To ask what it’s really like to live rurally?

[BuffaloCauliflower]

Currently holidaying in the Lake District and as usual wishing I could up sticks from London and move to somewhere beautiful and with real community. But having grown up on the edge of London I’m so used to a world where there’s buses every 10 minutes, 24 hour supermarkets 5 minutes away, lots of jobs, lots of schools, I know I really have no idea what it would be like to live in the countryside. I’m definitely in a nice, more affluent part of the countryside right now and there will be areas far more rural than this, so trying to think broadly, I know not everywhere will be the same.

What jobs do people do? Everyone surely can’t commute miles and miles to cities. Where I am now I’d guess a lot of farmers and a lot in hospitality, but that can’t be all. What’s the transport like? Does it matter? How do your kids get to see their friends when they don’t drive and everyone’s houses are so far apart? Can people move from the city and be happy, and accepted into small village communities?

A broad question I know but there’s such a range of places that will all be different, but would love the real story instead of just the ‘holiday’ view of the country.

Disclaimer: I’m aware as a born and bred Londoner my concept of what is rural might be really wrong, and that I also very likely have some rose tinted views of the countryside. I’m not trying to offend, so please be kind, I’m genuinely trying to learn!

I imagine if you suffer from SAD it must be worse in the country - a city comes to life as it gets dark.

Have always lived rurally (except for when I was really little and I don't remember it).

Where I live 300 ish population, nothing here except for a church.
Commute to work is 13 miles/20 minutes drive (I work in transport) Husband has a similar commute in the other direction (managerial role in manufacturing industry).
Nearest pub is a 45 minute walk away across fields, but I enjoy walking so it's not so much a bind for me.
Broadband is fine, the green box is quite close to our house.
Nearest town is a 10 minute drive away, has 3 supermarkets - none 24 hour but you just have to plan a little bit more. Husband drives that way on his way home so can nip in if we need anything.
Not sure if any takeaways deliver to us, we normally do collection.
GP is in the next village along, very rare that I can't get an appointment on the day I ring up, even if that's in the afternoon.

Everyone in the village is fairly friendly (haven't been here very long though) but without being in each others pockets.

Oh no public transport at all, so having a car is essential I would say.

I grew up in a small rural market town surrounded by very rural farmland and tiny villages. I'd say the teens in the villages were better off because everybody recognised that there was literally nothing where they lived and do they would go to proper cities etc for entertainment and clothing shops - whereas we had a garden centre outlet and a one-screen cinema in an old prefab, so "no need" to ever go anywhere else.

I love it. But you need to be prepared to drive everywhere (2 buses a day through the village, one to town and one back!) including taxi service for the DC.

We have fairly frequent power outages which last longer as well. I have a big freezer for bulk cooking/buying. We don’t get snowed in but we do get flooded into the village as roads become impassable. It’s then a 10-12 mile detour to get out. The school run can take 50 minutes and it’s 3 miles as the crow flies!

But it’s dark at night, I can see stars, the DC can roam around the village, walk the dog on their own, across fields and down footpaths. They know and are known by a community.

I was born and brought up in North Yorkshire so used to rural living. I married a man who comes from the middle of London. We couldn't afford to buy where he was so compromised with North Lincolnshire.

He did struggle to start with, but luckily had me to help him.

Its is hardest with teenagers to be honest.... I was pretty much tee-total when DC were that age as I was constantly on call as a taxi driver. At least DC learn to drive quite fast due to tons of practice on defunct local airfields. And insurance is cheaper.

I work at the main general hospital and commute 16 miles. DH works from home, but has to visit his main office once a month or so 60 miles away.

No gas, but we are on oil... keep an eye on the tank and re-order in plenty of time if weather forecast is bad. Put winter tyres on your cars come October. Have a chest freezer in your outhouse or garage. Make sure your torches have good batteries. Keep a big bag of candles and matches close to hand. Get used to wearing wellies a lot

Sorry, forgot employment! I work in a school in the nearest market town. DH spends a lot of time on the road including one night away a week, one day a week in the office which is an hour each way. He works from home in between, we’re lucky and have a half decent broadband connection.

We live rurally, but only 20 minute drive to centre of Chester. Manchester around 40 minutes away.
It's lovely and quiet, but we have to drive everywhere, as public transport is poor around here. There are no takeaways that will deliver to our village, our cars are always muddy, and our nearest supermarket is 15 minute drive. We do have a local primary school, but choose to send our children to a better one that is a 10 minute drive away. Their high school will be even further than that.

But I love where we live and the slower pace of life. Before children we lived pretty central to Liverpool, so were used to a city lifestyle. But we moved away to have children, to give them the rural lifestyle I had as a child.

It's a big change to make, especially if you've only ever lived near a city. Life is a lot less convenient, and things tend to cost more as there is less competition. Taxis especially are extortionate around here. But the air is fresh, we're constantly out and about in all weathers, and we are lucky to have a large forest on our doorstep, and beaches only 30 minutes away. Two airports close by, less than an hour from 3 different cities.

Yeah... forgot taxi prices. No such thing as Uber. City centre to our village in the evening is £30.

Employment wise, I commute by car which is 20 miles/25 minutes away and my husband commutes 30 miles/45 minutes. He works in the design industry and I work in finance.

Forgot to mention the downside. Massive rural poverty with associated drug problems.

We lived rurally for a couple of years and moved to semi rural for work.
I loved the quiet, the starry sky and the scenery. I loved being part of a community
I hated spending so much time in the car ( half hour to a super market)and missed the amenities of the city. The DC were very small and I barely worked so it was idyllic in some ways but I worried about our lives going forward. I would have been tied to ferrying the DC about and and they would have had little independence until driving age. No choice of schools without paying. There were very few other young families nearby; fine if you are an introvert but potentially lonely if not. There were very few job options available for me in my field. Friends and family have to make an effort to visit and have to stay at least one night which makes visits less than spontaneous.
I could easily live in a rural environment now that the DC are past school age.

@CitadelsofScience Probably not hard to guess from that info, if you know it!

Yeah... forgot taxi prices

Oh yes, taxis ... almost impossible to get on a Friday or Saturday night unless you've pre-booked, and bloody dear. About £8 to the town centre and it's less than 2 miles. And if you need to go to A&E, and aren't able to drive yourself, you're looking at £30+, each way.

Luckily, we have a minor injuries unit from 8am - 9pm.

Starting to wish we lived closer to a city. Ds can’t get anywhere without us driving him. We only live 3 miles from the nearest town and 11 miles from good sized city but barely any buses and roads are windy and bloody dangerous to cycle on

Also our village doesn't get gritted so getting to the main roads can be interesting.

We do have mains gas here though, I know some of the villages round here don't so are oil/LPG which did put us off some of them when we were moving.

@thenightsky you can't be too far from me waves

I'm semi rural and that's enough for me. Public transport is actually quite good where I am, but it's a bus to the nearest town, then another bus to anywhere else. Time consuming.

The place I live is fairly near two large towns, but is a bit of a pain to get to. There is no direct route and driving is the easiest way. Locally, we have a shop, a pub and a chemists, within 20 mins walk.

I find people regularly using narrow country lanes don't always obey the speed limit or even acknowledge tight bends/blind corners, which can make driving interesting. We also get farm vehicles trundling around and cows crossing the lane, which will stop the traffic.

It can be noisy, we have a dairy farm and an arable farm on our doorstep and the cows can be loud, plus there are crows cawing, cockerels crowing, owls hooting, foxes , etc. Plus farm machinery at times.
It can also smell, cow shit and the fragrant aroma of fertiliser/slurry.

I'm high up, its also near exposed moorland and can be cold, windy and we can get a fair bit of snow. We have gas/elec, but I do stock up on food for winter as the roads can get icy and the delivery van cant get up our steep hills so the shop can run out of essentials. I sometimes struggle to get to work in winter.

On the plus side, its usually very quiet and we get a lot of birds/wildlife. I also am not truly rural and a large city is within driving distance so I feel we get best of both both worlds.

I lived for many years near the Lake District. A lot of professional people work at Sellafield, the coastal nuclear power plant. You get former professionals who run hospitality businesses. There are a surprisingly high amount of consultancy type people who work remotely and have online businesses. And you still need doctors, headteachers etc. By the time you’ve factored in all that you still have the same proportion of professional jobs to population as you do in cities - there are just way fewer people overall IYSWIM.

HariboLectar I'm kind of half way between Lincoln and Scunthorpe and to the East a bit.

I’ve always lived rurally but not always here.

We are 20mins to a supermarket, one bus into town in morning, one back at lunch, one into town at 2pm and one back at 6pm. Only two per day on Sunday.

There’s a post office in the front room of one of the houses in the village. They sell
Locally grown veg too, and sweeties. Sometimes milk, if the ancient whirring fridge is working.

Taxis need pre booking and cost £30 into town.

No take away delivery, there is a take away you can collect from about 15/20mins away.

Broadband is excellent! Mobile reception less so.

I work in the medical industry, husband is a waiter and SAHD. DD goes to a school with 49 other kids- classes are all two years combined, ie reception and Y1. Most people get first choice school.

Driving is a necessity. It’s not hilly here so a normal car is usually sufficient.

Everyone’s got dogs, most have chickens, and lots have horses. Plenty more have all three!

It’s quiet, there’s space, the land is cheap. I love it. The sky is huge, the kids run around dawn til dusk, there’s little traffic and even fewer people. I lock the farm gates and then I don’t mind how long they play..... also, all
The dogs would tell me if there was anyone unwelcome around.

It’s isolated; not for the faint of heart. I read stories on here of posters who are nervous at night; the wind screams through, there’s an RAF base and they do drills in the night, it’s dark- really dark- everywhere and the sun sets like a blanket. Doesn’t bother me, but the banging of horses, scratching of foxes and the bats would probably get some people.

I've lived in London, in a small town and in the middle of nowhere. I loved the middle of nowhere until I needed something - even my dentist was a 40min drive away. After a while it became impractical and I moved to a small town. Its still a good drive to the cinema and major shops but I have a local dentist, a tesco etc and don't need to travel for anything much 😁

You need a house swap - lovely large house on the edge of a market town with regular buses
near Newbury suit you? I can’t wait to move back to London

Lack of diversity
No Uber, taxis pricey
Costs a fortune to stay in a hotel in London after a concert
Cost of a car each is expensive
No choice of schools, take it or leave it
Long way to drive to hospital and the traffic can be awful on roads into the nearest hospital city.
Time taken to do anything / go anywhere is greater, less convenience (supermarket closes and that’s that)
Nothing to do in the rain except drive to soft play

On the plus side, our cars are broken into much less frequently! And no parking wars / issues.

I really don't think 10 -20 minutes to a large town or city is particularly rural. I live in suburbia and it takes me 10-15 minutes to get into town properly.

^^ but presumably there’s traffic in suburbia? @clairemcnam

20 mins here is 13 miles. And it’s to a single aupermarket, not 24 hour.

You have to drive... Have to!!

We are an hour walk to the closest bus stop and closest shop....

Broadband is bad! And we lose power alot.

I was SouthWest London...
So VERY VERY different

VivaBut there is traffic in a town/city. So when people say 20 mins to a town, do they just mean the first house, or do they mean somewhere useful where there are shops, cinemas, restaurants?