To hate the town in which I live?

[CuckooLuckoo]

I've name changed as it might make me identifiable .

I live in quite a rough town in an area of the UK that is commonly thought of and joked about as being full of unintelligent, inbred people. I absolutely hate it here.

I grew up in a really lovely place with friendly people and then when I was 15 my parents decided to move to this area because of my father's work. I started at school here and absolutely hated it. I ended up leaving school at 16 and getting a job and for some reason just never moved away. DH is not from here but also moved here as a child like I did.

Reasons I hate it here:

Its very very rough. Especially the town centre. It's like being on the Jeremy Kyle show when you walk through town.

People who are from the area are extremely rude and unfriendly. You are not considered a local unless you are someone's cousin and someone has known you since birth. If you chat to someone, for example, who is serving you in a shop, they look at you like you're absolute crap. Every single friend that I have is not from the area originally.

There is nothing to do here at all; if it's a rainy day the only place to take kids is a smelly, dirty soft play place that has drug addicts in the door way. We have no decent shopping centre, no decent cinema, no ice skating/roller skating/trampolining places for kids, no decent restaurants or pubs (stabbing is a problem in pubs here it seems). There is literally nothing to do!

The general 'rough-ness' of the area worries me for my DC growing up.

It's in the middle of nowhere! You can't just pop to another town for the day without driving for an hour!

I really want to move away from the area but DH won't. We both have businesses, mine I could run from anywhere but DH's is more local. We do have a really nice house in a nice village on the outskirts of the town, but this doesn't override all of the negatives of the town for me. DH hates it here and hates the local people too but won't move.

I actually feel constantly down and depressed living here. If we go out for the day away from the town and to another area I perk up a lot and feel so much happier.

AIBU to hate where I live? Is anyone else in the same position?

I knew it was going to be either King's Lynn or the Forest of Dean!

The coastal region is completely different though

Norwich is really nice ! Can’t bekice Kings Lynn would be the worst place in the country ?? What about shit holes like Nottingham Coventry and East Midlands, some rough parts of Birmingham.

I thought it was going to be whitstable at first going by the local comments, then it wasn't adding up about how far it is from things to do. I would move to, op. Whitstable is bad enough, all the locals bitch on Facebook about dfls (down from London) and I live close by. Life's too short

I'm from East anglia and it is indeed a shithole, although the corn exchange used to have some decent entertainers?
Live in Sheffield now and it's ace.
Avoid any towns in the Boston, kings Lynn, Wisbech, Spalding zone.
The Norfolk coast I know is delightful however so don't write off the whole county.

Just move. Move further into Norfolk. There a plenty of nice places and your DP can maintain his husibess. Don't move close towards Peterborough though. The area between Peterborough and kl is basically a waste zone.

I guessed Norfolk, and was thinking either KL or Great Yarmouth! I've lived here in Norfolk for 56 years, I married young to a Norfolk boy who is very attached to his home county, and now I'm slightly stuck here as we have elderly parents to take care of. I always wanted to move and the one regret I have in a very happy marriage is that I didn't assert myself on this...my dream was actually Scotland! If you have to stay in Norfolk what about a shift to one of the many nice parts, Aylsham is great so is Holt ( although on the posh side) and there are some lovely places on the Norfolk/Suffolk borders, Beccles ( in far flung Suffolk) is pretty and I've always found it very friendly.

I thought from your OP you lived were I live! 😀 but it's not in Norfolk

Run down depressing precinct - Check
Reputation as a Posh County which makes the pocket of social deprivation I seem to live in weirder.
A bit inbred but haven't really got to know anyone well enough in 9 months to be sure
Massive amounts of violence during the World Cup
Very rural town acts like more of a shopping hub for all the nearby hamlets/villages every supermarket known to man
Absolutely zero in the way of culture and have to travel an hour out to go anywhere
Everyone looks similar and familiar like you think you've seen them on Jeremy Kyle.
Rubbish public transport

Moving here was a massive error based on faulty research

I'm from KL,now live in London. Parents and some family still live in the area. Town cents is nothing special, but compared to in the 90s when at least half the shops were boarded up, it's thriving.

As a child I attended loads of drama classes, art classes, was home schooled for a bit and went to groups for home educated children and had lots of friends from a similar middle class background to mine. DB and cousin's children have much the same experience as I had. Of course there are narrow minded people everywhere, just as many where I live now in South London - Berms are not that different to Lynners!

KL also has an arts scene with lots of music, art and drama events. There are some good schools and some not so good schools. There are some horrible estates and some leafy streets with massive houses.

The coast is not far and some nice towns like Burnham Market and Holt. Cambridge is only 50 minutes on the train, London is less than 2 hours.

It's not the most amazing place in the world, just a very average market town like many across the country.

Oh and coming home from a city one night a large group of absolute bellends got on the train and made the journey massively uncomfortable for everyone that was sober and not in their group including vomiting in the carriage connector bit.

I was going to an outskirt station but without exception every single idiot got off at the main town station and I was like :

"Well that sums that up"

My in laws live in Norfolk their town is as you describe. Weirdly they claim to hate it but have lived all their adult lives there and are now retired so Christ knows why they don't move. They don't have friends or community as the people are awful. Both their kids moved far far away to nice places at the earliest opportunity. Weird! Is it something about Norfolk grim towns that trap you in lethargy?

Which of the secondary schools are 'good'?

Just had three lovely days in Norfolk. We stayed in my SIL's house in Swaffham - less than half an hour from KL and it seems like a nice little town to me, I've been several times. Lovely bookshop!

Move to Yorkshire. It’s a shit load better up here

Swaffham is lovely Bloodybridget. The book shop is well known (there's another famous book shop at Holt I think).

So many lovely places in Norfolk, why stay in a grotty town? North Walsham is nice.

I thought you were gonna say clacton or yarmouth.

Can you move closer to norwich

Which of the secondary schools are 'good'?

Springwood got Good in 2017.

If you have a business and can afford to rent - I'd suggest you move and let DH decide what he wants to do.

Is losing you a better alternative to moving house? He sounds lazy and is giving no thought to yours or the children's wellbeing.

Oh gosh! I think Norfolk is beautiful. However I felt the same about my hometown. But I was able to move away, so really feel for you.

I've had some lovely days out and holidays in Norfolk eg Norfolk Broads, Wells, and other coastal towns. The Queen has a house there ! This year has been lovely due to the good weather. However, like any other place, it may be different if you live there like no motorways

I have been all over North Norfolk and love it - Wells, Blakeney, Holt, Burnham Market. I haven't seen as much Joules in years! It's a lovely area.

I would accuse the OP of lying only I've also been to Great Yarmouth which is awful (sorry to any readers who live there). Of KL is as bad, I can understand the OP's view.

Norfolk - like London - seems to be a place of extremes.

Ahh yes I know KL well. You say it's down and out, but we regularly used to go on day trips from Spalding as it 'offered' more. I never rue the day I made it out of Spalding...

Are they all in breeds.

Jupiter9 there certainly are some extremely bizarre people out in the tiny hamlets around the spalding/boston/wisbech/Kings Lynn area if you get my jist....

Us northerners think everywhere south of Leicester is posh, so I’m quite surprised to hear King’s Lynn is a dump.

Is it really in the same league of grimness as places like Stoke, Grimsby, Mansfield or my personal nomination for ‘worst shithole in England’, Skegness?

Nowhere can be worse than Skegness, although it does hold a special tacky place in my heart with many happy childhood holidays spent their in the 00's

On second thoughts maybe Blackpool could take that title....