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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What’s it like to live in Kent?

185 replies

almostautumn · 30/08/2021 11:42

Sorry, big generalization I know, but…

DH and I are planning to leave London to reduce our large mortgage. We’ve agreed on Kent as a compromise, as he wants to be within 1-1.5 hours of London and I want to live rurally and nearer the coast.

What worries me though is that Kent maybe isn’t rural enough and is overcrowded compared to somewhere like Wales or Yorkshire for example.

I want to live somewhere very peaceful and quiet with beautiful countryside, where I’m not surrounded by hoards of people everywhere I go. A place where I can go for walks and not see another soul (well, maybe a few other people would be okay!) A place where I can drive to places and park and the roads aren’t jam packed.

A small rural town would be fine, as long as it’s quiet and not too busy. DH is on board with all this as long as like I say, he can get to London fairly easily.

Does Kent sound like it would suit us or is it not that rural?

OP posts:
Original poster
almostautumn · 30/08/2021 13:36
  • sea
OP posts:
CarrotTops · 30/08/2021 13:37

Don't get me wrong I love Kent still, but rural Wales it is not. The reasons I won't return to my home town is it's just too busy and the infrastructure can't cope, too many new builds with not enough roads.

I've lived in Wales, Norfolk, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire and all of these are more rural and just feel calmer. If your looking to retire to a small village and never leave it you might be okay, but if you ever want to leave the village it's stressful

User135644 · 30/08/2021 13:38

You can't go wrong with Kent.

Original poster
almostautumn · 30/08/2021 13:39

Interesting you mention Oxfordshire. I have a relative who lives in Oxford who says the traffic is dreadful!

the infrastructure can't cope, too many new builds with not enough roads.

This is exactly what worries me.

OP posts:
CarrotTops · 30/08/2021 13:40

East Anglia I would say has more of that but you are further from London.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 30/08/2021 13:45

I love living in Kent and it felt a safe move when moving out of London. But I think it’s really really busy. You can’t walk far without meeting anyone, and the roads are busy. It feels like a really crammed corner of the uk. If we had our time again we would have moved a lot further away from London.

Original poster
almostautumn · 30/08/2021 13:47

@ThroughThickAndThin01 where would you have gone, out of interest?

OP posts:
ThroughThickAndThin01 · 30/08/2021 14:08

Not sure OP, but Kent was a done deal at the time without thinking out of the box. Maybe towards Bristol (I’ve only recently discovered Bristol and love it), or Worcestershire, outskirts of Birmingham maybe. Maybe we’ll go to one of those when we retire!

DPotter · 30/08/2021 14:18

Respectfully I think you're asking the impossible - with regard to Kent or any other area within an hour's commute into central London.

  • incredibly rurally, near the sea, cheap housing and no possible housing development .

Have you lived in the type of rural location you describe? If you haven't - the culture shock between a city and the rural is massive.

I would recommend you do a lot of research and visits - preferably in February with awful weather just to see what it's like.

For example - you say it doesn't matter which train station for your DP - 'just central'. The 'wrong' station can add 15 mins each way to a commute which I know doesn't sound a lot, but on top of a 30 min drive to / from station it all adds up. Say you live in Lyminge (a village I know) that's a good 20-25 min drive to Folkestone (god knows what the car parking is like). 40 mins to Stratford sounds good but if your DP is working near Liverpool st -that 15-20 mins on the tube. A total of 1.5 hrs if everything runs spot on time, and no walking time between car park / station / station /workplace.

Having said that I love Kent - grew up there. Also love Oxfordshire as I live here now.

Just think reaaallly carefully before you move

MazyontheDipper · 30/08/2021 14:19

What is Medway area, Rochester like?

Callmecordelia · 30/08/2021 14:20

OP I echo what previous posters have said, and I'm sorry but you sound a bit naive. I think you will have to compromise, and exactly what you want doesn't exist. Not just in Kent, but anywhere with good London links. Kent is a good bet and you can get a lot of what you want, but not all.

There are quiet bits of Kent, and quiet roads in it, but it's a home county. The reason that Kent is being built on is because lots of Londoners want to move here and go back once or twice a week to the office. Incidentally, this is distorting the property market, pushing prices way above local wage buying power, and people aren't happy about this. I can't live where I grew up because it is a) inconvenient for teens b) now too expensive for our income c) demographically changed as it's a nice place to retire to from London, and it is slowly dying. If families can't afford to live there, it's not good for anyone.

You only need to look in the Guardian for where I live OP. I love it, and moved here before everyone else did, but it doesn't really fit your criteria. We want tourists, the town will wither without them.

FuzzyPuffling · 30/08/2021 14:29

Medway. Ghastly. Avoid avoid avoid

MazyontheDipper · 30/08/2021 14:33

@FuzzyPuffling

Medway. Ghastly. Avoid avoid avoid
why is that? We have been considering Kent as its nearer the coast and Rochester seems to have good links to London. Does it have a lot of crime?
Floralnomad · 30/08/2021 14:33

@MazyontheDipper , some bits of Rochester are ok , the rest of Medway would not be to my taste .

CecilyP · 30/08/2021 14:38

Parts of Kent are very rural indeed and not that far from London as the crow flies. However with scant public transport getting into London for work would take ages and congested roads probably wouldn’t make driving any better. But no harm in looking.

Theworldisfullofgs · 30/08/2021 14:42

N cambs/Northamptonshire border. 1 hour to King's Cross. Lots of pretty villages. Not crowded.

DroopyClematis · 30/08/2021 15:11

I'd avoid anywhere north of M2

Maidstone is central and close to M25 but it's not a nice town. Tons of new builds on fields surrounding the town.

If you e got children, be aware of the 11+

CampervanQueen · 30/08/2021 15:26

@CarrotTops

East Anglia I would say has more of that but you are further from London.
I agree with this. I grew in Kent (Folkestone) and left nearly 10 years ago. I wouldn't go back. Far too much development. Far too many people, cars, lorries (Op Stack or whatever it is called now causes utter carnage). Anywhere that is remotely commutable to central London is hugely overpriced and overcrowded. And if you have primary school aged children, then you'd need to consider your position regarding grammar schools.

Some of the quieter areas of East Anglia might suit you, but the commute once you get to Liverpool Street would need to be factored in, and I suspect you'd still have issues for future developments.

DroopyClematis · 30/08/2021 15:36

Just to add, Maidstone is on a branch line to London so it takes over an hour for a relatively short distance.

Standrewsschool · 30/08/2021 16:10

Don’t discount Maidstone. Maidstone itself has three railway stations so good for London (an hour max), or Paddock wood is nearby if you want a different London station. The villages around Maidstone are lovely. Like any town, Maidstone has its better and worst areas.

Yes, there has been a lot of building in certain areas, but that’s the same for a lot of towns and cities nowadays. There’s plenty of countryside left, and it’s good for the coast. The schools aren’t bAd either.

Have you considered schools? Kent is a grammar school stronghold. The non-grammars can be hit or miss (like in any town).

CoronaPeroni · 30/08/2021 16:26

We often stay with relatives in Upchurch/Lower Halstow. It's on the Saxon Shore Way, lots of coastal walking with Rochester a few minutes away.

FuzzyPuffling · 30/08/2021 16:57

We used to call "Operation Stack", "Operation Stuck" as that was the effect it had on the whole area. Huge lorries trying to sneak round it by using small roads and country lanes. Nightmare.

lockdownmadnessdotcom · 30/08/2021 17:02

@almostautumn

The other thing is, I don’t want to live in an area that is earmarked for lots of new building. I’d hate to move to a quiet rural town only for 500 houses to be thrown up without the infrastructure to support it. Is this something that’s likely to happen in Kent?
Impossible - building is happening everywhere. You could move somewhere and next year a developer, or even a local council, decides it would be a great idea to develop a rural area as a "new village". Or a farmer sells some land and you get 200 new houses on it.

But Kent has some really pretty villages and feels less built up than some areas of Surrey, for example.

Genevie82 · 30/08/2021 17:59

Hi OP,
Yes you can find lovely villages in Kent with outstanding walks and rural lifestyle too.. Canterbury and Faversham are good areas to look at and visit the areas with an Airbnb.. train to high speed London from each x

Timeforatincture · 30/08/2021 18:10

I'm moving to Deal in a couple of weeks so I hope it's nice!