A better life in Norfolk... really?

[LittleRobin112]

We have so many family members who have moved to Norfolk in the last 10 years and a few friends too. They have mostly gone there for a better way of life. Away from the hustle and bustle of the south east where we are.

We're constantly being told how amazing Norfolk is - the countryside, the villages, the coast, Norwich, etc. And some family members are very keen to tell us how crap it is where we live in comparison, knowing that we are settled where we are and wouldn't want to move. Nowhere is perfect (about from Norfolk apparently) but we like where we are. These family members have moved from where we live which although busy and a London commuter area, it's also fairly affluent in parts, a coastal place and with countryside/woodland still accessible nearby.

What is the attraction to Norfolk? Is it the most ideal place to live? Are people happier there? Are there no down sides to it at all?

I don't doubt some aspects of life quality could be better in Norfolk but I've been on holidays there and many family visits over the years and I can't see how it's as incredible as some family members are making out. Maybe they're just showing off or justifying their reasons for moving there? But to be really negative about where we live is just becoming annoying. It's almost like they're now better than us for living in Norfolk, it's so odd.

Any thoughts?

Doesn’t Norwich have a string thriving LGBTQ community reminiscent of Brighton circa 1990s?

*Strong even 🤨

I think it has a couple of pubs and two clubs. Like I said it has gotten a bit better. If you were openly gay in Norfolk 20 years ago the entire street would whisper about you being a pervert, make up stories about you, shout abuse at you and lots of people wouldn't talk to you. If you were unlucky it would be violence.

It feels 15 years behind everywhere else. It has gotten a bit better though and that might be due to the internet/social media connecting it more with the wider country/wider attitudes. Before it was the way it was because it was so isolated.

Yes it does. Pride is also a great celebration in Norwich. I do not think it is on Brighton's level, but Norwich has a number of gay bars and pubs.

So I feel the need to defend my county. My top ten:

1. Some of the best beaches in England. With the aid of a map you can always find a quiet one even at the height of summer.
2. The wildlife. The seals at Horsey are great. I love having deer in the garden alongside all manner of birds.
3. The sense of humour Norfolk people do not take themselves seriously and there is much laughter in our community.
4. The food. Sooo many great restaurants, hotels and we have large numbers of farmers markets and farm shops.
5. The countryside. For those of us who love to walk or cycle there is so much to see.
6. The history. Norfolk is an historic county. The County of Nelson and Kett.
7. The buildings. Norfolk is blessed with great architecture including Norwich Castle, Norwich Cathedral, Cromer Pier and some lesser known gems such as the Sea Marge.
8. Tolerance. Sorry but it is. I remember a case in Norwich before lockdown where car had been driven into a Romanian business. Ostensibly a race based attack. In a week local people had crowdfunded the repairs. The message being clear- we will not have this behaviour here.
9. Everything goes slower. Okay this is a two way thing, but Norfolk forces you to slow down because there are no busy roads to get anywhere quickly. As a result, the pace of life goes slower.
10. It is great value for money. You simply get more than most other places- which adds to quality of life.

Actually I did like the posh bit around Burnham Market - very pretty and nice pubs. Didn’t like the beaches, so flat and just go on forever. The Broads were pretty but tacky and the water sadly disgusting. Not one place to recycle anything which I thought was shocking. Loved the windmills though and the beautiful old boats. Appreciate this is just the touristy bit. It just had a weird feel to it and the golliwog shop was unbelievable.

All my family live in Norfolk. N and E coast.

I agree with @Cyclebabble ’s list (love the Sea Marge and the other Luytens building in the village).

My family and their kids love walking, birdwatching, sailing, surfing, sea fishing

I love the coast from Brancaster to Winterton, the contrast between the wild expanses and vast sands, to the cliffs and rock pools of the fossil-ing beaches , and the cheerful resorts at Wells and Sheringham.

Norwich is a great city, I love the market, it has a good range of theatres and galleries.

I left for Uni and work and chose not to go back to live. I am now a city person, my family are not. My own family now is multi cultural. The attitude to diversity has changed immeasurably over the last 30 years but coastal isolation and insulation is real.

The sense of community in the villages and small towns my family live in has been strong.

I won’t be going back there for retirement. The health infrastructure is sparse, all my experiences of frail elderlies in the N&N have been terrible, worse in Lynn. And the travel times from the coast daunting. Public transport is bad, except for the bus that runs along the coast and the local rail network, but obviously only where it reaches.

I love visiting. If you ‘get’ Norfolk, the big skies, the expanses of marsh, the slowness, it’s wonderful, IMO / IME . If it isn’t your thing, it isn’t.

Have been well integrated with the "posh" parts, I can regretfully inform you they are equally bad.

I was at a dinner with a polo playing chap, who'd been riding in some context with the then Prince Charles, and was boasting about it. One of his (three, Gresham boarding children), age 16, was there too. The conversation turned to weird and exotic pets. I said in a fantasy world, I'd love a bear. His hideous child then announced, "personally I'd rather have a pet n-word". I am mixed race. The whole table erupted in laughter. I sat there looking around, like, what the holy fuck. The father, who at the time was trying to date me, said nothing. I called him out on it after the guests had left. He looked confused and asked why I had a problem as I was white. I'm olive skinned and he missed the entire point that it didn't matter if I was sodding purple, his son had been utterly disgusting, and he genuinely couldn't see it. Upper/middle/lower class matters not. Racism is at an astonishing level in Norfolk.

Yes it definitely does.

Unfortunately if you are too "openly gay" it's entire pot luck if a stranger will hi five you, or beat you up.

One of my very close friends, "Bob" is known as "Gay Bob" by most of the local community, they know it's wrong because they don't do it to his face. In two work environments that I experienced, a gay person was called "Gay first name" including by management. Again, never to their face.

Good to hear loveky things said about Norfolk restores my confidence in making a move when the time is right

Some of the posts on here are insulting
I'm born and bred Norfolk generations of my family lived in this town.
I assure you I'm not racist, insular and I travel a lot.

This is not anything I recognise about Norfolk. Reported hate crime statistics also suggest that this poster’s perception is not indicative of the wider experience of LGBTQ+ individuals in Norfolk. I appreciate that much goes unreported, but still - ‘pot luck if you’re punched in the face’ is really extreme. What part of Norfolk are you in @TwinsAndTiramisu?

I'm going to retire to Norfolk in a few years. My family used to live there years ago and I've spent lots of summers especially in West Norfolk. I'd go tomorrow if I could.

My friend who is originally from St Vincent, visited Norfolk for a week a friends 50th, theres were 12 people and at least 4 of them were not white, they had a great time and not once did they find any one being racist towards them, my friend loved it so much and said how I should go for it moving to Norfolk and can totally see why I love it so much. So this racism I’ve not seen myseif either to the levels that certain people have said, but you do get a degree everywhere that’s the world though surely

Loved the sock puppet popping up. Made me laugh so hard. Thanks parappa the appa.

Like the anti Clarke Kent never seen at the same time as the anti Superman.

Such a warped point of view. 😂

I deleted my original account but your smug attitude meant I felt compelled to make another one.

1)I am not a sock puppet of the other guy and 2) my view is not warped at all. As someone surrounded by racism and homophobia in Norfolk growing up it has probably left small scars on me for life and I find your dismissal of it as a ''warped view'' frankly deeply insulting. I am based in Norfolk at the moment, let's meet for a coffee and I will be able to spend hours and hours discussing with you all the ways the county is a cesspit of racism and homophobia, I feel deeply strongly about it.

I am not a sockpuppet of the other guy, I made this topic because he is 100%%%%% correct and I felt compelled to defend him. Norfolk is a racist dump.

''Such a warped point of view. 😂''

This is deeply insulting. This is beliittling and pretending all the homophobia and racism I was exposed to growing up didn't actually exist.

This thread is 80% people saying how racist norfolk is, if anything it's you saying it isn't that has the warped view, because you live in a nice little pocket of it where you don't mix with everyday people.

Also as I have said it has gotten better in the last 20 years or so and wasn't as racist as when I was growing up.

Here's an article about how racist Thetford is.

Is this the angriest town in Britain? (eastangliabylines.co.uk)

Similarly when portugal beat the uk back in 2000 or something something like 50 people marched on the Portugese club in Swaffham and smashed it up, there was a huge amount of racial tension in the town and the loss was the spark that set it all ablaze

I am literally trying to warn people and educate about how much bigotry there is in the county and you are laughing in my face saying I have a warped view. It is **ing the reality of the place.

All this tension is still there today, maybe not as strong but still there. As I said I went through Dereham on the bus the other day and someone has chopped the Ukrainian flag in the market place in half.

My view is not warped at all. Yours is. Your dismissal of all the hatred I have witnessed over the course of my life in this horrible little place makes me feel very angry, and I'm sure all the other victims of it would feel outraged too.

Deleting this account again. I assure you I am not a sock puppet of the other guy, I merely felt compelled to make an account because the way you were ganging up on him was unfair. Norfolk is a racist dump and I felt compelled to defend the other guy because he is totally correct.

You people should be ashamed of yourselves for falsely telling people Norfolk isn't racist when it is. I am Norfolk born and bred and it is a racist **hole. Those people you are lying to might end up coming here and then being deeply unhappy like I and others have been in this dump.

If you don't want to meet me for a coffee so that we can discuss all the ways in which Norfolk is racist I am happy to chat over the phone instead.

That goes to anyone thinking of moving here, hopefully I can scare you off so you don't make the biggest mistake of your life.

This might seem a little deranged to some of you but you must understand I grew up here experiencing racism and homophobia nearly every day so to see people say it isn't those things and I am imagining it/lying absolutely cuts me to the core, it is like a massive attack on me and my experience of the world. And it's an insult to all the victims.

I lived on the borders of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire as a family it was a terrible mistake but we thought a cottage with land was the dream,animals growing food etc.Yes we did all that but couldn’t wait to sell up and leave.The schools were awful and children were treated like outsiders because they had wholemeal bread and we grew vegetables.Where in Norfolk are you talking about there is a vast difference between Well next the Sea and the fens.