Are there any diverse market towns?

[MuswellBill]

Just been watching Escape to the Perfect Town on BBC which was quite interesting. A London couple with 2 kids looking to move to Yorkshire to get more fur their £250k than a 1-bed flat. As someone in (almost) their initial position, I can see lots of benefits to finding a lovely market town somewhere and moving outside London to grow our family. But I can't think of anywhere that isn't 99% white. Are there any ethnically diverse market towns in England? I suspect the answer is no and cities like Bristol or Brighton are a better choice.
Are there any people of colour on here who have made the move to a market town?

Market town in Devon. There are some people of colour - some Asian, some Oriental, some Afro/Carribean. There are also at least two trans women. We are predominantly white here though and there are still some neanderthals who are racist bigots and expect their tea on the table bang on 6 o'clock when they get home.

Tory safe seat too. I have no idea why we moved here! Architecture isn't enough after all

We also have high unemployment, schools horribly underfunded and failing, same for gp surgeries and hospitals let alone health facilities - there's an X-ray machine which does the rounds of at least 5 hospitals. And the broadband is pretty rubbish!

The sheer diversity is one of the things I miss most about London, and I would not recommend moving from there to anyone,

Hepzibah Well, technically, admittedly, but it's really a market town with delusions of grandeur - it's basically Thame with a cathedral

I live in a village of around 120- pretty rural for the Home Counties: we are peculiarly diverse in terms of ethnicity and religion - but it probably helps that that's a very small sample size, that only 4 families work actually in the village--2 farms, a pub and a teacher - (so lots of commuters to London/downsizers from London) and a number of the minority and ethnic families are second homers: the latter probably helps compensate to some extent for the lack of diversity they must feel in the village at weekends and holidays.

It isn’t technically a market town but Solihull is pretty diverse. You don’t get much for £250k, however.

Slightly Harrogate has had its day. Most of the big shops have left, leaving a lot of expensive clothes shops but nothing useful and nothing for younger shoppers. The traffic is horrendous too.
I wouldn’t call Skipton diverse, or any of the market towns in the north of Leeds area of Yorkshire. Welcoming on the whole though, and I’ve never heard of any racism in our market town despite being predominantly white. The high school has diversity with pupils also coming from the edge of Leeds.

Loughborough? Not Warwick, it's definitely 99% Warwick, although we did have a black lady mayor for a while.

Infact, I can't think of many places close to "home" that are diverse. Solihull is 99% white, as is Warwick, Leamington Spa and Stratford. Bicester is a bit better. Loughborough has been more diverse when I've visited. Birmingham is fairly diverse but not a market town.

Loughborough has population of 55k, which is beyond my definition of market town size. I lived in Lboro 6 yrs, I never noticed no-go areas.

Adding a third vote for Hitchin.

Woking is very diverse. My godson is at a school with children who have parents that are Irish, Polish, Nigerian, Indian, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Filipino, Italian. However I don't think you'd get much for 250K.

Aylesbury
High Wycombe
St. Albans
Stevenage
Leicester (city)
Reading
Maidenhead
tonbridge Wells
Dunstable (Luton)
Bedford
Milton Keynes

Etc

Ask people of colour in person, they will give you a good and honest idea of where is diverse from a minority's perspective.

You need to clarify (for yourself rather than for the thread!) what you mean by ‘diverse’.

It’s interesting that you mention Bristol and Brighton in your OP - both are certainly liberal, tolerant, progressive places but they aren’t actually that diverse. Brighton is 85% white, 80% white British and Bristol is 84% white, 78% white British. A high BAME population doesn’t necessarily mean that the town in question is genuinely multicultural, as this suggests genuine integration and tolerance which is not the case in many places, sadly.

Also agree with pp that it depends what you mean by diverse.

I used to work in Warwick before we moved away and in my team of 5 there was one person from Greece, Germany, Poland, India and me (British). And that wasn't unusual for the office: I also worked closely with Italians, Canadians and Russians. Although I guess looking at a photo of us, you'd say we were mostly white .

I'd argue that diversity isn't just about skin colour. There is a lot of Polish immigration to Warwickshire in particular.

@AnchorDownDeepBreath Leamington is 85% white but of the others 10% are Asian and there is a very tight Sikh community which can be a bit closed.

I live in a small city which is probably just about a market town. Overall it's 95% White but my DD who is also brown goes to one of three schools we could have chosen with 25% non White British, with almost all the others having 99% or more White.

@drspouse ah are you local? I live in Leam - lovely; but like you said, the Sikh part is very closed off and unless you live in Tachbrook Park Road, you rarely encounter them; which is a shame. The temple is beautiful and I was so pleased when it was built.

Wherever you are; I'm glad your DD has settled in well! I definitely wish it was more diverse around here. We're debating a move to get that, especially as we're planning kids soon.

I grew up in Leicester which is diverse. It's a city however.

Oadby and Loughborough are market towns and are quite diverse.

I'm up North now, but have a lot of family in the area.

In North Yorkshire definitely not. Fabulous towns though but definitely not diverse.

We're all a bunch of white, middle class, Range Rover drivers who like nothing better than drinking good wine and eating nice cheese (obviously bought from the cheese shop!)

I work in London/overseas during the week so I get a nice mix of things!

Rochdale is a market town.. lovely? Not really.

There are some nice villages on the outskirts though, and it's close to the pennines, but it's very very deprived in the town itself.

Surprised GrumpyHoonMain mentioned Market Harborough, I've never seen anyone here who isn't white.

I live in a market town I'm Norfolk and it is probably 99% white, though not white British. I take my children to London and Leicester quite a lot (have old ties to Leicester) just so they know that there is a whole other world out there.

I was going to suggest some places,but you've got me thinking now - I can't think of anywhere that would be classes as diverse ethnicity wise!
They do all tend to be predominantly white the ones I'm thinking of but I've never really thought about it before (yes, I know that's my privilege showing)

Yorkshire - Bradford

Bradford is very diverse, but it's definitely not a market town! It''s a big city.

This thread makes me quite sad really. Very interesting to hear these views and points of view.

To the person suggesting I ask POC- I was hoping that some would contribute to the thread and I think there have been. one or two. There have unfortunately been some white people who've expressed consternation that ethnic diversity would or should even be a consideration when looking to move area, which speaks volumes about the privilege divide in this country!

To answer the pp asking what I meant by my question, as mentioned in a follow up post, it is simply about dc living in an area where they see BAME people regularly / as a matter of course, living, working, going to school etc. And I don't mean the occasional one-off family or well known character like the mayor! A community where BAME people are part of things. Rather than a sea of homogenous faces that look different. I think that's very important to support dc development.

It's looking more and more like London is the place to stay though.

What about somewhere like Barnard Castle in County Durham. Not diverse itself but only about 25 mins drive to Darlington which is pretty multi cultural. Barnard Castle would be a lovely place to live I think.

I'm a white immigrant and it sounds like a few of the people responding here haven't ever been an 'outsider' where they live--it isn't easy, and I have the immense advantage of white privilege. I agree with the OP that it is something to consider when moving cities or areas.

There are lots of people from my home country near where I live, and it has been nice knowing there are other people like me in the area.

@MuswellBill I'm afraid I think that London is probably your best bet for a genuinely mixed, multicultural city. Virtually anywhere else I think you will find that even where BAME populations are large there is not necessarily much integration between communities - Birmingham is a good example of this. The reason I asked specifically is because you mentioned Bristol and Brighton which suggests that you are after politically liberal, tolerant places. Birmingham is unfortunately once again a good example of the fact that large BAME populations do not necessarily equate to tolerance.