What does “rural” mean to you?

[HowDairy]

We see it very often on MN - “I live rurally”.
So what do you consider is rural?
Just how far out of town is proper rural living?

To me, it means that you have to drive for the essentials - milk, bread etc.
But then, “ walkable” means different things to each and every one of us, dependent on ability.
So, answering my own question, it’s basically a how long is a piece of string scenario 🤔

Small hamlet with no shops within walking distance. (Half hour walk each way i think is a reasonable max for realistic walking distance)

If you don't have running water or connection to the national grid. Basically anything up north.

I live in a village. It has a small shop so I don't have to drive to get basics but do for any proper shop. We can get a few takeaways to deliver but for an extra cash fee and mostly reliant on driving for that too. There are fields for miles in all directions from the village. The bus service is shit and stops running really early.

However we are only 10 minutes from the motorway, same from a reasonable sized town and 20 minutes from a city.

So who knows whether it counts as rural.

The moors.

I hate seeing 'rural' on here.

Silly made up word. They mean they live out in the countryside.

Or as my mum would say 'the sticks'.

I'd say not. I agree with the above - no shops in walking distance, and definitely no takeaways. You live somewhere inconvenient.

I live in a village with no shop and no bus service. No schools, my DC went to next village on a school bus. Nearest shop is 6 miles, nearest large village 6 miles, nearest market town 12 miles, nearest city 15 miles.
So we aren't hours from civilisation but it's rural, surrounded by farms and fields and nothing going on. If you run out of milk it's not a disaster but you have to get in the car so I plan and shop to avoid that. No such thing as Just Eat etc.

I hate seeing 'rural' on here.

Silly made up word. They mean they live out in the countryside.

Yeah, bloody Romans, giving us words. What have they ever done for us?

I grew up on a farm where some of the fields went up to the town boundary, but it was definitely rural, even if it wasn't like the Welsh hill farm my grandparents had.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a81ae00e5274a2e8ab5547c/Defining_rural_areas__Mar_2017_.pdf

Living rurally to me means a house on its own, or on its own within a small hamlet. No public transport anywhere nearby, must drive to shop, doctor, dentist, school, work. A trip to the big town is no more than a weekly event. Neighbours are not nearby, but everyone knows your business just the same and people can be cliquey and a bit wary of incomers.

There can be a smell of silage and manure around. Quiet and peaceful, but rather boring depending on whether you've always lived rurally or not. The Parish Council runs everything, can't put up a bunting without their approval. Close knit community when it gets together for the village fete and so on.

Think Midsomer Murders. Must be very dangerous living in a place like that 😊

I live in a small village. No shops, pavements, public transport. Nearest town is 5 miles away. We are surrounded by farmland and woodland. Without a car you couldn’t live were we do. I think that is rural.

You beat me to it. I used to work in rural development and the official definition was a settlement of under 10,000 people so some quite large villages/small towns would be included.

Half a mile outside the centre of town.

Nearest shop to us would be a 3 - 4 mile drive. Village primary 2 miles away. No bus service (apart from school transport). But I still live on a housing estate and there are amenities in the town 4 miles away so doesn’t feel rural to me even though I look out at a field of cows and deer cross our road regularly!

Only inconvenient if you don't have a car!

I think you’re all confusing rural with remote.

Not within walking distance of the tube.

I live in a market town. To get to the city I go on country roads and dual carriageway. I consider myself to live rurally. Previously lived in city centre, I was living urban.

I live in a small hamlet. There's a tiny shop in a village 3.5 miles away but other than that it's 9 miles to the next nearest village with a proper shop, doctor etc. Nearest bus stop 3 miles. Nearest town 32 miles. No takeaway deliveries, if only!

Hell on earth.
Grew up in a rural location, got myself to a big city as soon as I could. When I go back to visit my parents, I can manage 48 hours without getting itchy about the abundance of wildlife, the inability to do ANYTHING without a car and the noise of nature (give me a siren on the south circular any day of the week).

Rubbish. On 'the moors' is not necessarily any more rural than some villages. You can be on the moors and only be several miles from a town. Rural means in the countryside! Check your facts. I live RURALLY. Small village, 5 miles from a Market Town, no public transport, no shops, surrounded by farms, and woodland, near the canal, and near a river. And only a Church, a small Parish Hall, and a small primary school with 47 children here. Population around 300, and most houses (including mine) are quite old, (and mostly cottages,) with big gardens/a decent plot of land. I can walk for and hour and a half and still be in the countryside. Of course I live rurally FFS.

Depends .

Normal : in a remote village with countryside either side of you with very few neighbouring houses and no very local amenities/shops.

Wannabe middle class : in a semi detached characterless new build on a new housing estate just off your local A road , right next to Tesco.

No shops, no streetlights, country roads possibly no mains gas and a septic tank. That’s what it means to me and I have lived ‘rurally’

What? Like Manchester?

Silly made up word. Those silly Romans and their silly made up Latin language

I live in the arse end of nowhere. No mains gas or mains water or waste. Well on our land. Pumped into the house. Not filling water frim the well in buckets of course 😀 3 miles to nearest village shop. 20 miles to town.

Rural or just remote?