What's Lincolnshire/The Fens like as a place to live?

[CarinaMarina]

We are a couple approaching 50, looking to move to a rural/semi-rural area with plenty of country walking on the doorstep, but with good links to London (e.g the train from King's Lynn doesn't take long, I wouldn't mind driving there for the infrequent occasions I'd need to go). We've found some affordable detached bungalows around parts of Lincolnshire and the Fens that look ideal (perhaps not Boston, we drove through it and it found it a bit soulless). We have been further discouraged by comments from a family member that the entire area is bleak, dismal, dark, there's no decent walking as it's all farmland, and that "the people are weird".

It can't be that bad surely? We come from a coastal city in the south known for its rougher areas so we're not snobs, we just want a slightly more rural lifestyle out of town. Max price £200k.

Any suggestions for reasonable areas - and areas to avoid?

I can help. I live near Spalding.
I'm not from here originally.
It's ok. There are worse places but also better. Which won't help you.

It's a Grammar school area but you don't mention children.
There isn't any good walking as it's flat everywhere.

People are ok and loads and loads of people have moved from 'away' due to the relatively cheap housing. Lots of Eastern European immigrants as they moved to work on the land and in the food processing factories. This has created a lot of bad feeling. Boston (it's reputation is a bit rough) is just about the most pro Brexit area in the UK with Spalding not far behind.
Culturally bereft as no university but Cambridge is great.
Fast railway links to London from Peterborough.
I don't rate Peterborough but it has a John Lewis.
Kings Lynn is ok for shopping, the occasional theatre show and the riverside area is ok. I don't know anyone who lives there to comment further.
I'm more than happy to answer any questions

If you want to tell me the areas you are considering then just ask

There is Lincoln university and the city has grown loads in recent years whilst also maintaining its historical area.

I'm near Lincoln. Personally I wouldn't have wanted to bring my children up anywhere else. Always felt very safe, can't go wrong with schools.

I run and this area is great for that so would be for walking too. Public footpaths every which way with views for miles. Yes it's very flat but one of my favourite things is to run through the fields.

Avoid Boston. Avoid avoid avoid. But there is an abundance of villages and small towns that are lovely.

I'm 20 minutes from Grantham train station which is an hour direct to London. 30 minutes from Nottingham if I want to go shopping to somewhere bigger than Lincoln.

The Lincolnshire Wolds and Lincoln Edge aren't flat, and Steep Hill in the city of Lincoln certainly isn't

You could go for somewhere within easy reach of the A1 for a good road link to London.

I used to live in Holbeach until a few years ago. Tbh I wouldn't do it (I'm back down south now). I'd consider Norfolk (not Kings Lynn) but not Lincolnshire. I'd also discount some parts of Cambridgeshire (March, etc).

I used to run over the farmers fields with the dogs but I was a friend of the farmer and thats why I could. You have to drive to get a decent walk. In fact you have to drive quite a way to get a decent anything.

As per pp the Wolds are nice.

Lincolnshire has no soul. Its Mordor.

If you are planning to WFH, check tthe internet speed. Ours can barely support a zoom call. Other areas have been updated!

Lots of NT places around.
Good access to rivers if you like riversports.

I quite like Lincolnshire. Not as good as Yorkshire, but I prefer it to London any day.

You're family member is right except for about the people.

Thanks! Yes quite a few came up around Spalding - I just see "Lincolnshire" and think rural, ish.

No children to worry about, all left home. By "good walking" I really just mean somewhere decent off-road to walk, even if it's miles of track around 5 fields - where we live now, we have a mile square of woods we can walk to but it only takes 40 mins to do a circuit. Other walks are narrow, disconnected (main roads in between) and over populated. If there were open fields I'd be delighted with that, and flat suits me! It's only for daily and weekend dog walking, for proper hiking we'll head elsewhere like we do now, but even daily dog walks are a struggle here.

We have no strong political persuasions and aren't hugely social, we'd enjoy local dog friendly pubs and the odd restaurant but we do more of that when we travel with our campervan. We're not even enthusiastic shoppers, I live near three huge shopping towns and we never go because we loathe it haha!

I have a job I can do almost anywhere remotely, but it would be useful if DH could pick up a bit of part time/casual work as a gardener, handyman, etc. He can turn his hand to many things but he might be doing up our new house for the first few months...

Poor internet and poor healthcare,

I’m originally from a small village near Spalding. Went to the high school in Spalding.

I moved for Uni but my family is still there. There is limited places to walk - it is either a main road or farm land. We have more open space to walk near us in Outer London that we had at my parents.

Very pro Brexit and not very open minded (that is just my family!). I wouldn’t say I am weird though (or maybe that has been diluted by living in cities!)

You have to drive to get a pint of milk.

A close friend lives in the Vale of Belvoir, its really nice, the countryside isn’t the flat, theres lots to do. I get the train up rather than drive when I visit, Kings cross to Grantham is just under an hour.

When I visit we go to Belvoir castle, Belton house, Harlaxton mannor etc.

There are plenty of walks, no hills but there are lots of woodland and footpaths.

It's no darker than anywhere else. Bleak is a matter of opinion - basically wherever you look, three quarters of what you will see is sky, some people will see that as bleak but it is also very open. It's culturally quiet - Stamford is your best bet for culture, and housing there is priced accordingly.

The people - well, they don't welcome strangers, but that's true of a lot of places. It's very white, with a sizeable eastern European population due to the high volume of farmwork (which causes issues in places like Boston).

There are plenty of pretty villages if you're looking for village life, but you would need to be willing to drive to get anywhere.

Oh wow cross posted with quite a few there sorry. Yeah I don't want to have to drive to a decent footpath, defeats one of the objects of moving...

Let me check my saved properties on right move for the exact areas.

Whereabouts?

The parts near Wisbech spalding Boston are horrible. Poor, very Polish since 2000s, rubbish shops and no culture. Lots of drugs. Spalding was heroin capital of Europe quite recently

Stamford is nice. Oakham is more upmarket

My former boss bought a holiday home for bargain price near Boston. Sold up a year later as hadn't realised no restraints culture.

People are quite weird as well. You'll see people pushing plans of plants, children doing weird things, people you wouldn't meet anywhere else.

Spend a few weeks there and you'll see what I mean.

We don't mind driving for standard shopping, we'll have a vehicle.

....

It's very flat. People have very low expectations for the word 'hill'.

I would check meters above sea level. Seriously.

Can be very beautiful. Can get proper winter weather.

Silverfonz bloody hell that's an eye opener. Duly noted!

Can't wait to read your post to DH

"Poor internet and poor healthcare"

Health care is one of the reasons I'd never move from here. Always get a doctors appointment the same day. Never waited more than 2 weeks for referrals. Seen quickly in hospital A&E departments and when we've needed hospital stays the staff have been excellent.

We also have super fast broadband which can handle 3 Netflix fans and me on Teams meetings.

On the internet thing, my friends internet in a village in Belvoir is better than mine in North London.

I have super fast fibre broadband. It's amazing. Keeping my teenagers happy.

Yes there are hills at Lincoln and it's good but the OP mentioned Boston and Kings Lynn so she's not thinking that end of the county.
Again, Stamford and Oakham are great middle class small towns. But house prices won't really get the OP what she seems to be looking for.

I think there is relatively little crime around the Spalding area compared to most other places.

@tilder "It's very flat. People have very low expectations for the word 'hill'." That made me proper laugh. DH refers to hills where I don't even need to change gears on my bike

While Boston isn't a town of beauty I think it gets a bad rap. It's no worse than any other declining market town in the country.