LIVING IN NORFOLK

[reddevilchris2018]

dear all,

im looking at moving by the coast in norfolk, have never been there before myself but have friends who have and loved it, for me this is a relocation permantley.

i'm looking to be near the coast and has to be near some kind of shopping facilities and medical facilities etc....

any recommendations would be very welcome and info on the surrounding area's?

thanks , chris

I thoroughly recommend permanently moving somewhere you have never visited. It adds to the frisson of life.

Great Yarmouth is perfect. It is on the coast, has some shops and almost certainly has a hospital near by

Yeah, take no notice, we're just making it all up

Don’t do it. If you’ve never even visited you’d be crazy. Just because someone else likes it doesn’t mean you would.

We holiday there at least once every year and love it we have found our spot but that’s an individual thing.

And yeah it’s not very multicultural. During all our holidays I’ve seen one black family holidaying there. Can’t say I’ve seen many more on or near the beaches. Quite A few Chinese though but they where also clearly tourists.

Great Yarmouth is not perfect by any means- shopping is awful and most people go to Norwich

I suspect that Norfolk is probably a 'love it or hate it' county.

It's very beautiful and a bit 'far from the madding crowd' but I agree with other posters that living too close to the coast might expose you to coastal erosion which is why I , previously, suggested Swaffham as it's a town not too near the coast but big enough for some liveliness.

Best to go on a few visits.

Norwich is an amazing city but I moved to rural Norfolk as a teenager and it was horrible. Racist, unwelcoming to outsiders, no public transport or opportunities for young people. Even the teachers at the local schools had no aspirations for their pupils - and this was one of the best schools in the county. Norwich is great but schools still terrible. Be careful with the rest of Norfolk. The beaches are beautiful and I love visiting but no way I would ever move back there and it is not somewhere I would want to raise children.

If you start all your correspondence with capital letters. You are perfectly suited to Norfolk.

Maybe visit it a few times first

Seaside areas are full of tourists in the summer and near impossible narrow icy roads in the winter, but we love it. Outside of school holidays it is always lovely and accessible.

Definitely visit…seems very marmite.

I’d personally avoid Great Yarmouth, but honestly it depends on the type of place you’ve moved from. I know people who have moved there and Lowestoft (Suffolk but it’s not far) and they think it’s amazing compared to where they moved from, whereas lots of people can’t think of anywhere worse.

Maybe be open to Suffolk as well for the more options. If you haven’t visited anyway, you could give yourself more options looking all along the coast of the East. Depending on budget, Southwold and that area is lovely.

In my experience (30 years), a nice place to settle in when a bit older but limited opportunities for younger generations. I’d disagree that it’s not a good place to raise children in general (the racism mentioned not included in that- that’s awful to hear) but it’s fairly quiet, pretty safe compared to other areas, nice schools (amongst not great like most places in the country), lovely open spaces, beaches. The Broads are lovely.

On top of all of that, you’re within a few hours of London and Cambridge.

What @ChickpeaCrunch said.
It's a good idea to get a view of it in all seasons. It's easy to be carried away by what it's like in summer. Winter is a whole other story.
I lived in the Fens for many years. It's very easy to get a romanticised view of them.
As much as I loved living there, I learnt to be realistic about them.
The winter on the coast can be brutal - heavy rain from the inshore 'breezes', plus the battering your cars and house get from salt water spray. This can add to maintenance costs.
Many places can shut down if they're there for tourists.
You need to look onto this very deeply, OP.
I live on Norfolk, but I'm under no illusions about what it can be like in Winter.

This makes for interesting reading as someone who lives in Norfolk.

Norwich is great but schools still terrible.

This is just not true

www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/every-norfolk-school-ofsted-rates-inadequate-or-requires-improvement-1510384

Maybe not all of them but dear Lord!

The schools aren’t all terrible. My 3 grew up near Norwich and went to school here. All 3 have As and A*s at A’Level and have been or are at university. So for the more able, the provision was good.

We lived in Norfolk for two years in a gorgeous village just outside of Swaffam.

Yes to the racism, winter is like any other tourist county such as Devon ( where I'm from ) and yes lots of touristy places shut down so to speak, it takes ages to get anywhere by car ( train into London isn't too bad ) and it can be quite expensive property wise though again, it depends on where you buy.

I live in Somerset now, not that different really and I have fond memories of Norfolk. It's a rural county, we have horses Ect so it was lovely for us but culturally it's not very diverse. We are lucky to have Bristol nearby and there was no equivalent city in Norfolk.

Kings Lynn hospital isn't great, Bath is our nearest now and is much better. Go and rent for a while before you decide, it may not be for you.

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/every-norfolk-school-ofsted-rates-inadequate-or-requires-improvement-1510384

Maybe not all of them but dear Lord!

49 requiring improvement might sound bad (and I notice it is actually less than this coz it says some are in surrounding counties but Norfolk makes the catchment) , but I just looked up how many schools there are in Norfolk to begin with and there are 520! So it's less than 1 in 10 that aren't up to scratch, which doesn't seem too bad a statistic to me.

It does sound mad to move somewhere you've never visited... but we bought our house in a Suffolk village after one viewing and I hadn't been to Suffolk since I was a child, and that was nowhere near this area. It just felt right! We did have a spreadsheet of criteria for where we wanted to live though, which helped

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/every-norfolk-school-ofsted-rates-inadequate-or-requires-improvement-1510384

Maybe not all of them but dear Lord!

Ahh, my old primary school’s on this list - memories

So is my old high school!

@reddevilchris2018

Norfolk, UK or Norfolk, Virginia?

Where's the OP gone? I was a bit suspicious when s/he said they'd never visited.

I love Norfolk but it's too remote and the winters would get me down.

You need to visit.

There’s a huge difference between Yarmouth, Cromer and Southwold (although that’s actually Suffolk but visited by many in Norfolk as on the edge) for example.

We moved from London to South Norfolk 15 years ago and love it. It is quiet and low crime and peaceful but won’t suit everyone.