To think that town/ city life is often healthier than rural life?

[BoogleMcGroogle]

I've just been speaking on the phone to a good friend who has just made the surprising move of leaving their big, beautiful 'forever home' in the rolling countryside and moving into an unremarkable bungalow on the edge of a large commuter town. They are so much happier and she was describing how their quality of life has improved. They are healthier as its now safe to walk wherever they like ( their dogs are fitter than ever), they have more time because of a shorter commute and less maintainence, they know and like their neighbours and have joined a local political campaign group, have more money ( only one car now), eat better because of the improved shopping options and their kids are finally able to learn independence now they can use buses and pavements. I am so pleased for them, as they weren't certain about this choice.

Similarly, when I visit London, I'm always struck by the older people, students and kids enjoying the cultural and sporting opportunities ( and cheap transport).

I'm not ignorant of the issues in urban environments, especially for some people. I worked for years in children's services in an inner London borough, although I'm not convinced the issues were less in the large shire county, where social isolation can be devastating.

AIBU to think that for many, if not most people, and especially older people age families the chances of enjoying a good quality of life are better in urban/ semi rural communities, rather than trying to live the rural dream?

Well I grew up in a town - quite a big one - and although it was OK growing up, (in the 1970s and 1980s;) it got over populated and polluted and grimy, and generally quite crime ridden - from the mid 1990s.

What's more, me and DH (and our DC,) lived in a suburb on the fringes of town, (in the noughties,) and it was 3 miles to DC high school, 2 miles to the doctor, and 4 miles to our nearest NHS dentist. Plus it was 4 miles to the main shops/shopping centre anyway. (In the town centre.)

Yeah there were buses every 30 minutes to town, (8 to 10 minutes walk from our house,) but it took an HOUR to go the 4 miles (10 minutes in the car!) So in some respects, it was no better than living rural (for amenities I mean.)

It was a decent town to grow up in as I said, and when I was a kid/teen, I Iived in a smallish central part, that had everything you need within a mile. High street, (with everything you need,) post office, banks, pubs, hairdressers, dentist, doctors etc..., and the schools and most peoples workplaces were within 1 to 2 miles of their home.

But as the years wore on, the facilities dwindled, and the high street shops closed and the high street became a ghost-town (like many others) and the place became rife with people using drugs, and gangs hanging about after dark so you never felt safe. Plus there were multiple car thefts and burglaries a week (that we rarely had pre mid 1990s.)

As I said, me and DH and our DC, moved out to the suburbs, and that wasn't much better. Nothing was closeby, and the community was virtually non-existent with transient 'private let' tenants, and people at work all day who never even spoke to their neighbour. We lived in a cul de sac, inside a cul de sac, inside a cul de sac, and the place had no soul.

So, around 8 years ago, we moved out to a little village... some 25 miles away from our old town. It has 400 people, a functioning Church, one little shop, a pub, a village hall with multiple activities for young (and not-so-young) alike, walking groups, a primary school and nursery, pub quiz team, a 'Wednesday' group (where people of all ages meet weekly, and have coffees and a chat,) and a hugely friendly community of people of all ages. And the air quality is amazing.

There is a mix of family, singletons, and couples, and a very welcoming Church who run many activities too. I love it so much here that I wonder why we didn't move years before.

Around 25 minutes walk along the canal path, (1.5 miles,) or 2.5 miles if you go by road, is a small market town that has everything we need (that we used to have way back when I was a kid.)

Doctors, banks, post office, dentist, pet shop, haberdashery shop, bakers, butchers, hairdressers, several cafes, vets, 3 or 4 dozen other shops, a big Morrisons, a huge B & M, a big Wilkos, an Aldi, a train station, and a small bus station. Buses to the city (about 15 miles away,) takes 45 minutes to get there. The train takes 20 minutes. (There are also buses and trains to multiple other towns and cities.)

The little village where we live is absolutely perfect. No public transport, as it's off the beaten track, but there is a community bus for people who have no transport (literally only 2 dozen people out of 400 here,) that runs on 3 or 4 days of the week, and is free.

It takes them to the little market town that's 2.5 miles away by road (or as I say, 1.5 miles along the canal path.) It has the school bus too for the kids who go to senior school that comes at 8am and takes them to the school 3.5 miles from here - and drops them back off at 3.30pm...

Having no public transport and being in a little village that has a road in that goes nowhere, (as it's fields and woodlands around us,) makes it BLISSFULLY quiet around here.

Each to their own, but I would never live in a big, busy, hectic town again. I wouldn't want to live remote though. Rural yes but not remote.

@BoogleMcGroogle YABU (imo.)

We may risk getting stabbed ... if we live in the city but at least we can scream for help. You can shout as much as you like in the sticks but no one will come, no one will hear you. Villagers are right nosy fuckers too. I’ve tried both & I prefer to remain anonymous in the city.

I currently live very rurally.
I have a huge menagerie of animals and love my life, I am so very lucky.

HOWEVER, in the next five years or so, we will be looking to move. I am now 58, DH is 64. We will be moving to the coast. We know exactly where, and there is public transport, shops, pubs and cafes within easy walking distance.

Right now, I have my dogs, cats, donkeys, goats, llama and chickens. My 'driveway' is roughly half a mile long and the nearest shop is just over three miles away.
Idyllic for us right now, but not in the long term🙄

You can shout as much as you like in the sticks but no one will come, no one will hear you

I live in the sticks. If I shouted now for help my neighbours would assist. Just like I would do for them.

Villagers are right nosy fuckers too

What? Every one of them in the entire of the U.K.?

@GREATAUNT1

Thanks for proving my point.

And yeah, please stay in the city. I can assure you that not only are YOU happier there, but every person who lives in every village is happy for you to stay where you are too.

Let's face it if it wasn't for us nosey fucker villagers/ small towners volunteering for the RNLI a lot of other fuckers would be dead whether they be nosey or not.

Yeah, it's us nosy fuckers who manage to keep an eye on anyone who is vulnerable in the village. Please stay in the city!

my dm moved from village to town to have the amenities on hand.

I was surprised at how much I love the suburban estate I ended up in. I do lack the large mature garden of my dreams, but it is functional and easy enough to maintain. Open fields are 5 minutes walk away. Woods and parkland within 2 minutes. Community shops and services within 7 minutes. The town centre is 3 miles away and there's a regular bus service. Being a non-driver would be compromising, but my life is not totally dependent on it either.

For the DCs, there is a good community, it will be safe for them to become independent and they will be able to access town.

I pretty much have the best of all worlds.
Maybe not the dramatic countryside that I love dearly, but that would be too remote for me to find practical as a long term reality, but it is easy to get in some pretty rural runs to feed the soul.

Have to agree with pp. Us nosy fuckers (particularly those driving 4x4), are the ones ferrying the elderly and infirm to hospital appointment, doctors appointments etc., in the middle of winter when everything comes to a halt.
I really do feel that us country dwellers get the shitty end of the stick all the time on MN. The disbelief when one cannot simply summon a taxi, or have an Ocado delivery or a 2 hour Amazon delivery is amusing. The snottiness when we use a 4x4 to actually, you know, move more than 20 metres in winter is gobsmacking.
How walking in the City is easier than in the countryside, I do not understand, but, and here is the thing, I accept. Because that is the experience of that poster. Some of us are town and some are country, and some have a bit of both.
C'est la vie.
Just wish city dwellers would realise that we dont all want 24hr Costas and entertainment laid on at grossly inflated costs.
Guess you city dwellers are coming up with wishing all country dwellers didnt..........😁

There is somewhere for everyone, a house that feels like home, whether it is in the country, village, town or city.

Long may that last.

Totally depends.

I live rurally in a village. Nice countryside from the front door with plenty of walks. I know my neighbours and the village has a lot of social activities which you can be involved in if you want such as WI, book group, bowling club, drama club, scouting groups.

I cycle 7 miles to the city for work so this is where I think I have the best of both worlds. It’s rural but it’s not deepest Yorkshire/Scotland/Cornwall/wales. There’s an off road cycle route all the way to the city which is amazing. Village also has a train station and is last stop before the city on a fairly busy line, so trains running at least hourly. Takes 9 mins to get into the city if I don’t fancy cycling.

Tooold You forgot how we are also all racist Tory voters... all of us, apparently. 🙄

My Dsis moved from London to a rural area after marriage and she says physically it's much healthier but mentally it isn't.

Cleaner air has been mentioned, but the truth is that if you live rurally but not remotely you are very likely to be not far from a motorway or major trunk road.

Most of the descriptions of rural life here aren't truly rural. I grew up on a farm in the north of Scotland. Nearest city hours away, nearest 'town' (pop 2K) 30 mins drive, nearest tiny village 10 mins drive.

I'm one of 4 siblings, we all moved away for university, but now in our 40s two of us are back home and the other two live in cities/large towns. I think it's lifestyle and personality that determine which location suits.

Life is better with money wherever you live but the amount you need to live well varies, property is much cheaper in rural scotland than the cities, there's less culture to fritter your money on (no takeaways, fewer cinema or restaurant choices, irregular theatre, no big expensive galleries, less obsession with appearance so less following of fashion) but obviously fuel and transport is very expensive and food choice is limited (as a child growing up we grew much of what we ate, all meat, eggs, milk, potatoes were from the farm along with lots of veg and fruit but hard to get e.g. quinoa) and access to specialist medical care is difficult although the GPs and nurses provide a very caring service. Very rural places tend to keep services so the tiny village still has a small supermarket, a GP, a pharmacy, a butcher, a hairdresser, a school, a PO, a hotel, a church, etc. The sense of community is very strong so old people aren't isolated, neighbours and family watch out for each other (big reason why one of my siblings chose to go back). My siblings who still live there have jobs they enjoy and are rewarding, it's not about lack of opportunities for them.

But we siblings who left found it stifling, and love the access to culture and job opportunities for our careers in a bigger place. DBro lives in London and has the money to enjoy big city life and likes the easy access to the continent, I'm in a large market town so am walking distance to pretty much everything I need for day to day life with children but it's cheap enough that we can have a big house and a nice lifestyle with holidays and easy access to culture. DH and I both have short commutes to our high tech jobs that have lots of flexibility so we're happy, living in London wouldn't increase our salaries but would decrease the quality of our life but when we had no kids city life was fab.

shops, pubs, a cafe and, crucially, a train station with regular trains. It's also got an excellent primary school

I can't think of a single village in Norfolk like that. Brundall, maybe?

we live rurally too it some ways it is less healthy as we go by car everywhere as the road is simply not safe to walk on as no footpath and no verge either, but we can walk straight out of the back of garden through woods up a hill for a walk but we don't walk to shops school etc
it is healthier in that there is little pollution so unlike city walkers when we walk we are not breathing in slow moving traffic diesel fumes our air is super clean
it is safer in that when we go to local small town DD9 can walk round on her own or go swimming by herself, it is safe for her to play in the woods behind house with her friends without supervision by me so they go there more often than if they needed an adult with them
but you are right some of the healthy advice like take stairs at work (virtually no building is higher than 3 storeys for miles) or get off bus 1-2 stops before necessary and walk rest ( you would be 1 mile away with a dangerous walk); don't work but the get real fresh air does

When I lived in London suburbs, I would try and run all or part way home just by getting off a few tube stops earlier. When I moved out to a country town I tried it and got off in the next town there was a path but there was no street lights for about 3 miles.
I think it depends on how/where you've grown up and whether that worked for you.i grew up in greater london and walked to school/friends/town/tube station etc (my mum didnt drive) A friend grew up in a village with barely any public transport, but she really liked that and wanted village life when she left home (and moved to another village with no public transport!)
I'm not fussed about bars, nightlife ,Costa, etc as some country dwellers seem to think but I just dont want to be reliant on a car for 80+ % of journeys. If I moved to a village (or even the very edges of the town) I would have to drive my kids to school, drive to the station to go to work, drive kids to their friends houses, drive them to all afterschool activities etc

dan why do you choose to live where you do? I'm not being goady. I'm genuinely interested in why people end up stuck in the countryside.

We live on the edge of a small town, less than 50 yards from open countryside where you can walk 5 miles or more before you get to a road. But it's in the crowded SE, where you will meet jogges, dog walkers, mountain bikers, hikers etc.

I'm essentially anti-social (so is DP) and would love to live somewhere where I don't see or hear anyone, other than the postman, from my house, and where I can go for a walk without bumping into the world and his wife. As soon as we're retired, that's what we'll do.

Yes, it'll be a 20 minute drive if we run out of milk or need the doctor, and when one of us dies the survivor will probably need to move to a town or decent-sized village, but I long for peace, quiet, isolation and dark skies.

Maybe it's because we're older. We were both proper party animals until we were well into our 40s.

I live in a rural area but am on the outskirts of a large village which has reasonable amenities. I'm very active but I would agree with the OP that if you live rurally it would be easy to become one of those people who never leave there house without taking the car. I know lots of people who drive everywhere even for short journeys of less than a mile. I agree that city or town living probably breeds less laziness!
When I visit London I'm always struck by the fact that there are much fewer fat and obese people than in other areas of the UK and I'm sure a big factor in that must be that people walk more and drive less

I can’t imagine being so rural yet only being able to walk your dogs on busy lanes or three fields!

We’re rural, we can walk all day without touching a road and our lanes don’t have much traffic either. Surely you just get a map and find the local footpaths? The uk generally has a fantastic network of them. If you haven’t any, perhaps it’s just that you picked a bad bit of the countryside to live?

Anyway each to their own!

Very rural here, a lovely old house (needs work but we love it), mud, dogs, chickens, endless gorgeous countryside, wildlife, friendly little village and contentment. Could not be happier. I could not ever live in a city and live miles from the nearest one.

Hmm, it's anecdotal, but I know a couple that have moved from London to Devon and have put on alot of weight due to the constant driving! They can walk to the local shop/pub, but that's where the pavement ends! They have to drive for a good half an hour to take their dog for a walk and 2 hours a day for work. They seemed alot more healthy physically when they were in London, due to all the walking!

If you have to drive somewhere to walk your dogs you have moved to the wrong bit! I do have to drive a lot but I walk miles every day which offsets it for health reasons at least. I can't see another house from the front of my house, it's marvellous. I enjoy going back to London to visit and see exhibitions though.

There are 'wrong bits' of the countryside?
ime, there is a huge amount of space that is off limits in the 'countryside'.

We bumped into an old guy with a little dog yesterday in a muddy field. He was talking about some loop he likes to do... included down the farm track past the farmhouse. it's not public footpath. He's probably walked that way for 45 yrs & the farmer doesn't care any more about him.

but if Me & DS did that we'd get scolded, maybe chased with a shotgun by the landowner. As incomers, our options are more limited.