To move to Norfolk although I’ve never been

[mioz]

Been thinking about moving for ages and ages, was made redundant last year so deciding to just go for it. I’m gravitating towards Norfolk but need some help narrowing down potential areas. Needs to be suitable for a young family (2 boys under 3), with parks/cafes/shops and maybe a high st within walking distance. Good travel links also if possible. Anyone have good knowledge of Norfolk and can help me?

Norfolk does not have good transport links

@plominoagain I am near you and @Fuzzywuzzyface I think.

I would say, to all those recommending the fens, to consider winter. Summer in the Fens in stunning, cut hay fields, big skies. Winter is very, very wet, very muddy, very grey and rather depressing. I love living here, but it’s an acquired taste.

The tractors roll on all night in harvest, there will be mud and beet lorries all over the roads, the neighbours will do DIY and outdoor chores with power tools and tractors all weekend, the farm dogs will bark. Which is cool by me, because we do it too! But I often read people on mumsnet complaining and saying that 9am is too early to mow, 30 mins commute is too far, the neighbours dog barks twice, and think that those people would self combust here. It’s a very industrious area, in that everyone is always doing jobs to their properties, etc.

I live near Norwich and have brought up my 3 children here. There is plenty for them to do - Norwich is quite isolated from the rest of the country and so has lots of facilities. Shopping is great (much better than Cambridge), there’s theatre, galleries, pubs, wine bars, parks etc. My children are in there 20s now and all went to Uni so their education was fine. 2 now have graduate jobs and the 3rd has just finished her 2nd year at Oxford. Lots of countryside, rivers, broads and the coast. However, I don’t live in the more rural parts so can’t help there. My only issue is it takes ages to go anywhere else. Currently on holiday in Pembrokeshire though, so it can be done!

Diss all the way!
Most of the primaries in the villages surrounding it are fantastic and diss high consistently gets good results.
The town is beautiful and such an amazing amount of independent shops, loads of cafes and pubs and the mere with the play park. Such a lovely community.
Busses daily to Norwich and Bury and of course you’ve got the train station with direct trains to London and Norwich.
Suffolk coast not too far to visit either:
Really can’t go wrong.
We love it here and a lot of people are moving up here from the South for the reasons I mention above.

@Toomuchspinning

I think you are ! It sounds like I'm anti incomer , but I'm really really not . I've been here nearly 20 years and I won't go anywhere else , but the Fens are definitely not like anywhere else except possibly the Somerset levels ! I've watched the same houses get sold over and over to the same kinds of people , who then realise 2 winters down the line that it's too cold , too damn windy , and they're fed up of spending their evenings taxiing kids about in a car with a permanent tide mark

I’m surprised at the comments on less traffic, I’ve friends who live near diss and quite frankly it’s a ball ache up that a12 on a Friday evening.

I think anywhere you go is a ball ache on a Friday evening!
Compared to living around London and towns surrounding M25 etc, we def have less people this way.
But I’ve lived here all my life (44) and it’s def got busier in that time.
House prices are going through the roof too due to popularity.

Another one from west Norfolk. I agree with others, in that we love it but it’s definitely an acquired taste. I grew up in north Suffolk/on the Norfolk border, so although I had lived in London and the south east for years before moving here, knew exactly what to expect. The transport links are pretty okay though, when DH commuted to London, his colleagues were surprised at how fast his train journey back to here was.

I grew up in Norfolk and moved 1000 miles away as soon as possible 😂 nice safe place but so boring and everyone knows each other. Transport links are atrocious as well!

I would second Norwich. Avoid Mile Cross, Earlham and Heartsease areas.

Golden Triangle is lovely but quite pricy. Eaton and Cringleford are nice. Thorpe st Andrew too

PM me if you want advice on any particular areas.

@toomuchspinning...if you are not a million miles from the sugar beet factory / medical cannabis area then yes same area

I live in the Fens and love it. Yes,for teens you are going to have to drive them to friends and clubs, but mine don't feel deprived. They fish, shoot, hike, camp, ride.

I teach here as well and the OFSTED really doesn't tell the whole story. This is an area transitioning from a low income and low tertiary education background. But the schools are on it and the results do not reflect the attitude- they are improving despite forcible academisation.

As a comparison, in East London where I worked lower income families and schools had a shit ton of money thrown at them. In rural areas such as the fens- fuck all. There is a relative lack of opportunity as a result- rural England gets nothing- it's all city and SE based. But that doesn't mean opportunities are not there. Increasingly there are SME setting up, towns are growing and agriculture is diversifying.

For me, I feel my teens are safe and have enough to do. Yes, I drive them to see friends and clubs or to weekend jobs but I also drive 14 miles to work- that's rural life! And there is the odd village on a train line like mine that goes to Ely, Norwich, King's Lynn or Cambridge. I'm not saying where it is- it's a secret!

@Fuzzywuzzyface

At least we haven't had the smell from the cannabis factory this year ! I spent that summer snacking

Look at the schools as until recently I think all the schools were in special measures

What??!!??! Def not true!

Public transport v poor and in fact non existent in a lot of Norfolk, unless v close to town.

Kings Lynn to London Kings Cross is v easy, but getting across the country via train involves several changes.

Driving...you've got to drive a good half hour minimum before you can get to main routes elsewhere.

As a teenager, it's an awful place for most (can't comment about Norwich, that might be better.) High schools are okay but not massively aspirational, not much to do after school, need to rely on taxi of mum and dad.

However, lovely for young children. Beautiful landscape, lovely beaches, nice walks. Generally pretty safe, low crime rates. (Though like anywhere, not crime-free and depends where you are.) It feels sometimes as if we're wrapped in cotton wool here.

Ahh @Fuzzywuzzyface I think I’m closer to @plominoagain and possibly @UserName9999

I’m in the bizarre area where all the roads are called something Drove, or something Drain, where driving a rear wheel drive car on a January icy morning is taking your life in your hands, because the yawning chasm of cold black water next to the road, with not so much as a kerb let alone a crash barrier, draws your stupid company BMW like a moth to a flame.

@moita

I love Norfolk but wouldn't live there: transport links are abysmal, schools aren't brilliant and although your children are young now I think it's a boring place for teenagers

Ely is lovely.

My DS is in an excellent primary school in Norfolk. You will get good and bad schools where ever you go. Also not boring for teenagere lots of activities for them to do in the city or at the coast/broads

What about Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk? Lovely town, has culture and things to do, 30 mins drive to Cambridge, on a train line, surrounded by gorgeous countryside etc, but just a bit less remote and forgotten about than some of the places mentioned here.

@phlebasconsidered, I was guessing that your village might have a new safari park but not sure if you have a train to Norwich!

Areas which I would say are good to look at are the broadland district so sprowston, Thorpe st Andrews, Coltishall, Blofield, Brundall, Tavernham, Drayton, spixworth.
Lovely areas, all not too far from the city centre.

I live in King's Lynn. Yes there are some deprived areas as there always are in major towns but there are some affluent areas too and I'm very happy here (moved away for uni but returned 6 years later). I live just on the edge of South Wootton and for me it is perfect for raising a family, loads of facilities in walking distance including a 'good' ofstead rated high school. You can be on a straight train to London that takes under 2 hours and the beach and North Norfolk coast is 20 minutes away. Plenty of open countryside and woodland close at hand for outdoors activities. House prices are reasonable, we've just bought a large extended 3 double bedroom house in a good location for around £250,000. I can't complain!

Umm I live in Norfolk and all the schools are not in special measures. My DSC go to an 'outstanding' school and my best mate teaches at a separate 'outstanding' school.

Diss is lovely but Nofolk is not the place if you want good transport links. Expect to drive everywhere.

@Toomuchspinning - I can see (and sometimes smell the sugar factory) from my road. I’m guessing that you’re on the other side of DM to us.

@UserName9999 bingo 😉

@Bluntness100

I’m surprised at the comments on less traffic, I’ve friends who live near diss and quite frankly it’s a ball ache up that a12 on a Friday evening.

Oh god the a12. That brings back so many bad traffic memories