To ask for your experiences of living / spending time in North Norfolk..?

[Cockenspiel]

That's it really..

Due to flexible / WFH situation for myself and DH, we are considering relocating to N. Norfolk (from greater London) with our DC7.

We know Cromer, Sheringham and Wells from years of family holidays, but appreciate this isn't the reality of day to day life. We have no idea of the quality of the state schools or know what many of the smaller villages and towns are like.

We both grew up in smallish towns in the SE and moved to London for work so we have some idea of what to expect on that front I suppose.

We are by no means rich and won't be looking to buy a massive pile! More likely upgrade from our 3 bed terrace to a naicer 4 bed with some outside space etc..

Would be good to hear a range of opinions on the area, schools and anything else MN'rs think is relevant..

Dollyrocket. Have you looked at Loddon, Bungay Beccles? Easy into Norwich, 25 minutes to Southwold, Walberswick, Dunwich .
I moved due to DA. Children are mid twenties to thirties and don’t see or speak to him.

@Bagelsandbrie

Reading about the drugs comments... being very honest there is a huge drugs problem amongst young people in Norfolk. As someone who used to be a bar manager in London I know full well all about the drugs culture and how common it is and yet I’ve still been shocked by how prevalent it is in Norfolk. I suspect a lot of it is to do with lack of jobs / poor infrastructure and lack of transport from nights out etc (the last trains back from Norwich tend to be about 11pm and if you get a taxi back to a village you’re looking at about £50). So if you’re a youngster who likes socialising it’s quite easy to get swept into the drugs scene for something to do - hanging about locally, taking cocaine or doing weed etc. I’ve never actually ever taken any drugs myself but one of my first jobs in Norfolk was working at a local hotel and nearly everyone who worked there was snorting cocaine in their breaks. It was really shocking.

There seems to be two lots of teenagers in the town we live in - the party lot who get stoned all the time and basically just want to get off their faces and then the other lot who are really studious, really hard working and basically turn into total homebody’s, wanting to be with their families and then go to university and get a career etc etc. Thankfully my dd aged 17 has fallen into this camp and actually she hardly ever goes out apart from to the local Costa for a coffee with friends (!) but many of her peers are taking drugs - from families you would not stereotypically assume would have children that are doing that. (And yes, I know that makes me sound like an arse but I’m trying to explain what it’s like here).

I grew in rural Wiltshire (having moved from Norfolk at age 12) and this resonates so so clearly with me.

We now live in Essex near to London and I genuinely feel the drug problem here is minimal compared to the one back ‘home’ in the countryside.

So the thing about Norfolk villages is there's basically 2 main sorts...

retirement villages (Trunch, Gimingham, Bodham) and young professional ones which can be mostly commuter suburbs (Marsham,) but the best ones have schools (Southrepps, Worstead, Buxton). You want a village with a decent-size school in it, is what I'm saying. North Norfolk has the oldest median resident age in UK, of any local district, about 50yo as I recall. Don't end up in an old people's village.

I grew up in North Norfolk, lived in a Broadland village just outside Norwich for 6 years and live in mid Norfolk now (family still in N Norfolk). There's probably a thread every 6 weeks with a Londoner who holidays on our coast wanting to move here and WFH so do have a search for opinions.

During lockdown, my estate agent friend had Londoners ringing and offering stupid money for houses just to get out of London.

Some good info on here but also bear in mind, our Internet can be utter shite! I work from home and it's bloody patchy and we are in a good reception area. When I lived in a village outside Norwich, we couldn't get any Internet really and no freeview so had to get free sat TV (also patchy). I also spend a lot of time sitting on single carriageway main roads which represent our main thoroughfare, waiting to get to places. We don't have the infrastructure to support our population and it is getting worse.

I am v happy here but you need to think very, very carefully about the difference between holidays and real life. I abhor the local politics. The county is 97% white and a Tory/UKIP heartland with racism and homophobia ingrained. Brexit is going to massively affect our farming communities and poverty is problematic and getting worse. Drugs, county lines, mental health issues and poor NHS provision can mean a hard time for some young people. The affluent and heartwarming Burnhams do not represent reality for many of our residents. You may find some little bitterness in places outside of the Norfolk affluent bubble where people tend to holiday.

That all sounded a bit miserable. I love it here. It's home. But it's worth thinking very carefully.

From your title - my experience was having to suddenly dive in the bushes with the car as massive 4x4s zoomed round corners towards me on narrow high sided roads - was nervous wreck by the time we went home

North Norfolk is a long way from London at least in terms of travel time. About two hours from an airport for any flight, and then largely the self flagellation that is Ryanair. A rural lifestyle will involve a lot of daddy or mummy taxi well beyond the age you would have in a city.

My experience in my early thirties in south Norfolk highlighted the problems young people face, and the divide between those with 'professional' jobs and those who flitted between jobs and often had drug taking issues. From what I knew of north/north east Norfolk the same issues were there.

So my daughter comes home from school to tell me one of her friends was sexually harrassed, and that she got sent home and the boy only had isolation, this is absolutely disgusting as there were eye witnesses, the lad should have been sent home, shame on you litcham school!! Shame!!

Did someone just recommend Attleborough?! It is one of the most shitty towns on the planet. It’s cheap for a reason. Nothing nice near it or in it. For God’s sake don’t go there - so many much nicer places in Norfolk. Don’t do Thetford either!

Zombie thread!

What is north Waltham like to live in. Got a chance to move from London are there plenty of shops pubs and restaurants

Do you mean North Walsham, Portugal?
I know it well.

Restaurants I'd say there's not much. Shambles is very popular & The Panda is nice, too. Green Room is fine. 1 Indian eat-in ... plenty of take-aways. A lot of people like the garden centre rest't. If you drive, there are no end of nice places within 10 miles. Shops ... depends what shop you want. Most people would say that the town is weak for men's clothes.

There's a great shoe shop.

Personally we find Cromer very uninspiring. My 8 year old actually says “I don’t ever want to go there again” if it’s mentioned (!) after we went there on a short break. The beach is all pebbles

No it isn't, I have some lovely photos of ,my granddaughter building sandcastles below the Pier, it's more pebbly further west. Cromer itself is just one bottleneck, should have been bypassed years ago but the places just East are very pleasant, Overstrand etc.

Just seen the date, whoops, hope you've since found somewhere!

I hate all the prejudiced guardian readers here I read 3 pages of the usual sniping and the failure to recognise Norfolk is not London and personally I hope it won't change. Who wants Islington by the sea who wants your coffee shops with your prejudiced views you can keep your Jeremy Corbyn and sadik khan please don't bring them with you and your virtuosity. And sorry Norfolk isn't black enough for you and your ideas. I loved the comment from one woman who said that she was "surprised that Norfolk was so white" unbelievable!.

This thread is from 4 years ago. Pointless resurrecting it.

One third of people in North Norfolk are over 60. It the "greyest" area in England.
Its grim, dark and dank in winter and most of the entertainment in Norfolk is in Norwich.
Your children will thank you for living in Norwich until they are 18 (even so, public transport is poor and the the private Whats App group my wife and I share is still called Chauffeurs.... for reasons others have said)
We know people who have moved from Norwich to the North and they regret it. Its a struggle to meet up with people and 50 minutes drive back after an evening is too long.
My advice would be live in Norwich until your child (ren) have left school and then decide if sunset walks by the beach make up for bleakness, boredeom and Brexiteers of wintry North Norfolk.

I just wanted to say how I hate guardian woke moving up to east Anglia spreading their socialist gossip the London chattering classes telling people what to do and how to live their lives.

I'll let you have your prejudice against Islington, socialism, Sadiq, Jeremy and Guardian readers, but what do you have against virtuosity? It's almost like you want Norfolk to be slightly shit.