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.

Weymouth. Great beach, train station. or Bridport. Nicer town but no beach except West Bay. Weymouth or Dorchester for station.

I live in one of these and I can confirm they are all lovely - but Ogmore/Southerndown are very small villages with very little local amenities. The primary school is great but is in a third village down the road. Secondary, they’re catchment for Cowbridge which is a really good school. Hourly bus service, fairly reliable. 5-ish miles from train station, main line to London (2.5-ish hours). There are plenty of activities but most are a short drive away.

If it's not too far - Scarborough in North Yorkshire! We are a young family, moved here 4 years ago and loving it here! It's a quaint little seaside town with 3 sandy beaches within 5-6 miles from the town centre.. there are excellent new residential developments coming up 2-3 miles away from the busiest part of the town..

Scarborough!
Two fabulous beaches, an old spa town, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, the Open Air Theatre, Peasholm Park and beautiful ancient woodland within 2 miles of the town and the North Yorkshire Moors on your doorstep.
You can still buy large houses at reasonable prices a short walk to the beach.

There are run down areas but the University Campus, teaching hospital and the wealth of the surrounding countryside has prevented any decline. It really is very pretty.

I haven't read all 9 pages - someone may have already suggested West Kirby on the Wirral.
Not a seaside town as such but it does have a beach and a marine lake and a thriving shopping centre which isn't full of cheap shops. Schools are generally good. It has a train station with a direct service to Liverpool and is an easy drive to Chester.

Saltburn, Whitby, Filey are all nice. Anywhere on the Northumberland coast - Bamburgh or Seahouses for example, or Alnmouth. On the NW coast maybe Southport / Ainsdale.

If you'd consider Scotland then North Berwick, St Andrews or Elgin are all lovely, but I get the feeling you are only really looking in Southern England.

Beautiful beach - was there today!

If you want to be ahead of the curve, Morecambe Bay , especially the east end of the prom. Eden project on its way, Grammar school catchments, and half an hour to the lakes.

Bangor (wales)
Pwllheli
Barmouth (currently gentrifying itself)
Conwy
Heswall/Hoylake/West Kirkby

wow 😍

Tynemouth or saltburn.

My daughter did her PGCE in Newcastle and then taught for two years in two different schools, but she's now moved home for a full-time permanent job. I have mixed feelings - while I am happy to have her home, I loved where she lived (Whitley Bay/Tynemouth) and I think she will miss it. I will miss going over there to stay with her! DH and I both loved it, and we are a little bit sad that we are less likely to go back, seeing as she's not living there any more!

If you are totally free as to where you live though, you couldn't get better than the north coast of Northern Ireland! Portrush, Portstewart, Portballintrae, Castlerock, Ballycastle. Good schools and some of the best beaches I've ever seen!

This is a job for Kirsty and Phil OP

Askam, Barrow, Dalton in Furness. Walney Island, Ulverston has a beach nearby and v. Close to the Lakes.

Morecambe. Up and coming. Housing is affordable. Great beach. Views of the Lakes.

Leiston in Suffolk

Beautiful place

I am another one who likes the Mumbles in South Wales. Swansea nearby, Cardiff an hour away and only 30 mins from the gorgeous Gower Peninsula.

@BellePeppa what? Then you'd be wrong. The first photo @Greensleeves posted (which is the comment I was replying to) is Newton Abbot. The very notion that "you're sure" it cannot be is baffling. I was there literally yesterday. I've included the photograph I was referring to so you can "be sure" that you are talking nonsense.

Seaside towns generally seem to have high levels of deprivation, and quite high crime rates.

I think this can be true but to further sell the Liverpool Bay Area that a number of other pp's have also recommended, none of the places -Waterloo/Crosby/hightown/formby/west Kirby are seaside towns in that sense. They are all thriving suburbs of Liverpool which border the coastline. You can see Jurassic footprints on the beach at formby.

Swansea is amazing

That photo wasn’t on my MN? I only had the three pretty coastal photos so was referring to them. I agree Newton Abbot is grim.

I think you’re getting Newton Abbot muddled up with Teignmouth. They are two different places, one is a reasonably pretty seaside town (Teignmouth) and the other is indeed a depressing shithole (Newton Abbot).

move to Ireland, surrounded by coast and none of the seaside areas are run down. You’re actually quite well-to-do if you live by the sea there.

Kent is lovely, but I don’t want to put my kids through the ‘Kent test’ and have them fight for a place in a grammar school. 😣