How come everyone on MN is 'rural'?

[managedmis]

I'm not rural

It's the same where I live BikeRunSki. When I completed the application form for secondary school for DD I only put one school down, knowing that she would get in anyway.

I'm rural, in a hamlet with a pub, a church and nothing much else. I'm surrounded by farmland and I have to drive everywhere as we really do have 2 buses a day. My husband is just a lowly plumber though.

My dad grew up on a Croft on the west coast of the Highlands - even they had neighbours within a mile!

I grew up on a farm in the north of Scotland, we had neighbours within a mile but they were either relatives or worked for us. But a mile in each direction was basically our farmland. I went to school in the nearest village, the majority of children there came from farms and we would never have considered the people who lived in the village rural!

@Ginfordinner - I suspect you don’t live very far from me. Borough beginning with B?

Also they all seem to be paid terribly well to work from home , yet spend all their time on Mumsnet (definitely envy).

But equally, @JRUIN if we wfh, we're not allowed to say we're "far too busy to surf the web during the day", because that makes us sound far too important and bordering on the stealth boast .

Believe me, if someone is wfh on a good wage, their employer will want their pound of flesh so they won't be able to put their feet up for hours on end looking at MN without it showing up pretty damn quick. They're more likely to be fantasists if you ask me.

I live on a small island in New Zealand and I wouldn't call myself rural!

Rural is subjective. My version of rural is miles and miles of open countryside surrounding your house and at least a 30 min drive from the nearest town and at least an hour’s drive from the nearest city, unless it’s a very small one.

I don’t count a place with multiple shops, takeaways and a supermarket a ‘village’ even if it is surrounded by countryside.

I’d count no more than about 700 houses, and nothing more than a church/ pub/ primary school as a village. For me, anything much over that and I’d consider it a small town.

However, the above, I’d still count as ‘rural’ I’d consider it a ‘rural village’ which is what I live in. There’s not many of us here, the village itself is only a mile long and consists of a primary school and a little pub. That’s it. The nearest shop is in the next village which is a 10 min car drive away. So yes, we’re certainly not isolated but we are rural IMO.

I know people from London who consider themselves rural and ‘in the countryside’ and live in a ‘village’ they’re just not and don’t. A village has to have less than 2,500 inhabitants and no London zone/ borough has that.

But I do think people get ‘rural’ and ‘isolated’ mixed up. You can be slap bang in the middle of countryside and have 50 neighbouring houses and be ‘rural,’ you just wouldn’t be isolated

@HighlandSpring101
Agree. We aren’t isolated. I live in a hamlet of less than 100 houses, no pub or shop or amenities apart from a postbox, church with occasional services and a tiny village hall.

We are about 1 mile from a larger village of approx 500 houses, tiny primary school (60 pupils, pub and part time doctors surgery. There’s an infrequent bus service from here too.

We are about 20 mins drive from a supermarket or petrol station and the same to a small market town. Definitely rural but in no way isolated.

I’m not rural at all

I don’t count a place with multiple shops, takeaways and a supermarket a ‘village’ even if it is surrounded by countryside.

I agree. There was a poster a while ago talking about her village and how it had a bank a couple of pubs a couple of take aways and a number of shops.
She would not accept that it wasn’t really a village because it had a village hall.

I would say I live quite rurally, because i overlook fields and the town has a pub, a primary, a village hall, a church and a post office and that’s it, you need to drive five mins to the nearest train station, which is tiny, or 15-20 mins to the others,. And there is one bus a week. Uber, deliveroo etc don’t operate here. There is about 300- 400 houses.

But I am also only about four miles from three major major towns in different directions, ones you’ve all heard of they are that big, and an hour from the centre of London. I’m also only about a mile from a number of large villages with banks of shops etc.

So as much as it’s “rural” it’s also not very, Ie it’s very close to civilisation and not isolated.

I’m not sure rural is the right word. I just can’t think of a better one.

What is the actual definition of a village though? The place I live is apparently officially a village and we have shops, a couple of takeaways and a bank.

I think a village is dependent on population.

Where I live is definitely a village. The population is about 1,500 and we have fields all around and roads with no street lights once you leave the village. The nearets market town in 4 miles away.

Spot on @BikeRunSki

I always thought rural meant it was an area defined by farming.

I’ve looked it up. You are technically a village if you have a parish council rather than a town council. Rather like you are technically a city if you have a cathedral.
However the population definition is under 2,500.

Well we are a village by population but still have shops, takeaways and a bank.

Not rural

We have a parish council. I know that because I am on it!

We have a parish council and officially a village.

Not rural, but small northern seaside town. Public transport is dire, it's expensive and unreliable. It works out cheaper to run my car including buying it! It also means it takes me 40 minutes to get to work not 3.5 hours ...

We have a Parish Council that covers 13 villages!

May I sidetrack slightly to ask what a parish council does? I first heard of them when I read The Casual Vacancy, but we don't have them where I'm from so I wasn't really sure what they do.

Ours produces a newsletter, supports local organisations by allocating grants, fundraising for things like defibrillators. Lately they have been co-ordinating help and support for vulnerable households during the current crisis. I think our PC works hard for the community.