What are your experiences living in a rural area? Any regrets? Advice needed!

[cabinbythelake20]

Looking at buying a home 🏡

Me and DP are early 30s no DCs yet

We both love the outdoors and spend considerable time in the country, walking, exploring etc Neither of us enjoy going out drinking or being in a busy city.

We both work in Manchester and are looking at moving to a quieter peaceful area.

There is a house on the market about 10 mins drive from two towns/villages but the location of the house is very rural, few shops and few neighbours. Lots of open land around the house. Travel into the city centre is not too far away (30 mins drive outside of peak hours). Both have flexible jobs and hours so can work outside of rush hour.

I guess I'm looking for experiences of those who have moved to a rural area and if you have any regrets?

For those who are from Manchester the areas we are considering are tabley/mere/hoogreen/high legh/plumley. (The two towns/villages I referred to are knutsford and lymm)

Thank you in advance

Is the open land farm land, does it have footpaths? You cannot just walk on farmers fields, I saw someone on MN surprised that countryside was privately owned! How far are the shops you might get fed up if you have to drive to get milk etc

You might have to cope with snow, how hilly is it?

I’ve lived in rural areas and absolutely loved the seclusion. It’s rubbish when you have children who are reliant on you transporting them everywhere when they can’t drive yet.
A ten mile round trip for a pint of milk is also a pain but if you have big freezers it’s not so bad.
I’d say the pros outweigh the cons. My neighbours were a mile either side and just the sea out front. Very calming and no one to get annoyed with.

I live in a very rural area and love it. But it's what I'm used to and I loathe cities.

We live in a village (a proper village - pub, post office/shop and a village hall, not a village hat actually has a Poundland, supermarket, 10 pubs, secondary school and a billion shops!!!)

Things to consider are:

Broadband - we have fast fibre but my friend who loves proper rural in no nearby houses has absolutely rubbish internet, has been taking her hours to upload 15 second videos for school work etc. Can only have 1 thing streaming at a time if that

School transport of you are going to have kids. Less choice of schools as normally only in catchment for 1 school

Always having to get an expensive taxi if you have a night out and having to prebook it

Gossipy neighbours!! Everyone knows everyone’s business.

I do but we are not in the UK.

We live in a village with no shops or bars.

But we are 3 minutes drive from a smaller village which has a bar, restaurant, petrol station with a mini supermarket - a chip shop.

You have to drive though as it is down in The Valley and the hill is steep.

Nearest city 25 minutes away and nearest town with a pharmacy and shops and big supermarket is 15 mins.

The only thing we miss is walking to a bar or restaurant after the nearest one closed.
During lockdown we were immensely grateful for our home and garden and views.

We have brought up kids here and have loved it.

We are on a good bus route so now as teens they are mobile - something to think about for in 20 years time.

Public transport. Often non-existent or only a couple of buses a day. Car going in for MOT is often a complicated rota of someone dropping the kids and taking the other to the garage etc.

When snowed in etc you can’t even walk to a shop for a pint of milk so need to be prepared

Mud.

That is all.

We tried for a year but I found it very difficult. I had 2 small dc at the time, and dh was gone all day. I had to get in the car and drive for even a pint of milk, playgrounds for the dc, miles to the nearest park. I found it ironic that we walked far more when we lived in a city where we went to the park and shops everyday. I found the driving relentless and can only imagine what it would have been like when dc went to school between school runs, play dates, sports, etc.

I was very relieved to move back to the city with everything in walking distance

We have lived rurally for years. Things to be aware of include getting snowed in. We have no public transport (no bus routes to keep clear) so it is down to local farmers kindness to clear roads, the council won't do it. Very muddy roads in winter. Probable lack of mains gas - everyone, just about, is oil round here. Frequent power cuts and possibly even failures of water supply from time to time. Poor mobile phone signal/poor broadband. No fast food deliveries and difficult to get taxis unless booked well in advance. You will need to drive and will need a car each.
Still, we are used to this, have never known different really and are very happy.

I grew up in Lymm :-)

If you think you might have children one day please don't consign them to a life of huge restrictions that ultra rural life entails.

Love it still after living in London my whole life. I’m not remote though. We have a school and village shop and neighbours within a mile.
I dislike living with oil though. Looking at the meter through winter is stressy. I think it depends on your house as friends with modern homes find it good value.
We get more snow so you have to be prepared. Everyone knows each other, I like it. Bus service was awful for teens - you’ve never seen anyone learn to drive so quickly. WiFi was horrendous when we moved in, not too bad now but certainly not like in town.

I wouldn't have said that any of those were that rural given they have an m56 junction within 2-3 miles and major busy roads running nearby. They also have pubs/newsagents/schools/golf courses/hotels/garden centres...or at least mere and high leigh do.

I live on my own in very rural Somerset. Summer is great but winter is really hard. Its dark and the roads are lethal. You have to find a footpath map - you can't just walk anywhere they are much "Get orrf my land" round here and quite often the local herd of cows block the road for an hour and won't shift.
There is no viable cinema anywhere, I'd have to drive for an hour to get to any big shops and have to buy everything online.
I love it because I'm a proper hermit but I know I can't stay here after I'm retire do I'm planning that move in 9 years time.

I lived in a village for 10 years - no shop or any amenities. Loved it for several years when our DS was very young but it was essential to have a car and as our DS got older it would have been impossible for him to have any independence. We liked the way of life which revolved around the church, village activities etc but that doesn't suit everyone. It was quite insular, certainly no diversity at all.

We moved to a small town when DS was 10, still have the countryside on our doorstep for rural walks etc but also the advantages of town life.

To be honest I wouldn't call that area terribly rural, but its very pleasant.
We moved from Manchester to a rural place about 20 years ago. We are nearly as far from our nearest small town as you would be from Manchester. We've never regretted it but of course there are pros and cons.The main things I miss are a variety of restaurants and the arts, but I can't really imagine that you will encounter any major difficulties if you can be in Knutsford in 10 minutes and the city centre in half an hour.
There may be minor irritations like having to push your bin to the end of the lane, delivery drivers getting lost etc but you would be on the edge of a huge conurbation so most of the significant downsides of rural life aren't likely to apply. It all sounds very civilised to me - go for it if you like the house.

We live in a medium sized village in Northumberland.
Pros: Co-op, chippy, regular buses, surgery/pharmacy/dentist, primary school, plenty of public footpaths, beach 10 minutes away.
Cons: 30 minute commute to my main clients, deer running about the roads, trains hooting at odd hours, manure spreading.

@Chicchicchicchiclana we live very rurally which allows my child an amazing outdoor lifestyle and exposure to nature, as well as access to a fabulous village school where the kids are taught in small groups, known as individuals, and cared for like members of a family. I don't see this as any sort of deprivation and neither do any of our local friends who have all deliberately chosen this lifestyle for our families. Horses for courses, innit?

Photos attached of the road one of the houses is on! So pretty rural but not more than 10 mins drive to a town with shops, restaurants etc. Not sure feasible it would be to walk to local shops which may be a bit of a pain hmm

We moved to a remote village in Shropshire when I was 10 and dsis was 8 - it was my parents’ dream, but was not a happy experience for me.

The children in the village school were not welcoming - they had known each other from babyhood and we just didn’t fit in. Basically I had no friends at primary school, and things didn’t get much better when I went to secondary. I did make a coup,e of friends, but they lived miles from me, so I couldn’t see them outside school - there was almost no public transport - the nearest bus stop, with an hourly service, was 2 miles away. Mum didn’t drive, and even if she had, dad needed the car to get to work. And I was bullied pretty much from the time we moved to the village until I went to Sixth Form College.

I had a very lonely time, from the age of 10 until I left home and started nurse training at 18.

There wasn’t much of a social life, either for dsis and I, or for our parents - even going to the cinema was a major expedition. Shopping was logistically difficult too - no nipping to the shop for a forgotten ingredient or something you’d run out of. Mum had to plan really carefully, and be really controlling about portion sizes, so the big monthly shop, and once weekly top ups didn’t run out.

In fairness, this was a long time ago - we moved to the village in the early 70s - and my parents were very happy there - mum only moved away a few years ago - even after dad died, the support from her local friends meant she could carry on managing in the house even without dad, and I never worried that she could be ill and no-one would notice.

Services are probably better to rural areas now - when we moved to the village only 3 houses had phones, and none of them were on mains drainage or mains gas - I think the village still doesn’t have mains gas, and may not have mains drainage yet either - but I suspect that this is much rarer than it used to be.

If you can drive, and can afford a car each, a lot of the logistical problems, and difficulties accessing services and leisure activities do get better.

Villages can be quite insular - newcomers can be regarded with suspicion - you want to get involved, but not in a way that looks like you tak8 g over and being a sophisticated townie teaching the local yokels how to do it right (I am sure you wouldn’t do this, @cabinbythelake20 - but it is worth remembering and being sensitive to local feelings).

As an adult, it could be a great experience and a lovely way to live. Or it could be quite isolating.

Sorry - that probably wasn’t much help.

I grew up in rural Cornwall. Village too small for a shop, and no pub (because Methodism).

Pros - beautiful, no near neighbours to annoy, plenty of land attached to the house for outdoor activites.

Cons - no where to “walk” from the house: no pavements, very small roads with lots of blind corners, and no local desinations to aim for if you did. Every beach/public wood/NT property was a good drive away. My surburban friends are always surprised that i didn’t learn to ride a bike until university, as there was nowhere safe to ride it and nowhere to go. I walked more in London than i ever did in Cornwall.

Which leads me to: no local friends. All the villages feed to a large secondary in a local town. If you are lucky your friends live in that town and are only 20 mins drive away. If you’re unlucky, they are in other random villages and up to an hour away. Parents spend all their time ferrying (with concurrent teetotalness ).

The sheer lack of things to do compared to places near cities. It’s not just the lack of resources, it’s the local mindset as well. Cities cause fun activities and proactive thinking to arise around them. People put on events, hold dos, organise things. The heart of the countryside...just doesn’t.

My advice - by all means go for the pretty and the solitude, but be aware these might change to negatives with school age kids. Or, move to somewhere green within easy reach of a city.

Oh, and i forgot (in case i haven’t sold it enough) no public transport at all, and very small minded villagers.

I live in a village. Petrol station, small shop, pub and a school. Bus runs every couple of hours. Ten miles to nearest decent sized supermarket. Five miles to the GP. It’s great. You don’t run out of much because you make sure you have stuff in! Great community spirit. Daughter loves it here and has plenty of local friends and they all play out in the fields. Everyone looks out for each other.

Things to think of:

Are you on the mains for gas/sewerage? Can be a pita if not.

Do you want DC? Small village was perfect for me preDC, with lovely walks with the dog and no issues driving to shops. However now it's a nightmare, nowhere to walk with pavements, have to go in the car to even go for a decent walk with the pram. Even with a robust pram I can't pull it over fields. All I want is to walk to a shop and a decent playground. Getting in the car is a PAIN.

Live in a village of around 30 houses, 15 mins from the edge of a city.

Pros:
Scenery, nice views, feel more in tine wotj nature
Easy to go for walks from the house
Just feels relaxing being at home and not surrounded by suburbia/urban living
Small village school
More house for the same £
Low crime

Cons:
Need to be v organised with shopping as it's a PITA to run out of milk or whatever
Can't get takeaway delivered!
More of a hassle to go anywhere generally
Spend longer driving than I would otherwise

Overall though I like it. Enjoy a city break but wouldn't plan to live in a city again.