LIVING IN NORFOLK

Norfolk is a large county. I like it here, but there are downsides. Puic transport is bad. Terrible. I have to get in the car to go anywhere. If I run out of milk in the evening it's it's 12 Mile round trip to get some. Same with petrol actually.

That said, I love being close to the coast 20/25 minutes (or much much longer if you go at the wrong time!)

Heacham is nice big village with a small tesco, and Lidl. Gp surgery, and bus routes.

Once you go past Hunstanton, around the coast, places like Thornham and Brancaster are very expensive. Lots of second homes too. Burnham market has the nickname Chelsea on Sea.

It really isn't very diverse. Plentiful people from Eastern Europe I the King's Lynn area. Its incredibly rare to see a person of colour.

The pass rate for 5 GCSEs at C and above for my year group at W Norfolk school was 19%.

19%!

Honestly, I ran away as soon as I was old enough.

I grew up in Norfolk, all my family live there, I go often.

Make extended visits and stays before you make a decision. Stay in February (not half term) and August.

I love it for its beauty, skies and beaches.

The coastal areas are generally remote from infrastructure, towns etc.

Things to consider: public transport is sparse. Access to a hospital from the N Norfolk coast , for example, is an hour. And much more difficult by public transport. GP surgeries can be a long way away, dentists further.

Cinemas: Few and far between. Teens will need a lift. Theatre: Norwich or Kings Lynn.

Shops: many villages no longer have a shop, supermarkets are only in the bigger towns.

Phone / 4g signal still terrible in big swathes of the N Norfolk coast.

General insularity: coastal and rural deprivation is real. Poverty due to many seasonal workers, loss of employment opportunities etc exists. Lack of access to cultural opportunities and multi cultural life, much conservative thinking. My sister is a teacher in a North Norfolk secondary and is very aware of the restricted horizons of the kids. And yes racism. She sees and hears it all the time. I have mixed race kids and when we have been up there in ‘non tourist’ situations have seen it. Not necessarily full on EDL stuff, but sheer ignorance borne of insularity and lack of experience. But not liveable with, for my family.

Swaffham is not a place to live if you want to be near the sea.

Visiting, spending every summer there in hol, is a very different experience to living in a sparsely populated area with a bitter Easterly wind from October to March.

I like Norfolk for a holiday but I’m not sure I’d want to live there, what’s made you think it’s the place for you if you’ve never even been? Are you just a huge Alan Partridge fan?

Gt. Yarmouth is awful in my opinion, the nice areas are blakeney, holt, Sheringham etc. If you need any further information you can message me, I live in Norwich so know Norwich and Norfolk very well.

I've lived in Norwich, the countryside near Swaffham and just south of the border in Halesworth. It's a lovely part of the world, and my parents chose it to end their days.

Pros: views, food, attitude, Norwich.

Cons: sparse and remote hospitals, racism, usual tourist traffic, mental house prices in Wells, King's Lynn.

Book yourself a week out of season and have a poke around.

YABU to post in AIBU and not even try to shoehorn in an “AIBU to ask about living in Norfolk”, or the obligatory “posting for traffic”.

Norfolk is just a wonderful place to live, we have recently moved from Sussex to Norwich. Love it, people are fab, it’s so laid back, no one seems to be in a rush or stress, traffic is much easier, you don’t get the beeping that always happened on the Sussex Coast.

Norfolk coast covers a huge area, with very different property prices, OP. Where does your friend live? Are you looking to move near them? I live in Norwich as we wanted the convenience of the city, but the coast is a short drive away.

Come and view some areas, do your research first and narrow it down.

Good luck.

You need to visit.

There’s a huge difference between Yarmouth, Cromer and Southwold (although that’s actually Suffolk but visited by many in Norfolk as on the edge) for example.

We moved from London to South Norfolk 15 years ago and love it. It is quiet and low crime and peaceful but won’t suit everyone.

Where's the OP gone? I was a bit suspicious when s/he said they'd never visited.

I love Norfolk but it's too remote and the winters would get me down.

@reddevilchris2018

Norfolk, UK or Norfolk, Virginia?

So is my old high school!

It does sound mad to move somewhere you've never visited... but we bought our house in a Suffolk village after one viewing and I hadn't been to Suffolk since I was a child, and that was nowhere near this area. It just felt right! We did have a spreadsheet of criteria for where we wanted to live though, which helped

We lived in Norfolk for two years in a gorgeous village just outside of Swaffam.

Yes to the racism, winter is like any other tourist county such as Devon ( where I'm from ) and yes lots of touristy places shut down so to speak, it takes ages to get anywhere by car ( train into London isn't too bad ) and it can be quite expensive property wise though again, it depends on where you buy.

I live in Somerset now, not that different really and I have fond memories of Norfolk. It's a rural county, we have horses Ect so it was lovely for us but culturally it's not very diverse. We are lucky to have Bristol nearby and there was no equivalent city in Norfolk.

Kings Lynn hospital isn't great, Bath is our nearest now and is much better. Go and rent for a while before you decide, it may not be for you.

The schools aren’t all terrible. My 3 grew up near Norwich and went to school here. All 3 have As and A*s at A’Level and have been or are at university. So for the more able, the provision was good.

www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/every-norfolk-school-ofsted-rates-inadequate-or-requires-improvement-1510384

Maybe not all of them but dear Lord!

Norwich is great but schools still terrible.

This is just not true

This makes for interesting reading as someone who lives in Norfolk.

What @ChickpeaCrunch said.
It's a good idea to get a view of it in all seasons. It's easy to be carried away by what it's like in summer. Winter is a whole other story.
I lived in the Fens for many years. It's very easy to get a romanticised view of them.
As much as I loved living there, I learnt to be realistic about them.
The winter on the coast can be brutal - heavy rain from the inshore 'breezes', plus the battering your cars and house get from salt water spray. This can add to maintenance costs.
Many places can shut down if they're there for tourists.
You need to look onto this very deeply, OP.
I live on Norfolk, but I'm under no illusions about what it can be like in Winter.

Definitely visit…seems very marmite.

I’d personally avoid Great Yarmouth, but honestly it depends on the type of place you’ve moved from. I know people who have moved there and Lowestoft (Suffolk but it’s not far) and they think it’s amazing compared to where they moved from, whereas lots of people can’t think of anywhere worse.

Maybe be open to Suffolk as well for the more options. If you haven’t visited anyway, you could give yourself more options looking all along the coast of the East. Depending on budget, Southwold and that area is lovely.

In my experience (30 years), a nice place to settle in when a bit older but limited opportunities for younger generations. I’d disagree that it’s not a good place to raise children in general (the racism mentioned not included in that- that’s awful to hear) but it’s fairly quiet, pretty safe compared to other areas, nice schools (amongst not great like most places in the country), lovely open spaces, beaches. The Broads are lovely.

On top of all of that, you’re within a few hours of London and Cambridge.

Seaside areas are full of tourists in the summer and near impossible narrow icy roads in the winter, but we love it. Outside of school holidays it is always lovely and accessible.

Maybe visit it a few times first