Anyone fancy telling me stories of leaving London/ a big city for a rural location?

[OhForkItThen]

I lived in a village when I was very young, as did DH, but moved as a child. It’s probably a pipe dream/ rose tinted glasses but I always dream a bit of moving away from London.

Realistically we’re wrapped up in work here that’s easy to find and family links so it’s probably just a dream and not reality. London may cost more but our earnings are far higher here and easier to progress in what we do.

If you’ve done it, how was it?

Watching with interest...

Not an enormously big city (Cambridge), but we moved right in the centre to a village in Yorkshire that has a school but no pub, shop, post office etc.

There was a thread on here a few weeks ago where people were being competitively rural, so I will acknowledge that I know some people will say it's only rural if there are no other houses in seeing distance, you have to walk over cows to get to your front door, etc. etc., but it's pretty rural all the same.

The money side still really hits me. We were paying more than double to rent a house substantially less than half the size of this one, and we had to pay for parking permits on top of that.

I really like my DD growing up somewhere where she has a huge garden to run in, and animals all around. We went for a walk this morning and saw deer, a hare, lots of bunnies and stupid pheasants trying to fight each other, and lots of nesting birds. I had that sort of childhood and I really love it. Also love being able to drive along tiny one-way lanes at 15mph with the radio on, knowing no one else is going to come the other way. Anyone who knows Cambridge traffic will get why I like this!

I moved from a town ( think Colchester size ) and moved to a village in the middle of nowhere. We moved here for the high school ( all the kids get picked up by a bus here everyday ).

We only planned on staying for that long. But. I’m never ever leaving.

I love it here. The peace and quiet. The smallness if it. We absolutely love it. Takes a while to drive anywhere. But after a while you get used to that.
No one in my family thought we would like it. They all thought we would move back. Ha. Not a chance.
I’m never leaving here!!!!!!!!!

Sigh, I was hoping for more stories of ‘don’t do it’!

I know a few people who've been able to either retire early or start a lifestyle business by selling their London house and buying a much cheaper, but bigger house in North Lancashire/South Cumbria.

There are plenty of "rural" areas like this that are still close to motorway and main line railway network, also within 90 minutes or so from bigger cities like Manchester or Liverpool. With coast and countryside at your doorstep and smaller towns/cities within 30 minutes (Lancaster, Kendal, Preston etc).

Of the people who've relocated up here, all have stayed and none have regretted the move. But then again, if they loved a big city so much, they'd never have moved in the first place.

Well OP, we left London, moved to the sticks, regretted it and moved back! (Well nearly back. We're now 25 minutes away by train).

I felt completely cut off, there was nothing to do and nowhere to go. Public transport was terrible and expensive.

Sorry OP, done it and don't regret it. London started to feel suffocating to me and I enjoy it more to visit now than live despite being a born and bred Londoner.

We moved up to Scotland from the South East some years ago. Rural doesn't have to be remote. We live on the edge of a village, It has a pub, post office, primary school, coffee shop and a train station. We have gorgeous views and it's lively and quiet but we are only 40 mins by train to Edinburgh and have made loads of friends here, Children love it even though they are teens now. The high School and Market Town are 6 miles away and has everything they need.

If it helps, another perspective. Grew up rurally (very) and was very bored as a teen and need to drive everywhere. I love living in the city now as DC can walk everywhere. I don't drive though. And it is a small city so very walkable and lots of green / parks etc and can walk to country also.

It depends what you're into. If you're into sports, especially outdoors stuff (or think you could get into it), it's great to live rurally.

If you're into art, theatre, doing new things etc, of course it's going to be hard.

It sounds like you don't really want to move though. At the end of the day, if you can afford it, London is great and it's not that hard to get out into the countryside.

Moved to rural Bedfordshire from London so only about 45 mins on the train if we want to go to London (which we very rarely do).

I'll never leave here now. Village school, shop, 1 pub, playing field, playgroup and church. No buses though! About 800 residents. You can get as involved as you do or don't want in village life really and the nearest town is about 5 miles away so not far at all. I love it, it suits me.