Where is your dream village in the UK to call home?

[flutterbye88]

Hi everyone!

After a year of googling, reading posts and mini breaks to check out areas - we're still lost in our search for a forever home/area. It's so hard to get a feel for a place in a short amount of time!

We've discovered many beautiful villages, but we're holding out for 'the one' - one with like-minded sociabe folk and utterly charming!!

So I'd love to put the question to the Mumsnet Hive -

Where is your dream village in the UK to call home?

Who we are and what we're hoping to find:

We’re a family with young children (aged 6, 3, and 1½). hoping to find our forever place, somewhere we can put down roots and be part of a warm, lively community.

We don’t have much extended family around us, so we work on building that sense of belonging from within, for us, and for our kiddies.

We’re the kind of family who love travel, adventure and a bit of fun, but we’re also very grounded and homely.

We love the idea of raising our kids somewhere they can have a proper childhood - muddy knees, village fêtes, neighbours who become friends for playdates AND wine!! Somewhere, the children will feel they have proper roots and people who know them, once we pass.

What we’re looking for:
✨ A beautiful, friendly village with a really strong sense of community. Somewhere where people get involved and look out for one another.
✨ Good schools
✨ Close enough to a safe, interesting town so they’re not climbing the walls as teenagers!
✨ Somewhere that feels special/charming - pretty, welcoming, with that hard-to-describe “spark” that makes you fall in love with it.
✨ A place where, one day, our children will feel proud to come back with their own families.

We work remotely, so we’re flexible on location and can choose anywhere in the UK. Our budget is up to £850k (for a 4-bed house)

Do you live somewhere like this, or know a village or small town that sounds this dreamy? We’d LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear your suggestions, stories, or tips.

We’re ready to build a life somewhere special. 💛

Thank you so much in advance! x

Exactly. What is the Op bringing to said village?
I find the nicest villages are really inclusive of rich and poor and generally have a population that have grown up there and about. Whilst “incomers” are very sniffy about people who don’t leave. They always forget about the wealthy villagers who stay and earn a fortune.

The obvious answer is Hay on Wye or nearby, it sounds like you'd fit right in!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/167322938#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/163395818#/?channel=RES_BUY

I moved from where I grew up in London to rural Suffolk.

I felt like an outsider for a long while as the villagers all knew eachother from childhood. However, once I started working at the local nursery I finally settled in as all the local children knew me. Been there so long some are in Y11 this year! Also meant I got to know their parents so once the children moved on to school I still said hello to the parents when I saw them. Two of my own children were born in the village so they are locals now they are almost adults.

It is nice to be part of a village community, lots of fb village drama though!

The biggest issue has been getting teens around and to school.

@Tumbleweed101 Thank you, this was such a lovely post to read. You’re so right about the importance of showing your value in a new community and proving you’re there to contribute, not take away.
I think you hit the nail on the head becoming a nursery teacher! It’s really heartening to hear you’ve had a positive experience x

@Slinky987 Ooh la la, that house is the dream!!
and Hay on Wye is utterly adorable! I don't think it would be suitable for us as it's not so well-connected to larger towns. But, I can't WAIT to visit!!! Thank you for introducing it to us :) x

Deep roots in a village to me is very much you knew which cousin of your best mate at school had shagged/stolen/ skipped school/knew where to get drugs. I’m not naming where I grew up but very much a rural idyllic coastal

I mean I am not squeamish and never minded a cow pat fight as a kid but be aware it’s very different overall. Mind you villages have lots of remote WFH types now. Disliked intensely where I grew up as house prices since Covid have gone wild and many have moved there. You need to really see if outsiders are welcomed, some villages do and some don’t. Plus sometimes country folk just sort themselves out dispute wise. When DS started to date a farmers daughter I was a bit worried. I have nothing against farmers at all but tried to explain just how approaches can be very different.

i think you’d need a village for the community spirit but then there won’t be heaps and heaps to do when the kids are older. What about somewhere like Knowle, Tamworth in Arden, Henley in Arden? All really pretty, with great facilities and on a train line to a bigger city x

You already have a 4 bed house in a town that ticks most of your boxes. Might not have a maypole but it’s small enough to encompass the original red trouser brigade, the crusties with a dog on a string, and the DFLs.

Instead of spending a small fortune on moving (you’re looking at £40k for stamp duty, agents fees, solicitors and moving costs), just use that cash to update the house you’re in.

@SabrinaThwaite ... not to mention the morris dancers!!😂
True what you say and it is a fabulous little town (even though it doesn't have a maypole, lol).

We've just spent a fortune renovating and decorating. But there's no way we can make it larger (we live in a conservation area with restrictions).

Thank you so much, everyone, for leaving such lovely and detailed messages! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading each one and now have a list as long as my arm to research!

We’re especially drawn to Box, Bradford-on-Avon, and areas around Beverley in Yorkshire after reading your really positive lived experiences and some further research.

I really wish I could go back and edit my original post so it didn’t come across quite so fairytale, unrealistic, or mad (as a few of you put it, lol!) but sadly, it’s past the editing window now.
That said, I’ve found that if I don’t write things with a bit of intensity or heart-on-sleeve, I don’t always get the answers I’m looking for… even if it does leave me open to a bit of friendly criticism!

Just to be clear, for anyone who might have read it differently than I intended:

• We’re looking for a large village or small town with good connections to a vibrant town or city – university cities are a plus. (We’re not looking for the deepest, darkest rural spots!)
• Ideally, there’s a secondary school in the village or nearby (a 20-minute bus ride is fine).
• We’re aware some villages can be unfriendly to newcomers, but we’d love to hear about welcoming, larger villages - as many posters have kindly shared and as we know from experience. Personally, I know a few villages in North Yorkshire that really welcome families with children, helping to keep their small local schools alive! (Though some are too remote for us)
• My main quest is for the children to have a true sense of belonging - somewhere they can put down roots, so that when they grow up and move away, they always have a place they feel connected to. If you already have that, you might find it a bit hard to understand where I’m coming from!
• We do love areas like Hebden Bridge, Totnes, and Stroud, but for various reasons - flooding risks, geography, etc. – we’ve had to rule them out. I also didn’t want to sway people’s answers too much, because what I’m really hoping for is to hear about places we don’t yet know and maybe discover some hidden gems!

For context, I’ve lived in cities (Leeds, Sheffield, London, Brighton, Bristol), as well as small market and historic towns, and I grew up in a village until I was 12 - so I feel I’ve got a pretty good sense of how each compares, and the kind of large village life we’re hoping to find.

Love & peace ✌

Hampshire OP. Schools, fetes, festivals, nice rural businesses, artist studios, food places, farms and markets and villages everywhere. Horrible prices though.

Buxton in the peak District.
It's bigger than a village (although plenty of the surrounding villages tick all boxes) but also has a great theatre and food places. Train to Manchester or Macc is 25 mins away for the London train. People friendly and lots going on. We've been there 4 years and have managed to put down proper roots. Now moving for jobs and not to somewhere nicer (but alot more expensive) and it's a real wrench.

I spent a lot of time in Box and Bradford on avon. Both used to have lots of old people and not that many new families but I think that has changed. I have a colleague who started in Box but moved in as he found it not that welcoming and not enough to do. Connections ok but not great into bath (traffic terrible) and both are a pain to get to the motorway if you are going to travel. Bradford has the community arts centre which is great. Can get touristy. Trains from Bradford need a change to get anywhere that isn't Bristol to Southampton and are often late but plenty use them.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/166789235#/?channel=RES_BUY

I have family who live in this village, lovely community feel, small village with a primary school, two nearby(ish) towns, lots of countryside walks & fairly cheap by today’s standards.

I live in such a place, but you'd be tight on budget unless you want to do some work.

What I'd say my village is if you're minted and drive a 4×4 you slip right in if you're new from London. The wine drinking school mums all host in ginormous houses.

But even though we are 10 miles from a big town and have a station, the kids didn't like growing up here past 11. But you can't move due to friends and local school. Now my adult son has moved hundreds of miles for a major city uni. You can't even walk to a mates house from secondary as not dense population so you could be five miles walk from a school mates house

South Cambridgeshire? Whittlesford, Shelford, Stapleford, Harston, Great Chesterford. All villages with their own character but close to Cambridge and some on the Trainline between Cambridge and London. There's generally community including outsiders due to the university and hospital.

@clubsspadesdiamondshearts sounds lovely and wow, that's a lovely sized house, deffo space for the kids to play! We'll check it out, thank you.

It doesn't sound quite what we're looking for!

We're more, the joyful, sociable, creative types (more Hebden Bridge, less Stepford Wives!) We're actually hoping to find an area with a lower average house price point (to where we currently live) so the there's a greater chance we can mingle with more like minded folk.

You mention Escrick. If is on a bus route close to York. The senior school is Fulford which seems to be a selling point, I did not send my children there.
House prices are expensive compared to nearby villages. In your price range you will get a large house but the properties mainly are sixties and seventies which will need work or already had (some dubious) renovations. There are newer houses but the nice ones (imo) well above your limit. The old properties are predominantly ex estate houses and mainly small and or terraced. If you can push to 5million the old girls boarding school is for sale😂
The village has always had “posh” vibes. Those that fit love it but it is not for everyone.

• My main quest is for the children to have a true sense of belonging - somewhere they can put down roots, so that when they grow up and move away, they always have a place they feel connected to. If you already have that, you might find it a bit hard to understand where I’m coming from!

The obvious answer is to stay where you are. By moving your children now, you'll be uprooting them, just as your parents uprooted you, don't you see?

Holmfirth and Frome and Totnes usually get listed on threads like this.

Never been to any of them but you never know.

This putting down roots thing: I live in a derided part of S London (hence my dream to live in nearby Herne Hill 😂) Dc grew up here, and we have a fantastic sense of community. Dc live in different cities now but still gather here to spend time with friends they had since Reception. They went to primary and secondary within walking distance so knew many many people in the immediate community. Scouts. Extra curricular projects. Street parties.

I know far more of my neighbours than my siblings who live in ‘idyllic’ rural market towns and whose kids had ti be driven / bussed to school

Its an attitude and an outlook. I love Hebden Bridge to visit (and do, for days at a time as I have dear friends who live there, on the hill so no flooding) but couldn’t live there. The ‘community’ is claustrophobic, self conscious and censorial. God forbid if you don’t subscribe to every ‘correct’ outlook. Friend in Totnes finds the same thing and stays circumspect from many community networks.

Diversity, tolerance, a representative demography of people living normal humdrum lives and working nearby seems to keep communities strong and invested, IMO.

I agree with this, your children are already rooted in Lewes OP. Brighton is also a fantastic city to live near with lots of opportunities for teen clubs and shopping etc. Appreciate Lewes is expensive but it ticks all your boxes. Could you not find a village nearby in East Sussex? It’s rural but has great connections with London and Brighton.

I'd suggest St Mary Mead, just round the corner from Miss Marple, or the village where Just William lived. In short, I don't believe this exists nowadays, a friendly little village with a decent school, doctor, shops and public transport. As they grow, your kids will loathe being stuck in the middle of nowhere. Get your head out of the fictional 1920s, and at the very least look for a property in a decent-sized town, so you have facilities and better options. In my area that would be Bakewell, Matlock or Buxton.

To be honest, I am not quite understanding the need for you to create "deep roots" somewhere for your children "long after you've gone". Presumably by the time you are gone, your children will be in their 50s or so and will have had plenty of chance to create their own life and sense of belonging, which might well look very different from the one you aimed to create.

My parents moved location signfificantly when I was 6 and when I was 13. They also moved house/town more locally after that. I did not like the moves (particularly the one aged 13) and did not feel very connected to a place at all. And the town we moved to aged 13 was not one I would have wanted to feel connected to anyway, it was just not "me". That experience influenced my wish to stay in the same place while the children were young. We moved to a village when they were age 1-3 and are still there 20 years later with no intention of moving.

However, I would say that as an adult, I now have my own sense of belonging based on 20 years of living in one place, of my own choosing, where I have invested in friendships and community. It no longer worries me at all that I don't have a clear "roots" based in childhood and that I never go back to anywhere I lived as a child (my parents are both passed).

So, I would say do worry about moving your children during their childhood/teen years. But possibly don't worry too much about building childhood roots that would survive into later adulthood and beyond your own demise. And definitely don't move your kids in later childhood in order to make those roots for them!

@Bikergran we do actually though still have a fair few villages/very small towns like this in Somerset , mainly surrounding Bath - still got decent facilities, quite a few still on train and not too bad bus links either. Hence I think why it’s pricey and in demand. I would say same is true in surrrey too - places like Ripley, Godalming ( small town) Farnham ( small town) still have decent facilities and great countryside plus transport links and easy into Guildford or Woking - again pricey and in demand - I certainly though as you say would want to be within 6 miles of a much bigger place these days ( partly for medical facilities too) and ideally it be on train or main bus route too and regular . I would adviseOP against buying in a pretty village just with 1 shop, 1 pub and no decent town or city or hospital or secondary school within 8 miles -