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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think more people will want to live rurally now?

271 replies

Butterfliesandbears · 28/06/2020 15:49

Property in cities has generally been more expensive but since covid it seems like maybe rural/village living will have the edge?

  • larger houses/gardens
  • can work from home
  • countryside nearby for walks
-more space/less crowded generally

Or am I overstating it do people think? Will city living continue to be popular?

OP posts:
canigooutyet · 30/06/2020 09:00

@mollybutton
Not all parts hence I said some parts of the area. .

Anyone tempted to live rurally I would suggest try and stay in the area for a week without a car. Why without the car? The realities are because of weather you might be stuck at times. Plus just because you have a car now doesn’t mean this will be the case in a years time.

SurreyHillsGirl · 30/06/2020 09:05

If you have the money to live well in London and to make the must if all it has to offer, you’re hardly likely to swap that for a village existence, are you? You’re more likely to move to another capital city, if anything

I moved from Notting Hill to the Surrey countryside. My finances had nothing to do with my desire to get out of London, it was driven purely by a yearning to live somewhere beautiful, peaceful, clean and safe.

PymChurchBeach · 30/06/2020 09:07

Surrey is one of the blandest places I've ever been in my life.

SurreyHillsGirl · 30/06/2020 09:20

@PymChurchBeach

Surrey is one of the blandest places I've ever been in my life

Well don't come here then Confused

KeepingPlain · 30/06/2020 09:34

I don't care if you want to live in the countryside, but accept that that is where you live. It's not a city. There are people going out on walks on roads with no pavements, there are people cycling on narrow roads, there are horse riders with the same issue. There are tractors galore, so you do 30 a lot of the time.

Don't come to the countryside and expect everyone to be quiet and get out of your way as quickly as possible. You can't drive at 70 along these roads, although many try, fail and end up in a ditch, because they are stupid. I wouldnt move to a city and expect a pub across the street to close early so I could sleep, so don't be so bloody thick and expect to tell others what to do in the countryside.

PymChurchBeach · 30/06/2020 10:00

You can't drive at 70 along these roads, although many try, fail and end up in a ditch, because they are stupid

Sorry but it is the drivers who live in the countryside driving like lunatics down those tiny little roads. When DH and I visit we get beeped at if we do less than 40mph. A 60 mile limit on roads where you can't see what is coming seems utter madness to me.

SurreyHillsGirl · 30/06/2020 11:10

@PymChurchBeach

Sorry but it is the drivers who live in the countryside driving like lunatics down those tiny little roads

How do you know where they are from?

KeepingPlain · 30/06/2020 11:13

@PymChurchBeach

How do you know they didn't come from the city to live in the countryside? Or that they aren't visiting like you?

The people near me moved from the city and have the audacity to complain about country living, seeing horses on the roads, cyclists etc while driving their cars around like prats. If you don't like it, fuck off back to the city. That's what country living is. You have to put up with it I'm afraid, you are likely to get stuck behind a cyclist, horse, tractor, slow car etc at some point. There's no need for anyone to be racing around the place.

It's exactly the same as if i moved to the city. I chose to do it, I can't then complain about the noise. I've lived in both, they both have their advantages and I like both. But you have to accept the negatives of where you live to, for whatever is a negative to you.

SurreyHillsGirl · 30/06/2020 11:30

@KeepingPlain

Agree with your comments. On our village community site, a woman asked how to kill badgers as they were digging holes in her garden. Imagine that, living in the countryside and wildlife not respecting your boundaries Hmm

madcatladyforever · 30/06/2020 11:32

I moved to a very rural area just before coronavirus and I couldn't be happier.

Ariela · 30/06/2020 11:42

- countryside nearby for walks
-more space/less crowded generally

I am not so sure the above applies if you're still in driving distance of a large conurbation. We used to like our rural home, but frankly we now HATE it with all the walkers (you can count 30 per minute on a sunny day passing our gate as we're on a well known circular route) , I'd say perhaps MORE crowded. 20 years ago you'd see the Ramblers once a month, and the odd elderly couple here and there, and about 5 or 6 people walking their dog daily . That was it. Now we get runners, cyclists (who do the footpath at speed), dog walkers (with about 8 yappies on leads), families with kids, families with pushchairs (who complain about the mud Hmm, families with dog on the lead, families with dog off the lead so it can crap on our lawn and they can pretend they don't notice so they don't pick up. And don't get me started about the doggie poo bags hanging from the bushes and the litter!

Ariela · 30/06/2020 11:48

@PymChurchBeach

Surrey is one of the blandest places I've ever been in my life.
Clearly never visited the Surrey Hills part of Surrey. What about Runnymede, or Virginia Water? Or Haslemere, Hindhead and The Punchbowl?
PymChurchBeach · 30/06/2020 12:00

What about Runnymede, or Virginia Water? Or Haslemere, Hindhead and The Punchbowl?

Been to all those places. My PIL live in Haslemere. There is naff all there.

PymChurchBeach · 30/06/2020 12:01

How do you know where they are from?

Because I know some of them personally!!!

Stannisbaratheonsboxofmatches · 30/06/2020 12:06

This thread is quite horrible all round!

From the nasty “stay away” posts to blanket dismissal of certain areas and towns.

SurreyHillsGirl · 30/06/2020 12:10

@Ariela

I couldn't agree more (obviously Grin)

I guess some people find miles upon miles of bucolic countryside, so beautiful it has been designated AONB status, chocolate box villages and characterful, cosy pubs, bland.

PymChurchBeach · 30/06/2020 12:11

It might have chocolate box status. I find it bland. It doesn't hold a candle to Devon, Wales, Scotland or Cornwall.

Ariela · 30/06/2020 12:13

I used to work in Guildford, having moved from Watford. My delight on finding I had to regularly visit a customer in Shere and having to visit another meant driving past Newlands Corner was indescribable.

SurreyHillsGirl · 30/06/2020 12:14

@PymChurchBeach

How do you know where they are from?

Because I know some of them personally!!!

Sure Grin

SurreyHillsGirl · 30/06/2020 12:15

@PymChurchBeach
It might have chocolate box status. I find it bland

Yeah, as you keep saying Grin

PymChurchBeach · 30/06/2020 12:18

SurreyHillsGirl

Some of them are my family. Not the ones who beep at me obviously. But they drive like loons down those little road.

ConkerGame · 30/06/2020 12:19

We’ve actually gone the opposite way - we were planning on moving more rurally (to a small town) from London but we are so so grateful for being in London during lockdown that it’s changed our minds. It has been so easy to get everything we need and having everything a 5 min walk away rather than a drive away has been great. Plus fast broadband has been essential for working from home. However, we are fortunate that we have a garden - that has made all the difference. Like others, we prefer that it’s small as it’s so easy to maintain.

The only thing we don’t like about London is the busy commute but as we’ll be working from home at last 3 days a week for the foreseeable, that problem mostly goes away. So excited for all the restaurants and bars to reopen on Saturday!

PatienceVirtue · 30/06/2020 13:00

City dwelling has a way, way lighter impact on the environment - a small country like the UK relies on many of us living in cities in a much more sustainable way. We're in London but both grew up outside villages and live in a way that has a smaller impact than that of our childhoods. Our house is smaller and needs far less heating, we do have a car, but didn't have one until we both hit 40 and we rarely use it now. We bike to work, to theatres, the West End etc in a way that my parents certainly didn't (they drove to the village shop a mile away rather than walk there).

I'm not saying nobody should live in the country, but sometimes I feel that on these threads city-dwellers are painted as nature-hating sybarites when in fact we're preserving nature.

I also think that people should move in haste. I've missed stretching my eyes over the last three months and have envied those in the country (mostly, to be fair, second-home owners illegally decamping - now they really are the environmental baddies). However, Covid isn't going to be forever. Home working will definitely expand now that it's been proven to work but it won't be a full-time thing.

MsTSwift · 30/06/2020 13:45

It’s very subjective. I grew up in a village wouldn’t inflict that on my teens!

Royalbloo · 30/06/2020 13:50

I think there will be a huge societal shift which will look something like the below:

  • Companies realise they don't need vast offices
  • More remote working
  • Essential workers will need to be in cities
  • Prices bleed out further and the cities aren't so expensive
  • More people living where they wish rather than where they have to depending on stations/commuting times

If you consider the Industrial revolution, and the impact that had on population distribution, it all seems blindingly obvious.