Why are you living in your current location?

[No17CherryTreeLane]

How did you end up living where you are?

Work?
Schools?
Family connections/support?
Other?

We've lived in our current location for over 20 years.
The primary reason was for schooling, and this particular town was chosen as it had direct trains into London (where we moved from) for both our work.
In the intervening years, the majority of people we've met and become friends with have mostly said the same was true for them.

What are your reasons?

We lived in a lovely house in a horrible place. Now we live in a tiny house in a slightly better place. It’s not home.

It was really cheap in 2003.

Commutable to London, nice area close to hills and coast, good high street werebiur criteria. Could afford more that a two bed semi. Now staying for schools

I grew up here and can't afford to move anywhere else - not that I'd want to as all my friends are here.

It’s a rural market town that I’d always enjoyed visiting. My dad worked here sometimes when I was a child, and I used to go to work with him in the holidays, and roam freely in the countryside, and by the river. I spotted a ‘hidden house’ when I visited about 18 years ago, and persuaded DH to come and view it. The rest is history!

I’m ready to move on now though; this is the furthest I’ve ever lived from the sea, and it’s calling me. I have my caravan sited on Anglesey, and that’s where I’d like to retire (to a house- not my caravan).

Because I wanted to live up a single track lane, in a historic, quirky and very unspoilt cottage, with nothing around but green, open space, surrounded by animals, birds, insects and plants, and the sights, sounds and smells of agriculture and be as far away as possible from suburbia, urbanisation, the built environment, noise, traffic, pollution, 'busyness', light pollution and crowds.

Moved here when we had kids as wanted to be in a small town that had everything, for their sake. They’ve been able to walk to both primary and secondary schools and have all their friends within walking distance too, as well as parks, shops, cafes, cinema, swimming pool, gym etc.

We’ll leave when they do but have no regrets, they’ve had a very free and sociable childhood (unlike me, who was stuck in a tiny village with nothing to do - idyllic as a small child but stifling as a teen)

Do you have to drive everywhere?
That's the only thing that puts me off these idyllic places.

Was born here. I haven’t always lived here though, I lived abroad for 10yrs. DH and I plan on moving when we retire. It’s nice where we are, but I have no particular desire to stay.

I moved here because it's the most beautiful place on earth, in my opinion. No roots here but I did come here for a holiday as a child.

We both moved to the wider area for work, and eventually met here. It's sorted of between our two families, who are opposite ends of the country from us, so on a wider geographic basis it makes sense. Our home we chose more for the house, and partly the garden, than for the location. As we had thoughts of starting a family the fact that there's a good school close by contributed, as did the fact that the location overall is very pretty. The school is the main reason we stay here now, as I would like to be somewhere more lively ideally.

I’m from this county originally but met DH when both living and working (met at work) several counties away. When we got made redundant we decided to move back to this area, then when we found jobs we needed to both be able to commute to them easily (no WFH in those days) so we settled here and have stayed, it’s really nice. We didn’t actually consider schools (this was pre DCs) but they turned out to be good here.

Bang for our buck.

Got divorced and wanted to live roughly the same area but couldn’t afford the same town anymore so I’m in a much cheaper town an hour away.

it does have a train line to London which comes in useful as I visit family a lot and they visit me.

got a good big house as well - benefit of living somewhere cheap! Kids at uni/moved out so no need for schools.

Yes, or cycle if a more local journey, but it is not an issue and being here suits me and my preferred lifestyle. And I was brought up in a similar location along a derelict canal with a half mile walk from the nearest road, along a narrow path between the canal and a river. Everything, and I mean everything had to be moved by wheelbarrow or trolley, including hay for my parents' sheep and goats, groceries, bags of feed or our chickens etc. It was an absolutely wonderful, fantastic and adventurous childhood and adolescence, which I wouldn't have changed for the world!

Needed a property with an annexe (or opportunity to build) and because it was closer to my ‘big job’. Big job binned me off just over 12 months after we moved and before annexe was renovated and occupied! We love the house and the area though and the annexe is doing exactly what we needed so we won’t move for a long time even though we have to drive everywhere, pay for schooling because the state provision has fallen off a cliff (it was a good school when we moved here!) and I now have to do a 120 mile round trip 2/3 times a week…

Exh's work brought us here when the dc were still in primary school.
I've never liked it but I have a decent job here.
The dc are at uni now but this is their home.
Exh will retire witjin the next three-four years and will either move to his hometown or to his new partner's, both are more desirable than here, and quite far.
I have another 12 years to go so will no doubt stick around until then at least, unless the dc move away. In that case I may do the same. Where, who knows?

DC left home, my then house was too big for me so I decided to downsize and be mortgage free.

I still wanted to have a house and to have three bedrooms if DC ever needed to move in with me again. This is the cheapest area in the SE where I could buy what I wanted outright.

Husband has always lived on same estate.

Came for a summer job (4 month contract) in 2004. Forgot to leave at the end 🫣 Not as bad as my former colleague who came for Easter weekend in 1962 and never went home.

We’re in Jersey. Eventually met DH who also came for a summer in 1998 or so. We’ve considered moving back to the UK or his home country but now we have DS and we have great friends here so…

For OP’s follow up question, I had no connection here aside from one holiday when I was 4. DH had a sibling already here (and still is).

I’d moved away from my hometown, but moved back when my mum was ill to care for her, then met DH who lived not in my hometown but one not too far away.

Ended up moving in with him, it’s a nice area and close to both our families as well as friends. We had thought about moving a bit further out where we’d get more for our money, but the schools here are excellent so we’ve stayed now we have DC. It’s easily commutable to DH’s work. I work remotely so makes no odds to me, but where we are has good connections for the times I do need to travel for work.

We daydream about moving to various different locations that we love and are special to us, maybe one day in retirement though I expect we’ll stay here in reality - and it’s not a bad place to be.

I 'retired' (still working, actually!) here five years ago.
(a) wanted to move out of London to somewhere with a strong community
(b) best friend grew up here and had moved back, and I wanted to be near her
(c) I knew it was somewhere I could make friends and find lots to do

The town often features in 'best places to live' but for me it's got loads of volunteering opportunities, I can still get into London easily, it has an independent cinema, loads of music events, a market twice a week, and lots of beautiful countryside close by. I'm living the dream - sometimes still can't quite believe I moved here.

I moved into my husband’s house when we got married.

I love the sound of that! A wheelbarrow lifestyle. I really hate relying on a car all the time, but at least you can cycle. The villages near me are dominated by those big 4x4s, there seems to be very little public transport, which is a shame.

Moved one town over from where we both grew up, so about a 7 minute drive. We both wanted to stay close to our families which has provided an amazing support network now we have kids.