Have you ever Escaped to the Country?

[merryandbrightdelight]

Not exactly AIBU but let’s leave it here.

Watching Escape to the Country and I’ll admit it’s my total guilty pleasure, especially when the couple have a budget of £650k but can ‘stretch to £900k for the right property’.

So my question is, have you or anyone you know ever escaped to the country? Or what would it look like to you?

I’m in the North East, and to me it’s Devon, the Cotswolds or Chipping Norton area. Streams, a village pub, wooden beams in chocolate box cottages, birds singing, hanging baskets, dog walks etc. Pretty much nothing like where I live now 😂

I know lots of other incomers where I live. They are either retired or do normal jobs - they aren't clueless, rich city folk with daft hobby jobs. It's not an especially inconvenient place to live. It's quite a long way to the nearest airport, and the public transport isn't great, but as long as you have a car it's fine.

Dude, I want to move to where you are! Sounds absolutely idyllic! I’m so happy for you.

I did. We left the suburbs of London for a gorgeous house in a little village in the Swedish forest. I absolutely bloody hated it. Weeks would go by without seeing another soul. I thought this would be amazing. It wasn't, it felt like we were the only survivors in an apocalypse movie. We lasted a year before moving back to civilisation.

Ooh l love that show - always blows my mind when they need at least 5 bedrooms! Wtf!

What I always find hilarious is when they want a quaint little cottage ... but, you know, with a big open-plan kitchen diner, and high ceilings and lots of light. And they'll be shown something gorgeous but they'll look sadly at the wonky walls and little garden ... then they choose some characterless box with one of those awful pitched-roof glazed 'extensions' shoved on the back.

Technically I suppose I escaped to the country; I always lived in city centres as an adult and now I am fairly rural. But we simply moved to where there were cheaper properties and where my now-ex had found a job. We initially looked for houses in the local town and we didn't particularly expect to put down roots. I think that's probably a good way to do it - people who think they're going to find their forever home really need to do a lot of research to figure out what they actually want.

Yup, firstly on the south downs national park and recently Somerset but I did it on a much smaller budget. I was dragged up in London and hated it so I escaped to the country at my earliest opportunity.
I am now surrounded by countryside and woodland on all sides and half an hour from the Jurassic coast in Devon.

Not quite the country, but escaped London to live in a small market town in Somerset. I love it!

@IWouldBeATerribleMayor I am intrigued! Are you on a Scottish island or the Isle of Man?

We escaped to the country after being on Escape to the Country, albeit a different part of the country.

We’ve been here over ten years now, and enjoy it, but are ready to downsize. We’ll stay in the area, but plan to move to a somewhat bigger village just to have easier access to local facilities and public transport as we age.

I've lived in Oxfordshire for a while but last year we moved to a much smaller village surrounded by countryside. There is a community as we have two pubs, tennis courts, playground and a primary school. But you have to drive out of the village to get to anything else, including shops. The village next to us featured in Escape to the Country recently. We love it. But I've never been a fan of cities or big towns. I like visiting them but I like leaving them even more.

I always dreamed of living on a farm in the middle of no-where. Pottering around feeding chickens and growing vegetables. Sitting on my porch on a rocking chair surrounded by nothing but countryside. No neighbours for miles. But I suspect the reality of living THAT remote perhaps isn't as idyllic as it seems in my head.

You need to pick your place with care so that you can get the best of both worlds. You need a lively village with lots going on and within supermarket delivery distance.

I brought my children up rurally - they have now grown up - and they have all grasped the advantages of city life whilst at university and then couldn't wait to get back to what they see as real life with green all around.

Our village has a small primary school, a state of the art eco-friendly and very beautiful village hall designed like a light and airy cruck barn, a multitude of activities, no shop (nearest is about 1 mile away), and no PO, a popular pub with quizzes and bands - so swings and roundabouts, but certainly not cut off from human contact.

We did and we love it, life just feels so much better here.

We did and we absolutely love it. We walked straight off our property for 10km this morning and didn’t see a soul. We have no neighbours in sight or hearing distance, bliss. We do need to drive to access shops/Drs etc but it’s only 10 mins, we can get deliveries and we are 20 mins drive from a city.

I know 2 couples who have been on the show escape to the country. They are both pretty… unusual people - hard to explain but people where everything has to be branded as something exciting rather than just moving house 😆 both did it because the couldn’t afford what they wanted in London so their had was forced really but they embraced the “out of the rat race nature etc etc” as part of the branding to make it more exciting I think.

I have dreamed so long of escaping that now it’s probably too late as I’m not too far off retirement.
I rent an amazing council property in central London and struggle to find what or where I would swap to. Open to suggestions for market towns with access to country walks.

I grew up in the country. It was idyllic, think ponies, dogs, long hot summers, a treehouse, playing out all day with jam sandwiches and a bottle of pop. My older sister married a local farmer and I spent wonderful days running wild around the farm.

I’d escape again but my circumstances aren’t right.

Yes we did it a year ago. Moving from A large city to a village in Cumbria. It’s also the place we visited every year for 37 years and so loved. It’s everything we thought it to be and more. One child and their family have moved here too which is wonderful.
life is slower, quieter and so much more simple.
lLocal drs practice is like a breath of fresh air. Same day appointments, easy to book. Hospitals are further away but when needed care has been good.
No ‘big’ shops near us but good local butchers, grocers, green grocers and bakery.
As others have said the lack of noise is wonderful. Just birds, cow and sheep noises and the odd tractor.
We are retired so no stress with jobs etc but dd has been able to work part time now as they down sized and dgd attends local village school with 11 in her class.
No negatives from a young family and a retired couple. Best decision we made!

I would love to hear from people who have been on escape to the country - what was it like? Are the presenters as they come across on TV?

I escaped from the English Shires to SW Scotland. Best thing i have done. Property was so cheap and the roads are empty compared to down south. So much to do and no need to spend a fortune to have a day out.

I moved from London to a chocolate-box village in Leicestershire, having grown up in the countryside in my home country. It was an incredibly depressing experience — insular, parochial, weirdly conformist.

As others have said the lack of noise is wonderful. My latest OH used to say that the loudest thing we could hear was the farting of the cattle!!

You see I love Sweden but would want to be in a nice posh bit of Stockholm or somewhere like Lund or Ystad, ! I don’t do isolation .

DH was born on Exmoor. Me coastal North Devon. We now live coastal Cornwall.

Not sure weve ever "escaped" to the.country as such. In fact, for careers, our kids have "escaped to civilisation".

So what I would say is list the pros and cons as there are both and somethings can fit both! For example, we can access the coast path for walks from our house and have sea views, but we have to travel 10 miles for a supermarket and further for a decent retail park....and even further for a hospital.

Many homes are unique too and we dont actually have that many compared to many places. So finding the right one in the right place isnt necessarily easy. Weve talked about moving for 20 years but never find anywhere, so give up!

Late OH - not latest!

Yup

I live in the middle of the countryside in a large farmhouse + barn conversion.
Built around 1760, and it was a small holding, but the other barns have been converted into small houses (our neighbours) and the adjoining field was sold off and built on about 100 years ago too.

The bonus's are its dark and peaceful and quiet.
We have lots of wildlife and gorgeous views.
We have a huge garden with tonnes of space to play / camp / grow loads of veg and a massive green house.
Having fresh veg in our garden almost all year.
Having hens eggs to biy from our neighbour down the road as and when

Negatives include
Being a long walk from any bus route.
the same long walk to the nearest tiny spar type shop
Being several miles from a train station
NEEDING a landrover because we get "proper snow"
RUBBISH internet (no fibre got to us)
next to know phone signal
In power cuts we are the first to loose power but last to get it back