Moving to durham

[Vick1621]

Hi there! I am a mum of a 4 year old son and we are expecting our second child for next year. We are moving in a few months from Scotland to Durham and I would like to know some first hand informatiom about the city, places to live, schools... and just in general it would be nice to get to know some people from there since we don't know anyone:)

Do you want to be in the city or a bit further out? Weardale is an easy commute into Durham and has good schools, beautiful countryside and plenty of local amenities.

The schools in Durham City itself tend to be very good unless your child has send. Some of the outlying villages - withing 5m - are lovely but schools (particularly secondary) are not so good.

there's a few of us about. What sort of budget do you have in mind and what does it need to buy you?

Since i won't be working for at least the first year we are considering both, city or nearby areas. I think up to 20-30min drive from Durham we would consider it. The most important thing for us is safety, a relaxed environment and hopefully nice and welcoming people :). We read about many areas around durham being quite rough ,so we are scared we might not know where we are getting ourselves into

Hi! Well we are definitely looking forward buying a house around there in the short term, but we would like to rent first while we get an idea about the different areas.
As for rent we wouldn't like to spend more than 900per month for a 2-3bedroom house. And generally i think our top budget to buy would be somewhere around 200k.we also consider moving to areas around Durham,maybe within 30min commute,but i heard some places might be rough and you have to be careful so i got a bit scared.
It's all about safety, good people, relaxed environment and sense of community for us :)

You couldn't go wrong looking around Newton Hall with that budget. Great primary schools, great amenities, great transport links and quiet and safe.
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/74794920
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/98178878

To rent bit less to choose from and rents are quite high because they're in demand
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85491775

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/97066883

And yes, you need to be choosy with the villages.

30 minutes of durham is a huge huge area - I would decide what you want. Town? Country? Coast? And go from there

The city itself is lovely - loads of coffee places, very quaint and beautiful. Lots of fun places to go with children too.
Shincliffe is nice! 2 miles south of the city centre. And definitely not rough.

I think we would rather choose a town nearby instead of durham city.30 km is the max we would go, but the closer the better. We are looking at a balance between safety, good schools ,but not too expensive. We are not necessarily looking forward moving to the nicest or richest neighbourhood around, but something relatively balanced,family-friendly and nice overall

The thing is, the nicest town in Durham really is Durham city (I think - I lived there for many years..)

However, you could try Lanchester, or Barnard Castle? Both lovely

Within 30mins you also have other cities nearby! Durham City is pretty, DP lives there, but it’s packed with students during term time. Shincliffe is very nice.

Newton Hall!

Chester-le-Street might be worth a look for you.

Depends what you mean by rough op. But lots of Durham villages were former mining or steel villages. And now are lacking in employment opportunities so quire deprived. Transport options aren't great too so they can feel quite cut off.

Newton Hall is safe, good schools etc but just houses really. Lanchester is a lovely biggish village. Shincliffe is gorgeous but just a small village. You'd be in Durham all the time for shopping etc. Barnard Castle is lovely but about 40 mins from the city.

We come from Scotland and there are some areas here where drugs is a big issue. We haven seen drug dealing even during daytime right in front of us. So something like that for example we won't miss😅

It's definitely not that sort of area! Pp correct about lots of houses but right on the edge of town, on the edge of a nature reserve, next to a big shopping centre and has a few shops of its own, including a post office, which is a rarity, these days. Easy travel up to Newcastle. It's a very small city - if you were fit enough, you could walk one side to the other and back, in a morning.