Do you live rurally?

[mistyfields]

We do and I like it but I do notice sometimes that we seem to be in a bit of a minority on here. I think I am noticing it more because DC1 starts school in September and walking to school is out of the question, wraparound care is very limited which in turn limits the jobs I can do, and so on.

Even the MN mainstay of ‘just wrap up and go for a walk!’ Isn’t really possible here without driving somewhere!

Just interested if anyone else lives in the arse end of nowhere, and how you find it!

We live rurally, I love the peace and quiet, beautiful sunrise/sunsets and countryside walks.
But every now and then I visit a small market town or village with facilities and think how wonderful it would be to walk to the shops or a restaurant or have a train station !
DCs are older now but I spent very significant amounts of time driving them places, to nearest primary school-3miles away, bundling them up in car to buy a pint of milk or go anywhere other than a recreational walk.
Driving them to bus stop in big village 3miles and away to catch a bus to secondary school. Staying up late to collect from parties or friends houses or afore mentioned bus stop 3miles away.
It did limit work as I still had a school run even at secondary school age and small village primary they went to had no wrap around care.
My eldest DC now drive so we are through the hardest bit, at various times they've loved living here or have felt restricted by it.
I wouldn't go for a night away without them and leave them at home until the eldest passed their driving test as they would be housebound, they were completely reliant on us to go anyway until they passed their test at 18.
I think DH and I will have to relocate around age of 70 as living rurally is impractical if you can't drive so need to prempt that.

@Hedgesfullofbirds your lifestyle sounds idyllic but do you think you'll move in the future, if you can no longer drive for example, or become frail?

I live rurally and have done my whole life pretty much. Where I live is pretty good for connections as there are good n/s/e/w roads meaning that I can get to 4 towns/cities within 40 mins drive.

The lane I live on is very quiet - maybe 5 cars an hour - so it’s nice and peaceful, and I have lovely long views from my house.

There are no shops or pubs in my village but it’s only 10 mins to the nearest corner shop in the next village. It’s quite expensive in there so I tend to get my supermarket shopping done online or drive 30 mins to the nearest Lidl.

Similar set-up for me in rural Scotland. Just back from a couple of hours on the hills with my border collies- five rugged miles off piste. Off to London next week for three intensive days of art galleries (biannual event). I'm 77. Where do you think I should move to?

We are in a lovely little village. We have 1 little shop that charges double the going rate for a loaf of bread, 1 pub and 1 primary school all within a 15 minute walk. Then it's dangerous country lanes surrounding us. So if we want to get out properly, we have to take the car.

I actually love it tbh. But still on maternity leave so who knows of the ballache that awaits me when DD needs childcare etc x

@Bideshi what will you do if you can't drive or become frail? Do you have a plan for when the remote living becomes an issue?

My 2 cousins grew up very rurally on a farm. 20+ minutes drive to even the smallest of corner shops.
Oldest one couldn't wait to get away, but was back within a decade and now lives a 2 minute drive from the farm and is raising 2 kids there.
Youngest cousin never left the farm. Has taken over a lot of the daily running of the place, seems to love it, and is raising 3 kids on the farm. It's a very tight-knit community where everyone knows everyone, going back generations in many cases.

They love it, and in many ways, it's idyllic, but I could never do it. Too much of a townie.

@ExitViaGiftShop, thank you! Yes, I love my current lifestyle, but know that, at some point in the future, I will have to be pragmatic, realistic and sensible about what I can and cannot manage any more and make a move to somewhere where there is public transport and better access to health care facilities etc, should they be needed and I cannot drive any longer. And I am conscious that my parents refused to move from their remote home - my dad ended his days, sitting on his bench in the garden, head in hands, tearful, depressed, no longer able to manage the house, garden or his animals. It was so sad to witness, I do not want the same fate to befall me! I would rather relinquish things before it is too late, so, yes, eventually the day will come when realism takes over and a move becomes neccessary.

I live in a small city and my car doesn't move some weeks. I can walk to the theatre, shops, cinemas, pubs, restaurants. My kids are grown up now but there are perhaps half a dozen schools within a 15 minute walk including one of the highest performing grammars in the UK.

I strongly suspect that people who live in cities walk more than those that live rurally. I walk a LOT every day.

Nothing on earth would compel me to live rurally

@BitOutOfPractice It’s funny how different people are. I feel so strongly but the opposite way - I couldn’t imagine anything worse than living surrounded by so many people and having buildings everywhere I look. Everywhere feels so grubby to me too. As soon as I get into a town I’m counting down until I can leave!

I don’t have cause to walk far every day as I work from home but I always do my daily 10k steps around the fields. I really love driving country roads so I’d miss that a lot if I lived in a town.

I've lived rurally, sometimes in very remote places, since I left university 40+ years ago. I am beginning to plan for the time when I might need access to things if I can't drive, so looking at bungalows in villages on a 'bus route to the town with an acute hospital and major supermarkets. Top priority is being able to walk the dogs from home without having to drive anywhere all the time.

In fact I don't have buildings everywhere I look. I have a river running next to me with ducks and swans and herons and all sorts (and kayakers!) and I overlook a glorious Victorian park (with a lake and fountains) that stretches for miles through the city and out into the countryside - which I can reach in 15 minutes by bike. I feel so lucky to live where I do but like you say, it's a good job we don't all like the same thing or it's be very crowded in my spare room! 😁

We live in a bit of a compromise, rural market town so many things are to hand, but can walk into the countryside within minutes each way. Now I have a teenager that suits, there may not be loads for him to do in town but it’s really safe. He’ll be learning to drive soon.

I teach people to drive and do feel for the ones wholly reliant on parents as taxi, they’re desperate to get their licence to open up their world a bit, and like you say rural roads aren’t always suitable to walk along. One was saying during muddy periods he has a forty minute walk trudging through mud into town, so always has to take two pairs of shoes. It’s a three minute drive into that same town!

I moved to rural Somerset in my 50s because I couldn't stand the south east any more. I realise I'm getting on but my village has a small GP surgery, a shop for basics and I can order everything I want online so when I get too old to drive I'll be fine.
DS moved from Surrey to rural Wales, he didn't like the south east either. We're both much happier in the country.

Rural Norfolk dweller here , but I live in the fens , so proper working countryside rather than the ridiculously expensive coast , in a hamlet with no pub , school or shops . No houses behind me for 12 miles , and until the village started being infilled with self builds, nothing in front for 3 .

We love it . Practically the whole village has dogs , or horses or both , so there's always someone to ride out or walk with , The village hall gets used as our pub on weekends and most people make an effort to get along . It does require some planning - a quick pop to the shops is a five mile drive and if you want a takeaway that isn't Domino's , then go and get it . Some move here taking they're going to re enact the Good Life , only to find that self sufficiency is much harder work than they thought , and the countryside isn't a tranquil playground when the beet eaters are outside your kitchen window.

@FoxtonFoxton
It doesn't sound like you live in Foxton then I always think how well connected Foxton is.

Our nearest neighbours are approx 2 miles away, the one local shop is 4 miles from us and our nearest largest town is a 45 minute drive. We have a little mobile banking van that comes round on a Thursday, a butcher van on a Friday and the fish van on a Tuesday and we can get supermarket deliveries as long as the weather is ok.

We love where we live, there’s skiing most winters and beautiful walks, I walk the hills most days and swim most days too outdoors. We wouldn’t change it for anything, well, maybe the camper vans but apart from that nothing.

@Calochortus I suspect we're more or less neighbours!

Yes.
Love the space and quiet and privacy.
There are schools buses.
Walk on the road or lots of forest walks within 5-10 minute drive.

Downside is a bit of taxiing the teen at weekends but happy to pay that price. It will probably get worse if dc gets a part time job, she will be more limited in what she can do. But the local teens seem to save for cars and learn to drive, it's a good incentive, I suppose.

School has wrap around care.

There are local childminders, local preschool (nearest nursery would be 20 minutes drive so that's a negative if you only want a nursery, but some people use one beside their work)

The other negative, or maybe it's actually a positive, is we rarely get a takeaway as the nearest is 20 minutes away

Yes, small farming village, just one road in and out again, very quiet, which we love after 7 years on a busy A road.We do have a village hall, pavement along most of the (one and only) street, and a few street lights. Does get very muddy from the farm traffic. Nearest small town 4 miles away, nearest small city 15 miles away. Was there today and found it a bit weird seeing so many people and so much traffic!

We live in a rural location on a single track lane about 3/4 mile from a small village. I like it but then I grew up rurally, it was a bit of a shock for my DP. As for child care, the answer for us was aupairs. This does involve a fully expensed and fuelled car, they can't be marooned in the middle of nowhere. As for walking, we are lucky the lanes are really quiet, you can hear cars coming from some distance off. We get about 4 cars an hour down our lane which isn't exactly busy. The kids walked to the village school in the summer but not so much in the winter because of the mud on the roads. As for walking, footpaths abound everywhere, the kids spent their entire childhoods outside in the woods and fields. For secondary school, the kids had to catch the school bus, they did feel they spent a lot of their childhood on the bus. There was a deal more driving around during their teen years dropping them off and picking them up from their friends in other villages. The first thing they all did when they could was learn to drive. That was an expensive time what with all the cars and insurances that needed to be paid for. What do we imagine would be nice if we lived in a town - takeaway deliveries, taxis, no mud, street lighting.

Yes, but in a hamlet in walking distance of a well served village. Shop, cashpoint, fuel station, chippy, bakery, hairdresser, surgery with pharmacy and 2 tearooms are a 10 min walk.

3 miles to another village with more services.

15 mins drive to one small town and one large town. Nearest City is about an hours drive.
Rail station about 4 miles away.

Surrounded by open countryside with footpaths, no streetlights and near a quaint village.

We really do have the best of all worlds.