To move to Yorkshire from the south coast on my own?

[MintyCedric]

It’s a medium term plan (DD currently at uni and elderly mum would make it difficult atm) …probably in the next 3-5 years…I’ll be in my early fifties by then.

I’ve lived on the south coast since I was toddler, but these days I have about 3 friends here…one is single but has a very active social life, the other two are married with family commitments.

I fell in love with Yorkshire when I visited for the first time about 8 years ago. I feel like it has all the cultural stuff that interests me, but with less pretension and I love the countryside up there. I’d also be able to get a nicer house than my current one with no mortgage…a major consideration as my mortgage currently runs until I’m 67 and I have limited pension provision.

Despite all these pros, my DD and my best mate are being quite negative and unsupportive. They feel I ‘made more effort’ here to socialise I wouldn’t want to move, but it’s really not about that…I just want a fresh start.

AIBU to think I could move in my fifties, on my own and create a new life for myself?

And if anyone has any opinions on Harrogate and surrounding areas or Otley/Burley/Poole in Wharfdale as places to live…bring it on!

Yes, consider the weather, it's the reason I dream of moving down South!

Have you got the option to rent for a year? I know it might sound ridiculous but I wonder if you might find the weather more different than you expect and then there's the lack of sea. You don't say what your budget is and whether you'll have to pay stamp duty but, even without that, buying & moving costs are quite high so, once you've moved you'll be committed. The downside of only renting is that you won't be committed in quite the same way as you'll know you have a get out.

I'm sure @MintyCedric has thought about the weather! Don't be so patronising.

Yorkshire is an incredibly special place and when one gets the call it's hard to ignore. I've not lived there since 1991/2 and I'm moving back this year. I can't wait. The South might have slighter warmer and occasionally dryer weather but it's not home and I've lived here since 1993.

Regarding the weather - as a southerner (also from near Brighton) who's lived in Yorkshire for 12 years, I can say yes it's slightly cooler here but the difference is smaller than you'd expect.
My southern friends and family always make assumptions that we're suffering much colder weather than them so out of curiosity I always compare the forecast. Just checked now.
The temperatures for Leeds (where I live) for the next 3 days are 15, 13,15.
The temperatures for my home town near Brighton for the next 3 days are: 12,13,14.
So it's colder down south! And this isn't a freak event. Often when I check it's warmer here in Yorkshire, or similar temperatures or maybe one or two degrees warmer down south.
Regarding the rain, yes we've had a remarkably wet winter but my parents down south say it hasn't stopped raining there either! When I visited them in Feb, many areas were flooded.
All I'm saying is, yes if you look at the stats it's marginally cooler here but on a day to day basis it's often similar. It's not like moving from southern Spain to Norway! The difference has never really been noticeable to me as a southerner.

It’s very rare that I’m talking to friends elsewhere in the country and they’re having significantly better weather. These last few months have been pretty dismal everywhere. The weather is really not drastically different to further south - I’ve lived in both places. And the east is generally drier than the west. Not this winter I agree!

I’m reading with interest I’d love to move to Leeds…love Yorkshire ! Trying to persuade my other half

I'm laughing at the posts that make Yorkshire sound like it has an 8-month monsoon season, three days of weak sunshine and then the rest of the year covered in an ice sheet.

Leeds is named as one of the best places in Britain to live in today’s Times. Apparently it has the highest salaries outside London, combined with still reasonable house prices. I’d live there in a heartbeat, it’s a wonderful city.

I live in a large village near Hull. You can walk into any of the pubs here or next village and people will be happy to speak to you. I'm sure you'd make friends and wouldn't be lonely.

Leeds really is great. Some excellent shops, pubs and restaurants. Absolutely bustling on my last visit the other Saturday. You can be in the Yorkshire Dales in about 45 minutes too.

You're joking. Every summer we get the summer haters whinging about the heatwave/long hot summer when it is cold and damp in my part of Yorkshire.

They all live in the South East or London.

Thanks for all the new replies!

The main thing about relocating more so than financials and career is if you know no one and want to be sociable and make new links how good are you at it?

This is my daughter’s concern as I’ve been quite a homebody for the last few years. But when I get out I’m confident with people and quite the chatterbox 😁. A move up north would give me more time and disposable income to have opportunities to meet people. One of the things I’ll be checking out this summer is what kind of community stuff and hobbies etc are going on in different areas.
I read and write as a hobby so Harrogate appeals from the Festivals PoV, and I’m a member of an online group that is based in Leeds and has meet ups from time to time.

There’s also a women’s outdoors group that my friend leads in Lancashire and they have a sister group on Yorkshire I’m keen to check out.

Plus I’ll be working so hopefully meet people that way, and at some point may get a small dog!

So I have a few starting points.

Re the weather.

I’ve actually had one of my Alexa’s set to Keighley weather since my last trip there nearly two years ago and it’s rarely much different from down here.

I like a lighter evening and a bit of sun when the time comes but I absolutely loathe hot weather…I’m asthmatic, with raging hayfever and since the bloody menopause, eczema as well. I hate feeling hot and sweaty so the lower temps wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.
I’m at my happiest curled up with blankets, books and a cuppa!

@PoodleJ
I’ve no idea where Farsley is but it sounds nice - will have a look.

If anyone has any recommendations for areas between Leeds and Harrogate I’m starting to wonder if that would be a shout. Looking at Indeed yesterday there seems to be a lot of interesting job opportunities there and also the uni which might well suit me.

The main thing that’s holding me back now is changing jobs. I started my current one in September after a few years out (carer/freelancing) and a really awful time at my previous school (they were recently successfully sued by another former member of staff which gives you some indication of how bad it was).

The one I currently work at is fabulous…the job is great, the people are wonderful. I love everything about it…but it just doesn’t pay enough. I have a second job as well and basically have just enough leftover each month to live on student food, buy petrol and keep the cats.

There is a possibility this could change in the next few months, but if it doesn’t I will probably be having quite a serious house hunt in August as I’m not sure at the moment whether staying put is even sustainable due to CoL. Downsizing where I am isn’t really an option as there’s little difference in price between a decent 2 bed flat and a distinctly average 3 bed terrace, especially once you take moving costs, ground rent and maintenance into account.

I’ve think I’ve kind of made the decision that if I can make it work financially for the next couple of years (until DD finishes uni) without changing my current job, I will, but if it reaches the stage where I have to get another job, I’m just going to bite the bullet and make the move in one go…completely fresh start.

Burn Bridge is a lovely little place between Harrogate and Leeds (nearer to Harrogate). Pool In Wharfedale and Harewood as well.

Dunno if anyone's mentioned Boston Spa yet - it's not between H'gate and Leeds but it's a gem of a small town. Looks like someone's taken a chunk of Bath or Stamford and dropped it in Yorkshire.

I went to Yorkshire for the first time in October half term and can completely see why you want to live there. It's beautiful and the locals are really friendly.

Reading with interest, eldest child currently at Uni in the area & I don't think will head back this way & I really like the idea of fire side reading, after long walks.
Currently in the Northwest but in an expensive area so I would be able to release equity & retire earlier.
Does anyone know what the SEND support is like for young adults? Younger child has significant needs

SEND support is apparently Okish in the Leeds area if you're persistent, but absolutely dire if you have a Bradford postcode. Source: close relative.

I’m a member of an online group that is based in Leeds and has meet ups from time to time. Which group is that, @MintyCedric

@MereDintofPandiculation UK Crime Book Club

The weather is is massively different
I live in Harrogate and work in Leeds but also live and work in London- move up and down several times a week

The weather in the south is much much better. It really is so much more visible than it was 20 years ago- global warning and all that. This time of year I have different wardrobes as the difference is so marked.

There’s also a women’s outdoors group that my friend leads in Lancashire and they have a sister group on Yorkshire I’m keen to check out. You're in the centre of the caving universe. That's an excellent way to make friends.

If you like walking it's much easier in the uplands because of CRoW - most of the land over 400m is open access. Nearer to Leeds, Otley Chevin , Rombalds Moor (of which Ilkley Moor is part). and the woods around Esholt are all good accessible open spaces.

I’m asthmatic, with raging hayfever No fields of rape up here! (Don't know about the Vale of York)

"I’ve no idea where Farsley is but it sounds nice - will have a look." All the buses from the centre of Leeds go to Farsley. No matter where you want to go and how long you've been waiting, the next bus is always yet another bus for Farsley.

If anyone has any recommendations for areas between Leeds and Harrogate It's fairly rural between Leeds and Harrogate - there are nice villages, but they don't have a lot of facilities. If you're interested in Leeds, then look at somewhere to NW of Leeds with good commuting to Leeds, and Harrogate still an easy drive. So Menston, Burley, Ilkley, the "village" end of Baildon (not down in the valley. Possibly even Guiseley, Yeadon, Rawdon. Horsforth is very good for community activity and has very highly thought-of schools, but it'll take you half an hour to escape the city from there.

Pool in Wharfedale doesn't hasn't have a direct bus to Leeds until recently (and I'm not sure whether it survived) and the "Dyneley Arms" where the Harrogate road crosses the Otley-Leeds road is a notorious congestion point. But it's 15 - 20mins closer to Harrogate than the towns along the A65

I have a friend in Addingham, just the other side of Ilkley, and she's settled really well there, lots of activities going on, she's always really busy and has made lots of friends. But not well served by public transport.

@Kickstartplease SEND support is apparently Okish in the Leeds area if you're persistent, but absolutely dire if you have a Bradford postcode. Source: close relative. Horsforth through to Guiseley are Leeds, as are Pool and Otley; Menston, Ilkley are Bradford. Don't know about Burley in Wharefedale - think that's Bradford too but I may be wrong.

A good way to meet people.
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/leeds/royal-armouries-museum/authors-at-the-armouries-2024-7-8-june/e-dgbeda
As you said crime also on X @ hullnoir

For better weather you need sunnier and drier East Yorkshire. All the rain, snow & ice gets dumped on the Pennines due to the prevailing wind direction. If the Wolds were inspiration for Hockney...😁

@EwwSprouts Aha! Already following hullnoir on X although I must admit I don’t go on it that much.

…and that event looks awesome!

@MereDintofPandiculation that is so helpful!

@SaggyCushionCover how do you find the Harrogate/Leeds commute? Do you drive or train it?

I’m asthmatic, with raging hayfeverNo fields of rape up here! (Don't know about the Vale of York)

@MintyCedric The Yorkshire climate lends itself very well to growing oil seed rape, and as the vale of York is flat it is grown quite extensively there. It is grown in flat land near where I live in South Yorkshire, and I wouldn't be surprised if it is grown between Leeds and Harrogate.

There is a risk of you settle somewhere rural with flat agricultural land that you could be surrounded by fields of oil seed rape in spring.

I’ll have to drive through some rape fields and see how I react. I know when I had the prick test years ago it was primarily tree pollen that was an issue.

I drive to see DP. He lives in a yorkshire village and he also used to live in Harrogate.
Depending on the type of house you would like there isn't' the value for money you think. Transport inks are poor and the M62 is a gridlocked nightmare.
I think people are friendly but he thinks southerner's well those where i'm from are just as friendly. He finds the service better down south. These villages also lack the bustle and modernity of the south.
I also find the weather inclement, it's definitely 5-6 degrees cooler and rains non stop.
I cant wait to move up but DP wants to move south.😆