What’s it like to live in Kent?

[almostautumn]

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?

Deal is lovely.

Deal is lovely, but a quiet seaside town in summer it is not.

You can't go wrong with Kent.
You definitely can!
I think you can find what you want in Kent though. Have you thought about East Sussex too? Look down the trainlines. There's some nice places on or near the Hastings line.

I think Medway could come as a bit of a shock socially and culturally, but it does have a lot of lovely countryside and coast and there are fast(ish) trains if you pick your location carefully. Houses are relatively cheap there compared to the London bit of Kent where I live.

Just FYI, the commuter train service is on its uppers currently and I wouldn't be surprised if bits of it get drastically reorganised if not enough people go back to commuting. You can't be vague when planning station access. Just look at what happened to people on the Southern Rail route! Ideally you would be able to access two different lines.

Have you considered Tonbridge?

(I know it's not the seaside!)

We live in Shepherdswell and would fit your criteria. It’s a brilliant place with lots of little villages in this area which are the same

Ashford here. So much building going on and a decaying town centre. I long to win the lottery and move to a nearby village like Charing.

I'm not at all sure Medway is what the OP is looking for. Speaking as someone from that necked the woods.

OP, you need to look at the Weald villages.

Im in Kent and the amount of house building going on without any infrastructure is horrifying. I moved from SE London to what was a small market town and the traffic and extra housing estates are making me want to move. Anywhere along the Southern train line from London to the coast is built up

@CarrotTops

Honestly anywhere in Kent that's easily commutable to London is going to get built up because its in high demand. Surprisingly lots of londonders want to move out of London to reduce their mortgage and still be within 1/1 and a half hours.

Lots of Kent is earmarked for development, I grew up in a smallish rural town that has pretty much doubled in size in the last 5 years, with no new roads or amenities. Kent is taking a massive amount of the new builds right now, and has some of the highest rates in the country. Lots of Kents roads are very very busy, the traffic is a bloody nightmare. Yes there are the odd lovely rural villages but I'm not sure the house prices are really going to be a great improvement on London because again surprisingly a lot of londoners want what you want

Weekends get very busy by the coast with people travelling in from London, PIL cannot drive out of their house because its so busy at weekends. Whilst you maybe able to find a rural village you will still need to drive to towns etc to get your shopping and for amenities and a lot of the villages have small roads that get very blocked up

I think it's a bit unrealistic to expect to move to a quiet rural location, an hour from London with much cheaper house prices.

Sounds very much like where I live in Kent!!!

Penshurst?

@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?

Stay in London then - everywhere else is having thousands of new house with zero infrastructure. Where I live (East mids) we have had 3000 extra houses in a town of 14k population - no road improvements, no public transport or cycling improvements, no extra GP provisions and no extra schools. We are full to bursting but they are still planning 19000 new houses in the county with minimal infrastructure.

I find it interesting when people talk of areas being demographically composed mainly of indigenous people with lack of diversity as if it’s a negative and wonder if other nations do this as well. Do people in Greece for example eschew areas populated by mainly Greek people of Greek heritage?

We moved from London to Wadhurst three years ago (technically East Sussex, right on the Kent border). One hour into London Bridge / Waterloo. I love where we live.

I think it's a bit unrealistic to expect to move to a quiet rural location, an hour from London with much cheaper house prices.

Exactly - you can be really quiet and isolated and it will be cheap, or handy for London and it won't.

@almostautumn

Thanks *@CarrotTops*.

Where can I find a beautiful rural location that is near the ses, which isn’t overcrowded, rammed with cars and tourists or earmarked for lots of new building, with good schools and a pleasant local town that isn’t too busy with good amenities?

Perhaps such a place doesn’t exist!

Not in Kent or anywhere in the SE of England.

Try Sevenoaks or the villages around it. It's stratospherically expensive because it's a very easy and quick commute to London and because it has Knole Park which gives a genuine sense of space. No sea or even river though.

The Isle of Sheppey was knocked in an earlier post BUT it has coast all round it, you can walk for miles without seeing anybody. You are 1.5 hours from London, we do Hackney in an hour on a good day. There is a lot of new housing going up and where I live in Sheerness is run down and scruffy with lots of poverty BUT I am 2 mins from an almost deserted beach and there are some nice undiscovered places dotted about...

OP probably should avoid Faversham if not having massive developments springing up all around is important. Although it would tick a few boxes in the straight forward commute/rural areas around/close to coast area.

I grew up in Kent.
I lived in London as a young adult then moved to Hampshire for the countryside. We can get to London Waterloo in an hour on the train. It's lovely countryside down here, I fine Kent quite built up when we return home. All my family love visiting us "out in the country" down here and I'm right by the coast. I don't have to fight on M2 and then M25 to get anywhere down here, we can bypass the M25 and go up M3, M4 instead. In Kent to each rest of the country it's sensible to always go via M25.

So it depends on where your DH and you work if still working in London. If its East side maybe think about Essex but further out. Or south side think about West Sussex and Surrey - Guildford is lovely as is Worthing. They have nice villages outside.

But my vote is Hampshire, Or if he works North London - Herts or Berks

[quote Floralnomad]@MazyontheDipper , some bits of Rochester are ok , the rest of Medway would not be to my taste .[/quote]
I grew up around the Medway towns, last time I was there it was all quite run down and rough.

I grew up in Kent, concrete Kent though , not countryside, although it’s always referrred to as South London if I see it mentioned on TV. 40 mins into London. There are some really beautiful parts though.

Depends on where you go. Some areas are nicer than others.

Tonbridge is quite nice.
Maidstone also quite nice.

Medway is mid scale.

I saw a man walking along with a bong at 11am on a Thursday morning last week in Margate and that's pretty common place.

If your fleeing the stabbings etc in London, which I don't blame you for but it is getting worse in Medway

If your fleeing the stabbings etc in London

We actually live in a really nice part of London - I never feel unsafe here and there’s a lovely community. We just want a lower mortgage and less financial pressure!

So much food for thought here, thanks for the comments.

Given our requirements, would East Sussex potentially be worth a look as well? How does it compare to Kent?

There a lovely villages in the Weald, not far from stations for your DH but where you can be out walking in the country within minutes and barely see anyone.

DH and I used to go from London for 8-12 mile walks in the Kent countryside and barely saw a soul. You just need to visit and do your research.

Don’t live near Ebbsfleet or Medway- far too busy.

The area around Sissinghurst is lovely, and the train station in the next village takes you to Charing Cross. There are nice places further in around Otford if Sissinghurst is too far out.