£400k budget, 2-3 hours from London - AIBU to ask where you would live?

[HensInTheSkirtingBoard]

DP and I currently live on the Surrey / London borders and want to move.

We have a budget of approx £400k (although could be stretched a little for the perfect place) and I will need to be in London for work, max once a week, so needs to be commutable within around 2.5 hours on the train.

Minimum 3 beds, good size garden for chickens, bees and veg (yes I know it's a cliche )

No new builds or 'executive' estates (sorry). Quirky is fine.

Would like to be within walking distance of a village at least (don't want to have to get in the car if we run out of milk) and ideally somewhere that has a bit of a 'community' feel - pub, cafe, etc.

No school-age kids so we don't need to worry about catchments.

Where would you move to in our situation?

[quote Mmn654123]Kings Lynn. And they’ve prepared the veggie patch for you already.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/74878629#/[/quote]
That's lovely

Another vote for Suffolk/Norfolk. I live on the border, we are 7 miles from Diss and there are some lovely properties this way for your budget. DP moved here from Kent when we met and he loves it here.

@mygenericusername

You may call it bollocks. I call it experience @ lcdododo.

10 years in the Suffolk countryside and I’m still very much an outsider.

The locals are absolutely sick of people coming here, buying up property and creating a need for further housing.

As in Cornwall, the people will be friendly enough but you will not be welcome. This may be different in towns like Ipswich but in the ‘naice’ villages it is very much a reality.

We moved to our Suffolk village 3 years ago and have always felt welcomed. Six months ago DP developed cancer, everyone has been fucking amazing in supporting us as we deal with two small babies, a dog and a terminal diagnosis. Your description of the locals is not one we recognise. This is the second Suffolk village we have lived in and both have been warm and welcoming.

East Anglia is great, everyone we’ve met is from the south east and have moved up. Also properties have plenty of land for chickens and bees, we have both!

If you like the Fens, Downham Market and district might suit.

But to an extent I agree with PP about people moving into East Anglia. I don't resent the people - I can see exactly what motivates them - but I do resent the massive housing estates (traffic, light pollution, trashed walks). It does take a while to fit into any rural community, though, and unless your surname features in the local graveyard, you'll always be a bit of an incomer.

Try further north - the Hope Valley in Derbyshire is 15 mins from Sheffield, which is 2h from St Pancras. I do London once a week (or did before lockdown) and found it fine. The quality of life and great schools make up for the once a week commute.

Also trains to Manchester Piccadilly take less than an hour.

Another vote for York. Pre lockdown, I had the occasional 9am meeting in London and would merrily catch 6am train down to Kings X and arrive before 8am. There are some gorgeous villages just outside York and the city itself is beautiful.

Definitely Cardiff/surrounding areas

But to an extent I agree with PP about people moving into East Anglia. I don't resent the people - I can see exactly what motivates them - but I do resent the massive housing estates (traffic, light pollution, trashed walks). It does take a while to fit into any rural community, though, and unless your surname features in the local graveyard, you'll always be a bit of an incomer.

Exactly Grumpy. I’m getting trashed for telling the truth but you sum it up in a nutshell. I don’t give a toss if the OP believes me. This is my experience.

I met a local which is how I ended up here. The Suffolk I first visited 15 years ago is completely different to the Suffolk of now. Villages like long melford, lavenham etc have all been trashed by hundreds of houses that the locals can rarely afford. There’s a noticeable increase in litter everywhere and the roads were not built for the cars that now frequent them. I completely understand why the locals are so completely and utterly pissed off. Their surroundings have been destroyed. They’re nice enough to your face but it will always be Suffolk people first and rightly so. It’s the same in Devon/Cornwall.

King's Lynn one linked above is lovely. That kind of area of suffolk is probably better than Essex.
My sons bought in Chesham (on the tube - just) for about £320k but small garden etc but that is probably not far enough from London for you to get you the value for money, large garden etc which you want (and one in Oxfordshire £310k but that's a new build - detached)

Can I also suggest you check commuting costs. For example Bristol for some reason is mega expensive to get to London and back. You might also want to check Internet speeds and reliability of trains etc. Good luck on the search.

Where I live. Leics/Rutland border

Another vote for Bedfordshire (central or north). Ampthill is lovely as is Woburn (though that might actually be bucks). Only a ten minute drive and then less than 1 hour train into St Pancras too!

I think Ampthill & Woburn would be out of the price range. House are expensive around there.

We live in Wiltshire, closest station is Kemble, a direct train to London. We used to live in Stroud which has a great community feel and a direct line to Paddington and station. Lots of villages surrounding. £400k will get you a 3/4bed with a garden depending on the style you're after.

Yorkshire!

1hr 30from Stroud to Paddington.

A Cambridgeshire village. It’s where I am and it’s fabulous. Bit damp at the moment though!

@mygenericusername

If after 10 years you still don't feel welcome then maybe it's you...

We have lived in 2 towns and 1 village and felt so very welcome in all of them

Not the most spacious property and thatch can be a pest - but www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/77132170#/

OP I'd be looking at this from the train route point of view. Which London station/ terminal would you ideally be travelling into?? We did a long, once a week commute ( 3hrs door to door) for several years and what made it bearable was that at the London end we only had one stop on the tube & no changes (the Drain - Waterloo to Bank). The more connections/ changes you have, the more chances there are that things can go wrong. Especially travelling across London.

If you narrow it down to which terminals you want to commute into, you can then narrow down your home location rather than just randomly sticking pins in a map.

As a PP has said it sort of depends what area of London you need to work in
A commute from one side of London to the other could add an hour to your journey as you probably already know!

I don’t give a toss if the OP believes me.

I mean, you do sound so delightful, I can't understand why you'd feel like an outsider anywhere.

I don't intend to drop litter or drive a big car. But thanks for your input, sounds as if the entirety of East Anglia might be a no-no for an 'incomer' like me

Thanks also to everyone else for their more open and welcoming suggestions!

Doubtful lcdododo. I do a huge amount for the community. I see and hear a lot.

As I’ve said the area has been decimated by people that don’t belong here. I hear how people “talk” about their “friends” when they’re not listening. If it’s me it’s everybody else that has moved to the area too.

@Mmn654123 it's a hobbit house!

OP sorry to jump on your post. @icdododo you will find many people completely agree with @mygenericusername especially since Covid. All the city folk escaped here to their second homes, ignoring all the covid restrictions, arriving and expecting to transfer their general and maternity care to the local hospitals putting extra pressure on them. There are so many second homes here now that locals are being priced out of the places their families have lived for generations. Although I know this is not a problem specific to this area it’s so sad to see people having to move away from villages as they can no longer afford to live here.