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Original poster

What’s it like to live in Kent?

185 replies

almostautumn · 30/08/2021 11:42

Sorry, big generalization I know, but…

DH and I are planning to leave London to reduce our large mortgage. We’ve agreed on Kent as a compromise, as he wants to be within 1-1.5 hours of London and I want to live rurally and nearer the coast.

What worries me though is that Kent maybe isn’t rural enough and is overcrowded compared to somewhere like Wales or Yorkshire for example.

I want to live somewhere very peaceful and quiet with beautiful countryside, where I’m not surrounded by hoards of people everywhere I go. A place where I can go for walks and not see another soul (well, maybe a few other people would be okay!) A place where I can drive to places and park and the roads aren’t jam packed.

A small rural town would be fine, as long as it’s quiet and not too busy. DH is on board with all this as long as like I say, he can get to London fairly easily.

Does Kent sound like it would suit us or is it not that rural?

OP posts:
Original poster
almostautumn · 30/08/2021 12:22

The other thing is, I don’t want to live in an area that is earmarked for lots of new building. I’d hate to move to a quiet rural town only for 500 houses to be thrown up without the infrastructure to support it. Is this something that’s likely to happen in Kent?

OP posts:
Original poster
almostautumn · 30/08/2021 12:20

Thanks for the replies - lots of food for thought!

OP posts:
snowballer · 30/08/2021 11:53

Kent is a very big county and there is a vast difference between eg the villages in the High Weald and the Isle of Sheppey! There are some beautiful villages (eg Sissinghurst, Benenden, Cranbrook, Goudhurst etc) and lots of it is very rural, but it is still 60-90 mins from London and a commuter county so there is a limit to how off the beaten track you can get.

Another thing to consider if you have children is that it's a fully selective grammar county, so no comprehensives to speak of as 20-25% of children are creamed off to the grammars at 11+

Floralnomad · 30/08/2021 11:51

The beauty of living in Kent is that you have lovely countryside and the coast whilst still being close enough to London for concerts / theatre and , in normal times, easy access to mainland Europe .

CanIGoHomeNowPlease · 30/08/2021 11:49

Kent is a really large county there are built up places and external rural places.

The ‘nicer’ costal places are going to be built up and busier… come in land a bit and it’s less busy. You also want good links to London so you’ll need to compromise somewhere.

Personally l wouldn’t live in East Kent. But it seems to be up and coming.

RosesAndHellebores · 30/08/2021 11:48

Parts of it are nice and still rural. You will be a drive from a good mainline though. Chartham, Chilham, Wingham, Street, Smarden, etc.

Bathsandnaps · 30/08/2021 11:47

You'd need a village in Kent rather than a town. Plenty of those in Kent, some very very nice ones too, especially around the downs which would meet your criteria. I'd recommend staying in an Airbnb and having a good tour.

Traffic is crap once you get to the towns, so simply steer clear

Sparklesocks · 30/08/2021 11:46

Like anywhere, there are nice bits of Kent and less nice bits. There are some quite rural bits and some quite urban/suburban. It really depends on the areas you’re focusing on?

But normally the pay off for being further out/more rural is a longer train journey and higher fares.

LEMtheoriginal · 30/08/2021 11:46

I live on the Kent coast, we fantasuse about moving north because of the amount of development without more infrastructure.

Saying that, i do like were i live and its rural compared to London. There are villages but nothing ever really feels remote.

TwoAndAnOnion · 30/08/2021 11:44

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