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?

As indeed would QEQM.

Lots of lovely villages around Tunbridge Wells and into The Weald. We are near Kent / East Sussex borders and only half an hour from the sea but in a gorgeous area. I have 3 teens and we live 2 miles away from the nearest village and we all love it here. Obviously I do a lot of driving around for them but I share this with their friends' parents. We are only 25 mins from a really nice country town with good rail links.
Prices aren't cheap but if you're coming from London you won't feel that as keenly as the locals do. (Grim but a fact of life).
I echo trying out country life first though, we love the very rural environment where we live but we spend most of winter trudging through mud - there are no pavements here.

Ooh, just seen your budget. That would be quite a small place in the areas many of us have mentioned, possibly on the outskirts of a village. Very rural generally means bigger houses.

You seem pretty closed-minded / uninformed about what you’re trying to achieve… suggest going and actually seeing some places and doing proper research to have a better chance of success.

@Floralnomad a friend of mine works for Kent police and a high proportion of 999 calls are from Medway/Rochester area. I wouldn't want to live there.

I think you could rule out a lot of places by looking at train lines and times. For example line which services Maidstone is crap and slow compared to line to and beyond Tonbridge. There are twice as many trains to Tonbridge as T Wells because the line splits at Tonbridge. The Weald villages are lovely (the den's and Hursts) but there is often a considerable amount of traffic. There is building going on everywhere and i'm not sure anywhere is immune but somewhere within an AONB will probably have more protection in place than other areas. High speed link from Ashford could rule in some lovely villages with a drive to the station but look at parking options too. Consider what amenities you would like on your door stop as some villages are well served with GP, pharmacy, bakers, newsagent, general store, post office and others barely have a village shop so it's a drive to get anything.

[quote MaryBoBary]@Floralnomad a friend of mine works for Kent police and a high proportion of 999 calls are from Medway/Rochester area. I wouldn't want to live there.[/quote]
My friend is from Medway and he says "if Kent is the garden of England then Medway is the compost heap"
I haven't been so not sure how true it is!

We're near Ashford. Ashford itself is very built up and there is lots of traffic, but the surrounding areas are lovely and there are plenty of nice villages, for example around Wye near the Kent Downs. You could conceivably drive to the station from there in about 20 minutes, then take the high speed train that takes 38 minutes to St Pancras, but it will cost you about 7k per year for a season ticket. It's not rural Wales but you'd be in some nice countryside and have a reasonable commute.

Just wanted to add that although I have agreed and recommended some beautiful villages in Kent, I have never found the people friendly or welcoming. Definitely a sense of being an outsider and people simply just don't bother to get to know you or respond to conversation. This was my view having lived all over the country,
And members of family that are from Kent would agree that it is quite unfriendly.

Avoid Medway, avoid Gravesend, avoid Maidstone and definitely avoid Isle of Sheppey.

Just driving/walking around these areas will give you a feel for the area - trust me!

Medway was voted the stab capital of Kent. Also where the term "chav" originated and very much still sums up the area.

The isle of sheppey - well this article sums it up www.ilivehere.co.uk/isle-of-sheppey-guide.html

Ashford - super cheap because there is nothing here except high speed train and shops.

You will have a massive culture shock if you moved to any of these places. I cringe every time I go here and hear the racist and outdated terminology and views. There's no diversity.

Nice areas of Kent but also quite expensive - Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks etc.

@MaryBoBary I’m not sure I agree. I think it completely depends on where you move to and how much effort you put in, I live in a small market town that’s loved by many - there’s a good sense of community here and people do tend to assimilate fast. It helps having kids that are school age but there’s plenty of opportunity through clubs etc, my running club is a lovely group for example.

Part of my job has been talking to lots of people within Kent, and there’s certainly a variety of responses throughout each place. Birchington for example was really friendly and had an amazing sense of community. It didn’t look like it would! Other places I’d say were a bit less friendly.

It’s got to be lots of Airbnb’s for the OP with a good explore. It’ll be fun.

@Icequeen01 I come from the town with the big steam trains! Probably like you (and if that’s the case we probably know eachother at least by sight!), such is this place.

Really lucky to live here, love it.

The problem is that what you want is what everybody wants. Theres a massive market for people that want rural houses within reach of London commutes, without London prices, well connected to amenities. What that does is encourage house prices in that area up, and encourage lots more development in that area so you lose that rural feel.

Everybody wants some sort of secret place to exist that only they know about. But in general if you have mainstream needs then where you want to live is where lots of other people want to live

Kent is a real mixed bag, lots of the rural areas have high prices, the towns not so much. Its the same mix as most counties in Yorkshire you could move to the dales or you could move to Halifax and life would be different in each

East Sussex i would say is more rural but tends to have worse transport links, with trains taking often more in the region of 2 hours if your looking outside of bigger towns like Crawley, or cities like Brighton.

Oh the other thing is that coastal towns are fickle. In general they are usually some of the most deprived areas in the country, the influx in "down from london" people, holiday homes etc means that nicer seaside towns are very expensive and sometimes not set up for regular life for full time living (eg poor schools, lack of "big" supermarkets, poor healthcare services)

I live in a seaside town thats a destination and is often quoted on these threads, house prices are massively up, and there's lots of transport issues eg. When I was house hunting there are whole stretches of A roads, and surrounding towns that are completely un accessible in the summer if you are commuting

My area is also one of the most deprived (sometimes quoted as the most deprived) in the country. Its schools aren't good, and lots of the infrastructure is struggling but people judge it by the one nice street and assume that's what its like to live there

The other thing about east sussex is that the car links are poor in places some towns like hastings for example are absolutely miles away from any motorways so any travel takes significantly longer than equivilant journeys in Kent which has good motorway links

[quote MaryBoBary]@Floralnomad a friend of mine works for Kent police and a high proportion of 999 calls are from Medway/Rochester area. I wouldn't want to live there.[/quote]
I live there, and you get the good the bad and the ugly……
Just like anywhere else!

@MargotandJerrywerehot

Penshurst?

Houses coming up for sale in Penshurst are exceptionally rare! (Sadly 😞)

@MaryBoBary that's a bit jaded isn't it. I'm in kent and you can't walk up the high street without people stopping to chat

Have you considered Surrey? It hasn't got the coast but only an hour or so away. it's obviously very built up in places but there are plenty of places where I live wher I can walk and not see another person for miles (around the downs, North Downs Way etc) and it's only half an hour into London. The new building thing is an issue, of course, but lots of it is still protected by green belt and a lot has already been "done".

The op won't get far in Surrey with a budget of £450.

[quote OhSmellyCatSmellyCat]@MaryBoBary that's a bit jaded isn't it. I'm in kent and you can't walk up the high street without people stopping to chat[/quote]
Totally agree , I chat with lots of people I don’t know when I walk my dog / go to the shops etc .

I'm in a village near Folkestone, Ashford and Canterbury. Came here from SE London 3 years ago and love it. Village is quiet but has a school, pub, shop and cafe so everything we wanted. Folkestone is brilliant. The Coastal Park and Harbour Arm are great.

Rarely have a traffic problem.

The other thing for the OP to consider given that reducing their outlay is one consideration, is the cost of commuting. I live somewhere that pretty much fits the criteria but £450k would be a real stretch and a ticket to London is just shy of £50 return without tube.

A season ticket works out much cheaper but not if you only commute twice a week, then it actually works out more expensive. I think new flexi season tickets for 8 days per month bring it down to about £42 a day, but if you need to add car parking and tube, that mounts up again. Parking is £5.80 a day.

You seem pretty closed-minded / uninformed about what you’re trying to achieve… suggest going and actually seeing some places and doing proper research to have a better chance of success.

Well yes, that’s why I’m asking on here - it’s a good starting point. I’ve already ruled out Medway for example!

As most of London have moved to the Kent coast over the last year prices have rocketed. There is also resentment from locals about DFL's as they are called here (Down From London). I'd say the south east of the country is one of the most built up areas. The M2 is totally clogged with beach traffic on a sunny day. I live there and do not find it rural, I'd love to move somewhere quiet.

I'm from Kent, village between Canterbury and Folkestone. Former farmers. The Kent of today bears no semblance to my childhood. Still nice pockets though but it's all very estuarian nowadays.

If I were the OP I'd look at Cambs I think.