Are there any decent, liveable seaside towns in UK which aren’t silly expensive or horribly rundown?

[Moidershewrote]

Basically that - DH and I would really like to relocate with our 2 primary aged kids to live by the sea (near a sandy beach) in either England or Wales - ideally we’d like a half decent primary / secondary schools, friendly community feel with clubs / kids activities etc and not run down/full of pound shops etc and access to train station within approx 5 miles and local buses would be great. We’d love to live somewhere that is walking distance of a beach.

It feels like we’ve looked into so many places and for one reason or another we end up discounting it - usually because either schools seem crap or no train station or no community feel.

Places we’ve immediately rejected are:

• Kent (grammar schools / Kent test)


• Brighton (too expensive / pebble beach)


• Portsmouth/S’ton/Plymouth (too big / towny feel)


• Essex/Somerset coastline (not the right vibe for us)


• E/W Sussex (not sandy😆)

Would love to hear any personal recommendations from people who have moved to another coastal town with kids / or live in one and think it’s brilliant (and why)🙏 We do love Devon, Dorset, Anglia.. Would consider Wales, or NW/NE England.

My brother lives in Whitstable (lovely place) but he doesn’t have kids so not sure about schools.

Exmouth. Sandy beaches (2 miles of it). On the beautiful Jurassic Coast. Not far from Exeter if needed for work or "proper" shops.

High school wise, there is one huge community college that most teenagers go to. I believe there is also an option to do the 11+ and go to grammar schools but most don't.

Barrow in Furness is an absolute dump. So much unemployment, charity shops and not much else in the town centre. Schools are awful. About 5 years ago every single secondary school was rated as requires improvement!

Teignmouth had quite a long time down in the dumps, like a lot of seaside towns, but recently it has lots of new shops and restaurants of the more quirky arty variety and a brand new play park (and the old one was pretty good). I don't think it's languishing any more and you can always take the ferry over to Shaldon which is posher!

Both lovely I agree but I wouldn’t say the beaches are sandy. Both very quiet and out of the way for kids.

Grange-over-Sands, but please don't tell everyone.

You know that the Kent Test is optional don’t you? Only taken if parents want their child to go to one of the 30 odd grammar schools in Kent… that is a pretty strange reason to decide not to move to a county.

My in laws live in Brixham and it’s lovely, definitely the best but if Torbay

*best bit of Torbay

Bude in Cornwall, would hit all your asks, depends on your budget and employment though.

What's the problem with Kent? Will your DC not cut the mustard for the 11+?

Birchington and Broadstairs are sandy as is Hernia Bay.

St Bees is lovely, but not a town. Whitehaven (the town) is sadly very run down, though the harbour area is quite nice.

Is this what is known as a FileyFax?

@QuestionableMouse I used to live in Hartlepool. Everything you say in its favour is true, but of all the place I've lived, I found it the most closed community: a huge proportion of the people I worked with were Hartlepool born and bred for as many generations as they could count, and multi-generational extended families seemed to dominate the town. You couldn't go anywhere without meeting someone's aunty or grandad or cousin. It was difficult to be accepted as an incomer.

Also, linked with the above, it is very very white. If the OP is used to the south-east she'll have a shock in Hartlepool

Well I would have said Broadstairs fitted your criteria really well- why are you against grammar or Kent test (it's optional if you don't want kids to go to grammar)

Leigh on sea I would have thought fitted well too

Wirral is really nice - might be out of budget but great for both beach and Liverpool. Somewhere like west Kirby

Northumberland coast is really nice

Torbay/Brixham

Poole or Bournemouth or Bridport

What do you do for work? Some of Swansea is gorgeous (you would have to research areas carefully though) but the job market is limited.

Why don’t you want grammar schools?

Bournemouth used to be nice but a lot of undesirables hanging around the centre these days.

Not Southport, it’s terribly run down now.
Formby - great but pricey.
Lytham - nothing like Blackpool.

Felixstowe in Suffolk

Although “not silly expensive” is open to interpretation - £250k? £500k? £800k? Seaside tends to involve a premium.

I wouldn’t call that rose tinted I’ve been here my whole life!!

Hampshire is great and ticks a lot of boxes but mostly pebble beaches. Beautiful sandy beach is West Wittering and nearby Chichester is wonderful, but you'd be hard pushed to get a property a few mins walk of West Wittering for a reasonable price! If you're not too wedded to sandy beaches, somewhere like the area around Hayling Island might be a good option.

Christchurch

This place, yes. Depressing shit pit. And rather violent at times.

I'm not sniffing glue, no, but then I don't live in Teignmouth.

Liverpool? Crosby beach is fab.