn or else Norwich.

I would really recommend thinking hard and thinking twice.

Just seen your update - if you don’t drive I’d have thought the only appropriate places would be Norwich or King’s Lynn. It is a very rural county and bus services outside the bigger towns will be poor.

Sorry OP but you sound rather naiive about this. You must go and look round in advance of any move.

Norfolk is great for a holiday but I couldn't live there. OP, it depends on your lifestyle at the moment - if you're dependent on public transport and need hospitals, cinemas, shoe shops, take-aways, etc, then I'd think very carefully. There are some very pretty villages but apart from a corner shop are very short of facilities and amenities - we like Norwich but of course it's not on the coast. We've had some very relaxing beach holidays in Norfolk and love the feeling of isolation and relaxation but not to live there.

Definitely go and visit first - Norfolk can be a long drive/train to other parts of the country- have you got family/work elsewhere in the U.K.?

Rent an AirBnB in a couple of different suggested towns, check out reports of local schools/hospitals/GPs surgeries etc before you decide, and remember - coastal living can be bleak in winter. A lot of the towns by the sea have second homes, so be aware of living in a half deserted village in winter.

The countryside in Norfolk is also pretty flat; fine if that doesn’t bother you, but something to be aware of.

North Walsham is an OK small town. Has a train into Norwich but it is then a schlepp from the station to the N&N for hospital.

There is a bus from N Walsham to nearest coast once an hour/ every two hours, service finishes mid afternoon. There are nice beaches within 4 / 5 miles of N Walsham, but it isn’t really in picturesque countryside, IMO. Fields, light industrial estates. Bacton gas plant.

Is there any reason you can't just go for a visit and see whether or not you like it?

Norfolk is beautiful .... I envy you OP 🎉

North Norfolk is lovely. North Walsham is apparently a very nice place to live. There are many beautiful coastal areas with good shopping nearby.

WHERE in Norfolk did your friends visit and love?

If you want coast and hospital, your only option is the area around Yarmouth, as advised by PP. which bears no resemblance to the N Norfolk coast, for example.

I live in a very rural part of Norfolk, where the nearest town just to go to a supermarket is 11 miles away. Norwich and the hospital (N&N) are an hour away and if you can't drive it will take at least two buses and longer than an hour to get there. Unless you walk about a mile on narrow country lanes with no pavement to the main road there is no bus stop in the village that will take you to Norwich. There is also no bus that will take you to the nearest town. If you want to visit the coast you might struggle to do that without a car at least part of the way.

If you are heavily reliant on public transport, I would say that most of rural Norfolk is honestly not the place to move to.

Living somewhere rural in Norfolk and not being able to drive would make life very difficult, if you want to actually enjoy what the rural life has to offer. As previous posters have said, the bus service is very limited. Would you be able to learn to drive, or would your medical issues prevent you?

You're probably looking at somewhere like Gorleston: (above budget but on foot a while) www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/88128022

(Within budget) www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/112002413

Or just into Suffolk at Gunton: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/108919376

I would move to the East Coast, the public transport tends to be better. I wouldn't move to Great Yarmouth town but nearby areas such as Gorleston (a large hospital, cinema and lovely beach here), Hopton, Bradwell and Belton all have reasonably good bus systems. Slightly further North you have Caister and further South you have Lowestoft. Lowestoft is similar to Great Yarmouth in that the very centre of town is run down but the outskirts are fine. It takes about 45 mins to drive to Norwich and the train to London is about 2.5 hrs from Gt Yarmouth to London and £300k will get a good size house in any of the areas I mentioned. Gorleston £270, 000, Caister £300, 000, Lowestoft £270,000

And if you come from London, visit first as you will have no idea how badly some parts of the country are served by public transport. I still can't get over the fact where I live there are no buses on a Sunday at all! Public transport to a lot of places might be one bus an hour. That's a hard adjustment after London.

**forget

Forgot Norfolk if you can't drive, seriously.

The GCSE scores reflect the cohort, I work in a "Good" Norfolk school, we are based in a very disadvantaged area, many students are young carers, many student have families where MH issues for themselves or their parents are a constant challenge, we have lots of children that take home stale bagels from breakfast club to feed their siblings and many local primary schools have set up their own food banks. We aren't an area where lots of parents are high achieving or been to university themselves, although you often find most of the children in our top sets that achieve 9-7 have parents that work off shore or at the nearby hospital. We have a low 9-5 GCSE grade but we have a very good Value Added score. Large numbers of students come to us with significant learning difficulties, it is not unusual to have around 50/180 cohort arrive with a reading age under 9 years often many students have a reading age lower than 7 and we work incredibly hard to help our students achieve the grades 1-3 that they get. Those students probably work harder than those who achieve 9-7 and we have those too.

Saying the above, I live near my school, crime is low, I have a beautiful beach within walking distance, we have a sixth form nearby that is popular and many students do go off to University. If I want to go into the big tourist town then there is plenty for my Dd and her friends to do and lots of seasonal work which is brilliant for students where they can focus on study during term time and earn lots of money during the holidays and are often asked back year after year. There are several big employers in the area, schools, hospital, engineering and offshore. You might need to travel if you work in a different sector but travel into Norwich is relatively easy and much easier than a London commute. In my town public transport is good although I know that is not true of many areas.

Fakenham has 24% A-C passes at GCSE against a national average of 43%. Cromer has 34%.
Cliff Park GY Academy 27%,
These are all Ofsted ‘good’ schools, so presumably reflect the cohort.

At one stage it was the LA’s whole Children’s Services that was in special measures, rather than the schools per se. Now it is just one part of that service, I believe.

You are right: it is a big county. But the naice areas of second homes? So what if they all go back home at the end of the summer hols, leaving shops and seasonal activities closed and their kids don’t go to school there.

And yes, all this really does affect other rural coastal areas that are fairly remote. There are regularly threads cautioning about lack of infrastructure and summer crowding in Cornwall.

My family came from a small village in Norfolk, one Front Street one Back Street! There was a privately owned bus service once or twice a week , and think that generally the public transport is sparse.
I come from Kent and found Norfolk terribly flat! I could listen to a proper Norfolk accent all day though

Why do these posts always seem to be about Norfolk??? There was one a while ago where somebody said that 'all schools in Norfolk are in special measures'! Ridiculous! Norfolk is a large and fairly diverse county. There are areas of significant deprivation such as in Great Yarmouth, but that is also true of Cornwall for example. I imagine that the villages are not particularly culturally diverse, but that is likely the case in most rural areas? There is actually large immigrant populations in several areas of Norfolk and many languages are spoken. I would say that Norfolk is fairly balanced in general, with small rural communities, places like Wells and Southwold that are very naice and full of second homers, areas of deprivation and run down seaside towns and a fairly large city that has a very well regarded University and an Art College and lots of shopping, trendy bars and hipster tattoo parlours a plenty.... So, something for everyone 🤣

I am really shocked by some of the comments about schools. There are good schools and bad schools like anywhere else! My dd now aged 18 went to our local state school in South Norfolk and has got AAB at A level - like most of her friends - and is off to university next month. She’s grown up with everyone from the infant school when she joined aged 4 and we know everyone really well and I can’t think of one person that isn’t either off to university or is starting an apprenticeship.

People are really quick to have a moan.