Relocating: Northumberland, Shropshire or somewhere else?

[RagzRebooted]

We would like to relocate as we're currently renting a small 3 bed and there's 5 of us. We're fairly rural in an expensive part of the country and it's a rubbish location to be not well off in! We can afford to stay here as our rent is incredibly cheap for the area (shoddy house and we've been here 10 years), but we can't afford to rent or buy anything else in the county.

We would hopefully be in a position to buy in a couple of years, but budget would only be £250-300k. Would like to be somewhere with access to local amenities (swimming pool, gym, supermarket) and good public transport access to large towns/a city for DCs to get to jobs as we'd like to be able to offer them the option to stay at home and save, but live somewhere it isn't too expensive for them to move out locally if that makes sense.

Currently towns near Newcastle seem to fit my criteria, but I've never been there and neither has DH. Shropshire we like for the countryside but may be too rural in terms of access to other areas and possibly not cheap enough. Also feel a little uncomfortable about being so far from the sea, I'm in a sea swimming group here (when there isn't sewage in it!), but that's not a deal breaker. Would like to be somewhere green, not in the middle of sprawling subarbs so edge of a town or somewhere near a town would be better than in a city/huge town.

Any opinions and suggestions on location are welcome! I'm not snobby (grew up in a caravan!) and don't want a huge house/garden just a bedroom for each child would be nice.

Look at Tyneside coast - North Shields (the part next to tynemouth) Whitley bay cullercoats etc. you won’t get enough hoise for your money in tynemouth but it’s lovely. They are all sea front but about half an hour into Newcastle and great transport links. If you want further inland then Hexham or Morpeth are nice.

we are in Shropshire and it’s bloody expensive. I wish we could move back up north with the same budget we have here, you get so much more for your money!

@Thefailinghousewife I thought right on the coast may be too windy on the NE coast. Also looked quite suburban in the map as it all looks really close together, but without seeing the area it's hard to tell!
Newcastle area is definitely top of my list though. I thought Prudhoe looked like it had everything we wanted, but would need to visit the area to see what the feel of different places is. I will check the areas you mentioned but Hexham and Morpeth may be slightly above our budget.

Interesting to hear you find Shropshire expensive, that confirms my suspicions. It's cheaper than where we are now, but so is a lot of the country!

Prudhoe high street is quite run down now, but does tick a lot of your boxes. Is about 45mins - 1 hour to the coast depending on traffic. The new houses there are nice though. A bit further a long is Wylam which is lovely.

The coast is quite built up, but literally 5/10 min drive from lovely countryside as well. It’s quite windy, but up north you are going to have proper weather wherever you go! Tourists do make some of the areas feel quite claustrophobic in high season too.

our property in Shropshire to buy is about £650k. For equivalent up north I’d say about £300k depending on area. There are some cheaper areas still here - maybe Oswestry could be worth a look?

Look at South East Northumberland and North Tyneside - places like Cullercoats, Seaton Sluice, Old Hartley, Holywell, Amble, Monkseaton, Earsdon, etc. Cramlington, Earsdon, West Monkseaton, and the likes are a little bit more inland but the coast is still easily accessible from them. There are sea swimming groups at Seaton Sluice, Blyth beach, Whitley Bay, Tynemouth, and Cullercoats (I wouldn't swim in Cullercoats Bay due to sewage but the rest are okay).

Thank you. I think we will go to Newcastle area for a weekend and do some exploring, it's really hard to get an idea of how far apart everything is on a map!

House wise, we do need a garage (DH needs a workshop) so that rules out a lot of cheaper houses. Schools wise, will need a secondary school and sixth form. Will have one at uni/taking a gap year and one possibly at college but he wants to do a specialist course and could stay on site for that at a college he's chosen where we are. It's a bit of an awkward time to move them, but we can't wait until they've all left home either!

Northumberland is my favourite place! It's just beautiful, some little villages outside of Alnwick are lovely. Amble is nice too. Tynemouth is lovely but yes, expensive. Also have you considered Durham? Some lovely spots and some beautiful countryside.

I grew up in Northumberland, but currently live in Shropshire. Northumberland is better, unless you want to travel to other parts of the country. Countryside is more exciting and varied in Northumberland, and if you want city shopping Newcastle is a lot easier to access than Birmingham (Telford/shrewsbury are crap for shopping by comparison)

If jobs are a concern - it depends on what your sons want to do - I'm guessing it's easier down in Shropshire, but I'm not sure... DH and I both work from home.

I grew up in Corbridge just over from Hexham, a really lovely, safe village with a big community feel. I had an idyllic childhood there.

Really helpful, thank you.
Jobs wise, DH is retraining as an hgv driver and I'm a nurse.
DS1 will probably go to uni and currently wants to do PPE, though he also wants to build computers! So, who knows.
DS2 wants to be a tree surgeon.

I assumed jobs would be easier near Newcastle as it is a city, but I suppose Shropshire is more central, they'd just he commuting further?

But just having better access to a weekend/evening job while they study would be fine, where are now now it's not really possible due to public transport being rubbish.

Look at North Wales OP. Flintshire, Denbighshire and into Conwy maybe

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/126082025#/?channel=RES_BUY

If your husband is handy this might work for you. Burnham-on-Sea, Weston (Somerset) is a tourist area with relatively cheap housing near the sea. All the caravan parks in Brean are screaming out for students, staff for the summer. So plenty of work around.

Hinckley Point the nuclear power station is being built near Bridgwater so plenty of other types of jobs available as well.

Bristol is approximately half by car or by train from Weston.

Hadn't thought of the westcountry. I find the weather too hot in summer in the south east, so wanted to go further North.

Wales is out, partly because I grew up there and had an awful time as a teenager as I am not Welsh (I was born there, by English parents). I was in the valleys of Dyfed though.
Also because I'd have to speak Welsh, working for the NHS (as far as I know) and I don't remember much.

I'm struggling to work out exactly what our requirements for location should be, given we'll have teens/young adults. Picking somewhere completely new is such a challenge! But we would not expect to stay wherever we go forever, as our needs on our own in retirement will be very different.

Name changed for this!
Prudhoe is a great place to live and the schools are fab. The front street was a little run down but is getting better and better. There is a castle, a swimming pool, loads of lovely countryside walks aswell as riverside walks, parks, restaurants/takeaways, shops, a small cinema (due to re open soon as it was shut during Covid restrictions). The new shopping area down the industrial estate is also great with an Aldi, B&M, coffee shop (same as the one one the high street that also does cocktails on an evening), Macdonalds.
As with all towns some areas of Prudhoe are better than others, you should definitely come and have a look around!

Thank you @Prudhoe
We will definitely come up and look. Also considering Chester Le Street as it's more accessible transport wise to Durham and Newcastle as well as Sunderland area which may have more jobs for DH (lorry driving).

Lol at having to speak Welsh in the NHS in Wales. Most Welsh people do NOT speak Welsh, as most Welsh people live in Cardiff and Newport (+surrounding areas) which are definitely not Welsh speaking. Housing is cheap in South East wales, countryside is beautiful and IKEA and John Lewis are within 30 mins. What’s not to like?

I thought it was a requirement for civil service and NHS staff? I'm sure last time I looked at jobs in Wales they said you need to speak Welsh.
Where I grew up (West Wales valleys) everyone spoke Welsh, but I don't remember much. I could probably relearn pretty quickly though.

Try East Yorkshire, @RagzRebooted

its a lot more affordable than North Yorkshire Coast. There are lovely villages around Driffield, Beverley, lots of jobs in Hull and good University and technical colleges. For your £300k budget look at Bridlington, Hornsea or Withernsea. Cheaper still is south of the Humber - Lincolnshire Coast south of Grimsby but this is more rural.

Another vote for East Yorkshire, very affordable and great for HGV drivers as there are so many huge hauliers in the area.

Hi op yes Northumberland is lovely and the place suggested do have what you want.

What I will say though is that for the budget you have indicated and the size you want with a garage, Corbridge, Hexham and certainly Wylam are out. Prudhoe is cheaper and you should find something there. Basically, the further you go up the Tyne Valley and the more picturesque it gets the bigger the price.

Chester Le Street is an interesting choice, I wouldn't really call much of it rural and as with all towns it has good and bad bits. The parts around Great Lumley are nice and a bit more rural and heading out to Beamish is OK but as a whole the area isn't as prosperous as further North and there is not a lot of wealth there.

If you like South of the Tyne maybe consider places like Chopwell and Rowlands Gill, you'll certainly get more for your money than you would in the Tyne Valley

Worth thinking in wherever you look for about the amount of daylight at various times of year. Northumberland is a county with many beautiful places but the lesser amount of daylight in winter is why I would never move there (lived in County Durham for four years in the 80s).

I live in Shropshire and it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. As soon as our daughter finishes school we are moving north. It’s flat and not very pretty if it’s a nice day and you want to go to the sea you have to plan in advance because Shropshire is land locked county and it takes forever to get to the sea. It’s also quite expensive and I have no idea why. I’d stick with the north

Did you move in the end op?