Tell me about the fabulous area where you live so I can move there! (50s retired widow)

[Whatevergetsyouthroughthenight]

I find myself at a stage of life where I am on my own with no family and currently live in a lovely house in an idyllic rural village.

However, there’s no-one else living here at my life stage and I have to get in the car for everything. Many of my friends are moving away with their partners as they start retiring.

I am looking for somewhere where I can walk/cycle to facilities (doctor, chemist, coffee shop, leisure centre, small supermarket for top up shops), decent transport links to get further afield and somewhere with a good community and lots going on for my age group.

I would like like somewhere pretty to look at, with nice walks in countryside on my doorstep so thinking of a medium-large village, a market town or even an area of a larger town or city with the right vibe.

Where do you live that fits the bill?

Budget shouldn’t be too much of an issue as I don’t want anything particularly large (I don’t want the maintenance) and have a healthy amount to spend.

No, I don’t think I would rule out moving further afield. Where is this wonderful place? Would there be any prejudice against someone English moving there?

I don't live there but have a look at Great Malvern.

Seems like you should live everywhere in.u.k!

Seriously? Please tell me you're jesting. I grew up in Rochdale and know Bolton and Oldham well and wouldn't recommend any of them as nice places to retire. Manchester isn't all that either (and I live in GM).

Saddleworth is considered Oldham and certainly meets all of the OPs criteria!

Helensburgh, Scotland.

Not too big, not too small, good sense of community, the Clyde estuary along the front of the town, everything you need in the town e.g. doctors, chemists, opticians, butchers, grocers, hardware shops, so you'd rarely have to go into Glasgow for anything, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs on your doorstep, leisure centre, local 2-screen cinema, cafes, restaurants, clubs and groups, train station in town that takes you direct to Glasgow or Edinburgh, regular markets in the town square and events during the summer and at Christmas.

Abergavenny in Monmouthshire.

I wouldn’t move from a dry-ish region to a rainy one, nor to somewhere with clay soil unless you’re already used to gardening on it, and you know what to expect from country walks. And I’d avoid living in a town with cobbled streets!

If you decide on somewhere that is a tourist spot, I'd make sure to visit both in- and off-season.

We have a favourite place we'd only ever visited off-season (spring, autumn and winter) and were seriously considering relocating there.

However, this year we visited during the height of the tourist season, and it was a completely different place. No leisurely lunches, struggling to book for dinner, frazzled staff everywhere, loads of children high on icecream, local buses flying by full to the gunnels of holiday-makers like ourselves.

We're no longer considering that location as an option, but we'll still visit off-season as often as we can.

I'm in Donegal, on the north west coast of Ireland. We welcome everyone here, some of my neighbours include English, German, Polish, Latvian and several Scottish folk! We also have several Syrian and Ukrainian refugee families who settled recently but I don't know any of them yet.

We have a few community groups that meet regularly, including 'The Walkie Talkies' - a lovely group of ladies who meet up for walks followed by cups of tea and a wee bun!

You would also get more for your money in regards to property eg, 250,000 euro would buy a lovely 3 or 4 bed property.

I don't work for the tourist board I promise! I just think we have a great community here and people look out for one another. It's a really lovely place to live.