Has anyone ever moved to an area they just didn't like?

[FullofSurprises]

Just that really...
Have you ever moved to an area where you disliked? And why?

I moved to an area in the Midlands and I put my DD in the local school here. Ever since moving here it's been horrible. I've been shouted at by another parent on the playground. Had stroppy neighbours that won't let me cut my own apple tree in my garden. And basically the entire village is cliquey and horrible and I wished I'd never moved here.
Anyone else? Please tell me I'm not on my own.

Can people not be a tad more specific though? I really don’t think anyone is going to be recognised on here by saying they live in Birmingham/Nottingham, for example. The Midlands is a huge area, even specifying east or west would better than just saying the whole 11,000 square miles is sht because you hated one small part that you won’t name. It’s like saying London is a shthole because you hated living in Tower Hamlets.

I have been pretty specific and several posters here have correctly identified the area I live and work in.

A previous post cited Sutton Coldfield as a highlight of the Midlands. I have spent time there too and it's certainly nicer than where I live now, in the sense that chlamydia is nicer than syphilis, but I still wasn't a huge fan. Sorry to everyone that loves it.

😂

The one plus of the Midlands, is you can get to anywhere else in the country easily

You mean the one plus is the how easy it is to leave.

I moved from a very northern town to London and felt immediately at home even if it was a slummy area
Then we had to move because of dh’s job. Ended up in a pretty village in a beautiful cottage. About 30 minute from Birmingham. But it was just weird. Like I had stepped out of reality and into some strange alternate reality.

Got a job and tried to talk to my fellow co workers. Pass the time of day etc. But it was obvious that we were not on the same wave length. Some work colleagues had never left the town apart from a holiday on a farm 5 miles away.
Did get called a snobby southerner a few times. I have a thick northern accent and am from one of the worse council estates in the north.

One day I was called into the managers office.
My supervisor was in there.

Apparently they had realised I was not married to Dp. Manager offered to have a word with Dp to get him to marry me.
This was mid 80s (1980s not 1880s)

The world seemed to revolve around Church, the pub and the school.

I am not Christian, I don’t drink and I didn’t have children.

I didn’t speak to anyone for the 12 years we lived there.

Moved back to London and felt more at home.
I might not talk to my neighbour but we don’t blank each other when we are both in the supermarket and I don’t have them making pointed comments about me outside my house.

I don't love the area I'm in. It's nice, most of the people are nice but I just don't feel like I fit in here.

We only moved here because the schools are great.

@oxenoftheSun did the village start with a G?

I recognise the description and your experience down to a T, just wondering if I got it right

No, not a G, @ManxRhyme — where were you thinking of?

Some people on here are writing off an entire city or region because of the particular area they lived in. Seems a bit extreme

I have met a couple of people who were born and grew up in the area I hated.

They saw exactly what I saw except these people were their parents/siblings/family

Neither of these people knew each other but they both said the same thing that they couldn’t wait to move away. They felt like there had been some dreadful mistake at birth.
Their personalities just didn’t fit in with the people around them.

I have seen posts about this town on other threads that say the people are really strange.
It was like living in a giant playground with adults acting like they were still at school and bullying anyone who was slightly different

It was really pathetic.

Having lived all over the UK I am reluctant to label anywhere a 'shithole'.

However, unsurprisingly this thread is full of ex-Londoners sneering at 'locals'.

Ironically, the shittiest and scruffiest place I ever lived in was London but then I didn't live in a leafy street in Wimbledon or Chiswick or Zone 1 flat. My experience was an ex HA flat in poor part of West London with alcoholic neighbours, drug paraphernalia in the lift and being sexually harassed by gangs of men everytime I walked down the street...

What a strange post, @THisbackwithavengeance. I lived in grotty, pre-gentrification Herne Hill (where I was once mugged at knifepoint outside my front door) and Vauxhall, later on two doors down from a crack den in Manor House, and during the 2011 London riots, the shopping centre next door to me was looted — I was pregnant and sitting alone in the house (DH was in the US for work) with a baseball bat in my hand watching the rioters come up the street (before they were chased away by a bunch of tough local shopkeepers guarding their stock!)— but despite the crime and grime, my memories of London are overwhelmingly positive compared to my years in pretty, prosperous, peaceful Leicestershire.

And I grew up in the country, so it’s not that I’m prejudiced in favour of the urban.

In the midlands the traffic/plane noise was endless, there was nowhere to walk, no open countryside, no escape. What a ridiculous generalisation. The Midlands is 11 counties, so no wonder it features largely on these threads! I live in rural Worcestershire and can reassure you we have endless opportunities to explore open countryside, walk the Malvern hills, canoe the Severn etc etc. Why not state the county you are slagging off rather than tar a massive area of England with the same brush?

There is lots of pretty countryside where I am. I had a lovely walk yesterday through some of it. Doesn't make up for the xenophobia, unfriendliness, and the unpleasant attitude towards working mothers, though.

We live in one of the deprived parts of Hertfordshire and whilst I am not overly keen at walking around late at night, our neighbours and people I come into contact with,at work, couldnt be nicer or kinder. I lived in East Anglia some years ago and I was counting the days until I could move out.

@oxenoftheSun it's the one along the A50 near the hospital.

Am soooo curious now where you mean.

However, unsurprisingly this thread is full of ex-Londoners sneering at 'locals

Is it though?
Sounds like the people who called me a Southern Bastard despite the fact I am from a very northern town

Anyone who moved in where ever they were from were always Londoners

However, unsurprisingly this thread is full of ex-Londoners sneering at 'locals

Not me. Like I said, Dh grew up here in the Black Country. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t think it’s a dump and admits he made a massive mistake moving us back.

I’ve known a lot of of my friends who had to move from London, had rose tinted ideas about their childhood and moved back to where they grew up only to realise it was a terrible mistake.

My in laws are here - they think it’s great. But they have lived here all their lives so don’t know any different. They were hardly going to put us off by saying how awful it actually is.

I could kill Dh sometimes though - although it wasn’t entirely his fault as we only had six weeks to find somewhere outside London and his parents were willing to help look at houses to rent while we were working so it made sense.

@OxenoftheSun, @StoneColdBitch DH worked in Coventry and his collegues were from there - I've subsequently read it may have started out as a city vs counrty thing as in time moved slower in counrtyside.

Oddly when we first moved ther GP had studied in city we'd come from and was quite chatty and said of the locals "they can't find the road out" - which is obviously absurd but yet few years in I did kind of understand what she meant.

There are many lovely bits of the midlands and possible differnt part of that town may have been more friendly - I'll never know.

I know Ilkeston though somewhere another poster mentioned haven't lived there but spent few months living not that far from it and didn't think it that bad.

@ManxRhyme, I don't know that area at all, assuming we're talking about Groby and environs? I only went there to walk in Bradgate Park (though admittedly, DH actually looked at a rental inside Bradgate Park before we moved) -- we lived much further out, the opposite side of the city.

@OxenoftheSun From what you've said I was imagining Market Harborough way? That's the other side of Leicester from me so I don't know it well.

Not a million miles off, @StoneColdBitch. Honestly, I need to stop reading this thread. It sounds ridiculous, but even remembering living there is depressing!

Do think there is a lot of Midlands bashing going on here. Be specific as posters have said, it's a huge area. First up I've only ever lived in Birmingham. Sutton Coldfield to be precise. Yes there's crime, poverty, grey areas but then that describes most cities. It's diverse, multi cultural, lots going on, green areas, great schools, the famous bullring which is fab now. Every suburb is going to have its issues but the people on the whole are friendly, fair and open minded.
It must be very difficult moving to a new area, not knowing anyone, getting used to the different rhythm of life, schools, jobs etc and ultimately comparing it to the life you had. However it's one area of the Midlands, not 'The Midlands'
Would love to move to the South Lakes, but that's not to leave my beloved Birmingham because I dislike it!

It must be very difficult moving to a new area, not knowing anyone, getting used to the different rhythm of life, schools, jobs etc and ultimately comparing it to the life you had.

Not really, I do it a lot, and have lived in five different countries on different continents, as well as several different parts of England. The only place which was a truly miserable experience was my Leicestershire one, which is why it stands out to me. But I'm very clear on it being the specific place I lived in. For what it's worth, I've always liked the time I've spent Birmingham.

@baggies I'm in my early 30s and have lived in 5 different parts of England - just counted it up on my fingers The central Midlands is the only one I've hated, for the reasons articulated on this thread.

I know Sutton Coldfield well, as DH lived there when we first met and I visited it extensively. It's certainly nicer than where I live now, but actually the town centre is a dump, retail chains are fleeing in their droves, and DH found many of the people unfriendly and he struggled to make friends despite living there several years.

baggies

This isn’t about how multicultural it is or how diverse it is or how much is going on it is how you gel with the people.
No good going out somewhere if when you get there you are not welcome.

I am used to moving around and making friends. I am used to people being friendly back.
As i said I never spoke to anyone for 12 years.
I used to travel with Dp to jobs around the country just so I had someone to talk to.
Sometimes if he was there a few weeks I would do some temping so I have a skimming knowledge of a few places around the country.

No where I went was like the area we had our house.

Found S.Wales definitely the most friendly area.