Do you know any villages or small towns I could live in as an ethnic minority?

[amidreaming]

I hope my title doesn't offend anyone.

Due to personal circumstances, I really want/need to move. I dream of living in a village, or perhaps a market town, but I don't know where would be ok given I'm an ethnic minority and I'm also a Muslim woman who wears a headscarf. I do get stared at when visiting the countryside, and have been yelled at and even almost attacked once. So, I'm aware there will be some places I can't consider, but would love to find somewhere that would accept me. I dream of buying a home I can escape to, somewhere I can go on country walks, or perhaps somewhere near the coast. I imagine a little cottage somewhere like Grantchester, with a view of the local church from my garden!! I know! I'm asking for a lot! I did see somewhere just like this on rightmove, but it was out of my price range, which is another issue. If I could get somewhere for £150k, that would be perfect, otherwise I could stretch to perhaps £300k with a loan.

I don't need to be near schools, but would like to be within a two/three-hour drive of London, if possible.

Would welcome any suggestions.

@zeddybrek Thank you for sharing your experience - it's certainly food for thought, and I'm sorry your move didn't work out for you. I know what you mean about feeling out of place - some places, you feel so 'conspicuous' because of your colour, and it can be tiring to just always feel 'different'.
Renting first is a really good idea!

@salagadoo I was actually looking into Hampshire the other day and it's good to hear your positive experiences. I shall add Winchester to my list of places to research!

@ichwill Thank you for those links! Some of them look really nice - I'll research the areas. I notice one even had a view of the church!

I'm making a note of all the suggestions and links so that I can look into them. It's nice to know that people feel there are definitely places I could consider.

I can believe it. My aunt lives in a really well to do villiage and has had numerous problems since she lived there. I don’t honestly know why anybody would move some where where you are the minority in the first place! It’s like going back in time.

We are minorities everywhere in the UK, though. I suppose I was looking for somewhere I could still feel comfortable as a minority.

OP have a look at some diverce cities and then look at villages near them.

Not exactly a thatched cottage but Essington is quite pretty and you could definitely ride horses and go for walks.

How friendly it is, I have no idea, it's claim to fame is as the home 'town' of Meera Syal.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65535315.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essington

It is about 3 hours to London by train and there are other villages about.

Sadly you are right to be nervous, Coven is another village near me, I was on my way home from a day out with a friend, we called into a pub which was nice and friendly, chatting with the locals. We were asked where we were from, when we said, "Wolverhampton" there was a comment made abuot, "Oh that's full of X"

It totally threw me, I'm not often lost for words, because Wolves isn't like that at all. Now it could have just been that person, or that pub, but for someone to be so blatent I imagine it waasn't shocking to the locals.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63864177.html

No to be honest villiage’s are usually affluent areas such as Weatherby and York. Plus with an older generation you get in village's it’s different to cities. I think the UK cities are very multicultural there’s nice parts everywhere I think you just need to short list a few places and do some research.

@amidreaming not for long though. Lot’s of places across the country are becoming incredibly diverse and soon you will have the pick of the land for a place to call your home. My husband’s community in particular are thriving here in South Yorkshire and it’s a breath of fresh air it really is.

These backward white people that think they can stick to their own little parochial ‘English village’ communities are going to be in for a massive shock.

Don’t move to the North East. I’ve witnessed some shocking racism here, including a server in a takeaway literally blanking my hijab wearing friend.

Lewes in East Sussex is very liberal minded and tolerant (our local shop sells more Guardians than all the other papers put together!), but would mean going to your max budget. An hour to London by train. Very pretty historic town, lots going on, including an independent cinema funded by locals as a community asset, lovely countryside on your doorstep.

A little further out, but on the coast, is Seaford, which is getting more like Lewes in terms of vibe as more and more young families move in. You get a lot more for your money in terms of property, and the bonus of the sea on your doorstep. The commute is a bit longer though, I think you have to change at Lewes for London.

There are a few non-white British people in my small north welsh village. No one treats them any differently that I see. There are also a few same sex couples - and no one treats them oddly either. I speak to some of these people most days (dog walkers like me!) and see them in the village shop and it all seems pleasant enough. I’ve never asked them about their experiences of racism though (it never occurred to me that they’d have that issue here). We are North Wales but there’s a direct train through to Euston from the nearby town.

Luton?

The reality is that in a small village you need just one or two racist idiots to make your life unbearable.
I am not visibly different, but have a very heavy non-native accent, which immediately betrays me as a - shhhhh - dreaded Eastern European immigrant, and I am a single mother as well to add to my sins.
I had ideas like yours a few years ago, but decided to try it out first and rented a house for a couple of weeks in a very naice village with mainly retired middle-class population. There was one, just one person who ruined it for me with the usual you-stole-my-job, I-pay-for-your-children and demands to see my tax return. But I seemed to bump into him everywhere I went - there are just a handful of shops, a very few streets etc. Don't underestimate the intensity of exposure in the "small world". The rest of the people in the village were amazing to me, at least superficially.

We live in south Hampshire - Waterlooville it’s close to South Downs national park lots of nice walks around here. For a small town it’s fairly diverse, we have neighbours who are Chinese and another who is from South America we all get along well.
I guess you will get some people who don’t like outsiders everywhere :(

Try North Bedfordshire. The villages around the A6 are pretty and Bedford itself is very diverse with a good sized mosque.

Malvern, Worcestershire and surrounding villages. Located in the West Midlands. About a 3 hour journey into London, 40 minutes south of Birmingham.

Come and have a look at Banbury, Oxfordshire. It's a small market town; about an hour to London on the train/45 minutes to Birmingham; diverse; there is a mosque; you can buy most foodstuffs in town; and reasonable house prices.
I live on the edge of town; open countryside is 15 minutes walk.
There are pretty villages a-plenty, but they are not as diverse as the town.

Bradford, Birmingham, Stoke on Trent much cheaper than London & surrounding areas

Yeah, trouble with Bradford, Birmingham, Stoke on Trent is that they are not within 2 to 3 hours drive of London as OP specified in her 3rd paragraph.

Matlock?

There's not many 'ethnic' people in my village, I have seen two or three, but I haven't heard too much open racism either.

I lived in Quorn (near Loughborough) for six months and it was nice, there other Pakistani’s and other ethnicities. Loughborough itself is nice as well with reasonably priced housing.

Some places in Sussex are lovely. Like the poster above said - Lewes is lovely. Also lovely places near Haywards Heath.

@Chicchicchicchiclana Birmingham is 2 hours drive from London.... I lived in Brum for ten years and my family are in London so have done that trip a lot.

I'd recommend the West Midlands, lots of villages and quite a lot have a good ethnic mix. I'm really sorry you even have to ask this question

If you live somewhere in the West Coast mainline, you could be in London in 3 hours. I’m thinking of the villages around Lancaster.

South Birmingham to North London, maybe. Google tells me it's 126 miles from Charing Cross to Central London.

I drive from London to Ipswich (100 miles) quite regularly takes 3 hours. South London to Winchester (70ish miles) takes 2.5 hours minimum.

But if you say I can go 126 miles in 2 hours then I'll believe you.

Sorry, Charing Cross to Central Birmingham.