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 🤔

There is a railway station 1 mile outside my village. Access to it is by narrow, winding country lanes with no pavements. The trains only stop every 2 hours in each direction and it is a request stop only - you have to signal to the driver from the platform that you want the train to stop (or find the train manager on the train to tell them you want to get off). I'd say that probably only happens in rural areas!

Nearest station, corner shop and letter box 30 minutes walk 6 minute drive. Nearest supermarket 7 miles. Nearest pub 2 minutes walk!

There not many farms in the south east that would meet some of these definitions!

If a farm isn’t rural I’m not sure what is. “Rural” is not “wilderness”.

Quite, if you try to move to Lewes you’ll always be a DFL (even if you are actually from Uckfield).

Remote my aunt and uncle who live on an Island connected by bridge to the main land of Shetland. They have excellent, mobile phone signal, super fast WiFi, mains water and electric, but a septic tank.
Rural - me live in a collection of houses that doesn’t even count as a hamlet between two hamlets and small village. Nearest shop is a service station at a main dual carriageway junction, virtually no mobile phone signal ( we have a very expensive roof top booster), terrible WiFi - gigaclear wouldn’t even come down our road let alone up the unadopted lane we live on. No takeaways deliver. We have mains electric and water, but have septic tank. Big views of woodland and fields. We loose electric, phone and water on a regular basis due to our infrastructure being really poor. But we are in the South East just on the edge of the Thames Valley.
The best bit is we are a dark sky area which allows me live in the South East, but satisfy my Scottish roots needing big skies

Government regards a settlement of less than 10,000 inhabitants as being "rural" so it covers most villages and quite a lot of smaller towns.

Rural just means in the countryside.

I grew up in a village surrounded by countryside, no mains gas, poor public transport, few amenities, no transport links to a city, not even a big town nearby. By definition I suppose not rural but it certainly felt like it. 2 mins walk to open fields. Farming all around. Horrible for a teenager!

Rural means in the countryside outside of towns and cities. Most small villages are rural.

Postman Pat lives in a rural village and it has a post office, a shop and a bus route.

Even the locals (we aren’t local) say we are out in the sticks but I don’t think it’s that bad as we have a large major A road only 5 miles away. They perhaps say it because there’s not much around us.

We are high up and get cut off for several weeks a year in winter. We have no neighbours nearby. Our driveway is 1/4 mile long and it’s 5 miles of single track to get to a main road.
We have a septic tank and on well water.

It takes 50 minutes in the car to get to the city but only 20mins to a small town, larger town is 25 mins. Kids take mini buses to school that collect at the end of the track.
North east Scotland here.

....and a helicopter 😁

The Postman Pat test is a new benchmark.

Only on MN!
I've never heard anyone say they live urbanly 😁

Loving Postman Pat being the "rural" benchmark 😂

I think most people say it on mumsnet when they are met with suggestions to do x, y and z when they have an issue, so they have to say they live rurally in order to get people to understand the position they are in.

@HowDairy
"Loving Postman Pat being the "rural" benchmark"
I'm old enough to remember the Trumptonshire rules.
Trumpton was the town. Had the fire station and the town hall.
Camberwick Green was a village. Definitely more rural because they had the windmill.
Chigley was also a village but more industrial because it had a factory.
Conclusion.....
Camberwick Green = rural.
Chigley = not rural.

I also love the Postman Pat benchmark. It is a good illustration of a rural community, everyone knows the postman (also Evri driver), milkman, pub landlady/ bar staff, shop workers. And they probably know all of us.

@Zen
"everyone knows the postman"
I have always been fascinated by a red haired postman and the amount of red haired children in that community.....

Loving 'the North' not having connection to the national grid

😂

This, basically

I have grown up in an area where most kids need a lift down their “driveway” to be collected by the school bus, water dries up in the summer and freezes in the winter, everything is a half hour drive away, there are a handful of kids in some entire primary schools and when they shut, they move to a “bigger” primary school that will only have a handful of kids in an entire year group too!

If Postman Pat = Rural
Mary, Mungo and Midge in their tower block top floor flat = Urban

Maybe a modern benchmark could be the Internet connection speed?

I like the Postman Pat test.

I'm feeling the urge to start a new thread.....
"Is the village of Greendale utopia?"

I always lose my phone internet signal when I'm in Dulwich Village.
Which despite it's name it's deep inside London 😂

According to the link upthread whee I live us rural (as i thought)

Small hamlet. No shop, pub, post office, school or anything at all. No pavements or streetlights, or Drs. There is a post box though! The church is no longer in use. There is, miraculous, an hourly bus service but only because we happen to be between 2 market towns. 6 miles to one, 10 to the other. An hours minimum, drive to a city.

Also, no delivery service for takeaways.

Oh and no mains gas.