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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to want to move 'up north'?

454 replies

onemiddlefinger · 19/02/2015 14:38

That is if South Yorkshire is actually considered 'up north'?
We have always lived in London and now DH might have a job offer near Sheffield and i'm actually surprised that really want to move.
If someone told me 3 years ago that we might be moving nearly 3h away from London i would have been laughing, but now it might be a reality and i'm really hoping it works out.

We would have less money each month, but i would be able to stay home with DC for a few years and we would have much more space, a lovely house, a garden and DH would have more free time to spend with us.
I'm just so sick and tired of squeezing into our tiny flat and worrying about the downstairs neighbours coming to complain again about the noise and the commute on packed tube trains and just generally people everywhere.

AIBU?
Maybe it's just a phase of being fed up and once we actually move i'll be missing London? This is really all i can think about the last few days and in my head i'm already decorating the house and imagining us there - kids happy playing, our family able to come and visit (they live in another country) and actually be able to stay with us comfortably.

OP posts:
BikeRunSki · 19/02/2015 19:30

Penistone is my nearest town, about 6 miles away. It's a great area.

BikeRunSki · 19/02/2015 19:31

But South Yorkshire is historically the West Riding hopping.

lastlines · 19/02/2015 19:33

I love Sheffield. One of the best place sin UK to live imo. Especially with a young family. You have the most amazing walks, climbs, landscape on your doorstep. I can imagine being very happy there. But then I'm from the North and so is DH, so I'm biased.

DurhamDurham · 19/02/2015 19:37

I'm even further Up North in a Durham, to my friends Down South that's practically Scotland!!

The North has some vibrant cities that sit very nicely with the beautiful coastline and countryside. I lived in London,then Hertfordshire and finally Buckinghamshire before finally moving back to Durham where I was born.

Happiest day of my life Grin

MissMuffetisin · 19/02/2015 19:39

I live in a market town south of Sheffield, I love it. BUT my DS1and DD both needed to move to London to find work in the fields they wanted.

Deborah1971 · 19/02/2015 19:40

By all means come to Sheffield - it's fab, but don't let everyone from down South know, otherwise they'll all want to come!!

TheOddity · 19/02/2015 19:43

Also I think the people saying you can't go back mean you wouldn't be willing to live in a pokey flat in the outskirts of London when you've had a house with a garden in a naice area!

SaskiaRembrandtWasFramed · 19/02/2015 19:45

Durham I used to live in Durham, it is a beautiful city. Nice people too.

CaurnieBred · 19/02/2015 19:46

I would move but I would investigate "let to buy" mortgages and try to keep the London flat on. I think once you have London property you would be mad not to try everything to keep hold of it.

natureplantar101 · 19/02/2015 19:46

Im from Leeds Grin it has declined rapidly in the last 5 years or so moved as soon as a I could haven't been back since
Harehills,Seacroft, Chapeltown,Roundhay, Halton Moor, Gipton, Cross Gates,East End Park,etc all places that have gone to the dogs never to return. Lawnswood and Alwoodley are supposed to be nice and all the naice children from my high school lived in Gledhow

sandgrown · 19/02/2015 19:48

You could consider Lancashire too. Lancaster has free grammar schools with 99% pass rate and a great university. Close to beautiful Morecambe Bay and the Lake District.

Awks · 19/02/2015 19:51

I live on the N Yorkshire coast but work part week in London. Believe me, I thank god every time those train doors open at York and I'm home. It's brilliant here, fill yer boots Grin

RaisingSteam · 19/02/2015 19:59

It's my mission never to move further south again and ideally to get north of the Midlands. I'd love to live in Yorkshire or Derbyshire. Better scenery, better leisure, less traffic, cheaper houses, friendly people. You can live in a buzzing city with a John Lewis and still be within 10 minutes of the countryside.

Colleagues in the Sheffield office of our company all seem to be out of the office at 5 to go fell running and mountain biking. I'd go for it like a shot.

PiratePanda · 19/02/2015 20:08

I LOVED living in the Yorkshire Dales and commuting into
Leeds, and would move back in a heartbeat if we could both find decent jobs there. But my job there at the time was just awful, so no chance.

And it's not an inconsiderable thing giving up London property. You'll never be able to afford to move back. You may not want to. But what if you do? Or if you have to? Biggest financial mistake of my life buying a house in Yorkshire, then having to move South again. Couldn't sell for five years and lost 25% of the house's value thanks to buying at the top of the market. It is not the same housing market as the Southeast a AT ALL. Which is fantastic if you never want to leave the North. Terrible if you do/have to.

PiratePanda · 19/02/2015 20:10

Natureplantar that's a pile of crap.

GourmetGold · 19/02/2015 20:18

YANBU!

I'm another southerner living oop north, North Yorkshire.

There's so many great places and stunning countryside all over Yorkshire, when I drive to West Yorkshire, the views just take my breath away!
I feel so at home, especially in West and South Yorkshire, am sure I lived here in a past life!

I remember discovering Knaresborough one summer Shock down by the river, all the little rowing boats ...felt like being on holiday in France or Italy!

I was a student 20 years ago in Sheffield and LOVED it, especially being called 'lovey' & 'ducky' all the time Smile (I'd come from Surrey!)
I lived in at Ranmoor...ohh tres posh Grin.

Sheffield is the setting for a few films...including 'The History Boys', 'Threads' (Shock poor Sheffield!!), 'The Full Monty' and poet Sir John Betjeman wrote a poem 'An Edwardian Sunday, Broomhill, Sheffield'.

ToastedOrFresh · 19/02/2015 20:21

I live overseas and will probably move back to Britain in the next couple of years. I'm toying with the idea of moving to, 'the north'.

I don't really want to return to Surrey or even the South East. I don't want my husband to get sucked back into the London commute. Got out once, going back would be a backwards step.

It will kind of be dependent on where my husband can get work as he's the professional.

I wouldn't rule out a move back to the South East but then we are right back into the very expensive property quandary. As above, got out once, going back would be a backwards step.

As long as we can get the quality of life that suits us I'm fairly open minded where we live. As long as we can actually buy a nice house in a nice area it doesn't have to be in the South East of England.

EpicBlue · 19/02/2015 20:22

I personally didn't like it, we're now back home. However, it meant we could move and be mortgage free and even though we don't live there any more we were able to move away and buy outright so we don't regret it.

GertrudePerkins · 19/02/2015 20:26

I'm a native Londoner, but we swapped London for a city in the north a few years ago

i loved London, and at the time would have moved back like a shot if we'd won the lottery. I'm not so sure now. People on normal salaries are leaving in their droves, and the area where we lived has no so much gentrified as disappeared up its own arse.

the countryside in the North is so much better. I still like visiting the London for the theatre and exhibitions, but a Saturday day return is only £38 (including tube/bus) and takes just over 2 hours, so we visit every couple of months.

Comingfoccacia · 19/02/2015 20:32

Look at all the cool bands that have come out of Sheffield!

ToastedOrFresh · 19/02/2015 20:35

I love London for a day trip or even stay overnight for the hell of it. However, come the following morning all I wanted to do was go home back to Surrey.

So I would return to London for a day out but that's about it.

I've never wanted to live in London in my life, I still feel that way. Love London for a visit. Live there ? No.

ouryve · 19/02/2015 20:39

we don't still use horses and carts!

Er, some people in my part of the country still do. The same people still have coal fires, not fitted restropectively to improve the value of their bijoux property.

SaskiaRembrandtWasFramed · 19/02/2015 20:40

"I feel so at home, especially in West and South Yorkshire, am sure I lived here in a past life!"

A bit woo but - about 6 years after I moved here, I got into genealogy and discovered my family originally came from a village about 10 miles away from where I now live.

SaskiaRembrandtWasFramed · 19/02/2015 20:43

Cool fact about Doncaster: Niche 70s band, Be Bop Deluxe wrote a song about Doncaster Minster - which is beautiful BTW.

Southeastdweller · 19/02/2015 20:51

Thinking of doing the same when I get a decent job so shamelessly place marking here.

I went to Sheffield for the first time in 2013 and really liked it. I can see why both universities are so popular.