Moving to a North Yorkshire market town from SE, any recommendations?

[gerbo]

My husband and I hope to move north after our children have left home/graduated, so probably 7-10 years from now. We have family up there (ish) and we hope to downsize, but keep working. I'm a teacher and my husband works in University management.

We like the look of the towns around what seems to be called 'the golden triangle' - Wetherby, Harrogate, Knaresborough. We realise you pay more there.

Does anyone know about these, or could anyone recommend anywhere? Small to large town with good facilities - shops, maybe a cinema/theatre, some life to it? Oh, and a train station for commuting.

Richmond looks lovely, but has no station. Malton?

Many thanks for any info.

If a station is important then Northallerton would be one to look at. It's on the east coast main line.

Wetherby has a cinema but no train.

Knaresborough has a train station and is a lovely town with shops, facilities and river walks.

Which university will you be at?

North Leeds suburbs like Horsforth & Kirkstall have train stations.

If the train line isn't essential then look at villages south of York like Bishopthorpe, Fulford and you can cycle into york on the river.

@SomethingAboutNothing Agreed on Northallerton, I really like that town it has some great pubs.

Thanks, I'll have a look at those suggestions.

No jobs lined up but there are hopefully enough northern universities to enable him to find a job, hence the station.

That's a shame about Wetherby, it looked lovely!

Any opinions in Harrogate itself? I was surprised to see it had a population of 162,000!

Malton probably does have most of what you're looking for - easy train links (and bus) to York and beyond, an independant cinema and lots of social groups and sports clubs, a couple of good sized supermarkets and some great independant shops, 30 minutes from the coast and moors and small hopsital with a minor injuries department. The dissapointing thing is the market - it seems daft to call it a market town when the actual saturday market is quite so poor!

Not N Yorks, but Beverly has all those things and is commutable to Hull if a job came up at Hull uni.

Thirsk is on the mainline. Richmond doesn't have a station (it did but it's been converted into a lovely cinema/cafe/shops!) But it's not far from Darlington on the mainline.

What kind of budget did you have in mind, and what kind of property?

Richmond, Northallerton and Malton are quite a bit further out than the Harrogate Knaresborough Wetherby triangle and probably too far for commuting to Leeds or York for the universities.

I don't think Harrogate feels 'big' or crowded if that's what you're worried about, but I live in Leeds so it's all relative. But I think the train line between Leeds and Harrogate is good so you might find somewhere between that's smaller/quieter but still near a station. There seems to be a few stations in Harrogate, so maybe a few options.

Beverley or Ilkley might be other options casting the net wide. Apparently there are five universities in Leeds so possibly ample opportunities for your DH as well as York and Hull.

What about Skipton?
Not in the golden triangle.
But a proper market town, lots of shops, pubs, restaurants, independent cinema, lots of countryside, Yorkshire Dales on the doorstep. Lovely town centre with a canal running through it, and a castle.
Direct trains to Leeds and Bradford (and Lancaster - but that would be quite a long journey). Direct bus to Manchester, commuting to uni there could be possible by bus or train. Huddersfield, and UCLAN (Preston) uni might also be doable.

I used to live in Thirsk and commute to York uni. By car - train was not very practical, the uni is a fair way from York station and thirsk station is a fair way from the centre too.

It wasn't a fun drive, especially when there was fog in the Vale of York.

Thirsk, Malton, Northallerton, ilkley, otley, skipton.
skipton has a huge market and lots of coach tours visiting.
Malton has a big food market every month but the weekly market is dreadful now. Nice town otherwise but only really close to York.
Beverley is lovely and it’s in East Yorkshire which is a nice area
Theres stokesley if he got a job on Teesside.
Probably worth taking a few long weekends away to visit places both in summer and winter.

No jobs lined up but there are hopefully enough northern universities to enable him to find a job, hence the station.

There are lots of northern unis but 'the north' is huge and not generally well served by public transport. I think it'd be foolish to choose a dream location before securing a job.

It’s a few years off but he must know about the current crisis in HE and who knows what will have happened by then. Whatever you do don’t relocate unless at least one of you has a job before so that you can survive. There was quite a sad thread about people relocating this week who did not secure work and were thinking of moving back. The areas you like the sound of are not cheap for Yorkshire. We relocated but it was 25 years ago and both of us had jobs to go to. But we were at a very different stage of life then and no children.

The B road from Wetherby to York is ultra quiet until you hit the ring road and the bus route to Leeds is excellent so you may find that you don't need a train. There's also a park and ride situated before the start of the traffic build up for York.
If you really want a train, try Poppleton, Green Hammerton or Cattal. There is also Tockwith and Rufforth between Wetherby and York.
Personally, I find anything to the east side of York a bit too far out.

I live in Knaresborough and I work in Leeds and husband worked in Bradford as a teacher. Great for easy access to A1. Also lived in Harrogate - prefer Knaresborough tbh.

Knaresborough has a train station as someone said and a theatre called The Frazer Theatre - regular comedy nights.

Durham and Teeside Universities are commutable from Richmond - York and Leeds are about an hour's drive without heavy traffic.

I know people who commute to Durham from Thirsk and York and many villages in between.

Driving times are much better north of Leeds/Wetherby than in the M62 corridor - there isn't as much traffic on/around the A1 until you get close to Newcastle. I commute ~26 miles to work and it takes me 35 mins at anytime of day even leaving a 5pm. I used to drive 12 miles to work and it would take me well over an hour around Leeds/Bradford.

Thanks all.

We know jobs would need to be secure, I guess tying that up to time with a move is the tricky bit. We will be mid to late 50s when we go, so perhaps having our dream jobs ready to go will be less important, as we'll hopefully be heading to retirement!

Budget? 3-500,000. I'm hoping for more like 400,000 to bank some cash ready for retirement. No ideas about large houses, a solid 2-3 bed terrace would be perfect. For us, it's about location, access to walk to pubs/restaurants/social life/arts....

We did wonder about renting out our house here and renting up there to see how we find it.....

Lots to think about. We have family near Selby and in the Peaks, and I'm Lancastrian, so we are v well aware of the rubbish nature of northern public transport (especially cross Pennine)!