to ask if it's grim moving up north

[Eugenekrabs1]

I am from the south (England) and have lived here for most of my life. DH is from the north but has lived in the south for many years. We have children who are school age.

Circumstances have changed for us recently and because of this, we are considering a move to H's northern homeland. I'm wondering what other people's experiences of moving their family have been like.

H has friends and family there whereas I (although being welcomed by them) will not have any friends and will need to find a new job. Our kids are not keen to move.

In short, we don't have to move but there are lots of pros to us taking the leap. At the moment I have a list of pros and cons which I will proceed to bore you with....

Pros
Bigger house with little mortgage
Job change for me (something I want)
DH is close to friends and family - lovely for him
Can get a dog (all want one, current house small)

Cons
Taking kids out of schools they are happy in. They will have to make new friends.
Once we sell in the south it is unlikely we will be able to afford to return
No friends/family close to me
Leaving an area I like (but a house that's too small and expensive to extend)
Rain up north

I'd be grateful to hear any tales of similar moves. Is it grim up north or should I just stop being risk averse and make the move?

A post above made me chuckle. Talking to someone at work who met a lass who had never been outside of London, educated she was moved up here for a job. She was genuinely surprised we had electricity here, had been dreading it the works. Some people are that thick.

OP where you're planning is down south to me and it certainly isn't grim.. Lord I fought tooth and nail not to have to move anywhere near London where the husband wanted me too. Not a chance in hell!

Have a holiday as has been suggested and see what's what. You might be surprised.

Haha Simon. I'm assuming that you have an indoor one as well though

Come on OP tell us where.

I think most of you are forgetting the world ceases to exist outside the north circular - as can be evidenced on the mn topic "rural living" containing such gems as "has anyone been to Luton?" (Or was it Enfield? Somewhere hilariously non-rural anyway).

I'm from Manchester, DH is from south Wales. We just moved back up north. He thinks its a bit odd here, but then that's probably due to the language barrier as a lot of people seem to think he's Polish or related directly to Tom Jones.

Thanks for the replies.
We would move to the area DH's family/friends live because we would have people to socialise with etc straight away. Although it's not a very pretty place and there are other amazing places mentioned above, it seems to make sense to go there because we know people and wont be (initially) isolated (of course I know you have to make the effort but real friends take time to make). I think if it was a more appealing area, I'd be much less torn about the move.
We would love to keep our house here and rent it out but we wouldn't get a mortgage on another one.

I did the opposite to you....moved my family from Manchester to the south. For us it was a good move but we were moving from a really bad part of Manchester, not one of the nice parts.

As somebody has already said, every town/city has its good and bad places so it's important to know which areas to choose - which your DH will already know.

It's not all plain sailing to move your family to another part of the country but, with time, the children will adjust....and their new Manc accents will soon emerge :)

I'm in the north (Yorkshire) and its the happiest place on earth.

You couldn't pay me to live in London.

You don't need to live that near them, move somewhere you like!!!

You don't need to buy, rent out your house and rent in the new area?

I've lived in several parts of England and a couple of areas of Scotland. People are people. It's colder here but less traffic, cheaper houses and great scenery, although areas of England have great scenery too.
One thing I found with moving is that you have to be flexible about your hobbies and take up what's fun to do locally unless you're amazingly talented at something very specialised.

Is it South Manchester OP? I live in Cheshire and it is definitely not grim! And the Peak District is lovely.

No you wont be initially isolated, but pretty soon the attraction of family around will still not help with the fact that you dont like where you are going to be living!

Find a place you like, thats the most important thing. With good school and a housing you want to live in. You will make friends, but you will also be living in somewhere you love too.

Where are you at the moment OP? do you live rurally or in a big city?

Hello. This is the North speaking. Thank you for your application, after careful consideration wee rather you and your ignorance stayed down south. Thank you for your interest and best wishes for the future.

THE SOUTH IS NOT JUST LONDON !

< as you were>

I'd also advise against going too rural if you've always been a townie. Having to either drive everywhere or being limited in what you can do gets tedious and pretty scenery isn't much compensation in winter when it's dark all the time. Live somewhere with stuff to do and cycle to the pretty scenery

I hate these threads, I've already spotted my hometown being slagged off and spelled wrong to boot I like the North, I like the South too. I can't believe people still believe we are one homogeneous backwards mass. It just makes people look a bit daft.

Yes OP, 'the North' is one great homogenised blob where no area differs from another... they're all grey, damp and filled with match stalk folk chomping on pie crusts. Tis grim indeed .

X posted with someone who can spell .

High Fives Shockers

Until April this year I lived in N Yorkshire but worked in London. Every day now I thank god that I don't ever have to go back down there again. That's grim.

It's great up here.

We moved from much further north than Manchester down south, and found it lonely here, by comparison. People were much more open and friendly up North, even though the weather was a bit worse. Do go for a decent area, tho - like any city, there are rough bits.

Just realised I can also spell .

OP, this is what happens to folk in the North... a combination of rainwater seeping up the trouser leg, and Boddingtons to the brain sends you proper daft.

That's why I find these threads amusing. It's perfectly acceptable to slag off the north but if I I've an opinion that London for eg is a toilet I get hooked bosoms, cats bum and a kick in the face.

Back atcha Metallic!