When people say they live “rural”, what do you envision?

[popbingo]

So many posters on MN talk about living rurally. I picture a farmhouse (or something similar) in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields and mountains. The nearest shop would be a 30 minute drive away etc.

Please share your thoughts!

Exactly that, but substitute Quantock Hills for mountains and a cottage, rather than a farmhouse!

I think UK rural is very different to, for example, USA rural.

Here it probably just means living in a village with just the 1 pub.

I live rural. Theres a cow farm "next door" and a co-op and 1 pub

I do live rurally. In my case it means a hamlet of houses and crofts all spread out from each other, single track road, 5 minutes drive or 1/2 hour walk to the village. Neatest city (barely a city) is nearly two hours drive away.

This is my rural - no neighbours and I love it

I'm rural in a tiny cottage in a village in the Scottish Borders. We have a school, a church, a cafe and a pub. Nearest shop is 3 miles, nearest largeish town 15 miles, nearest railway station 12 miles, nearest city 40 miles. There's a bus every 2 hours to the large town but the last one back is 5.15pm. You need a car. It's lovely but it is quite isolated.

I live in a former farm worker’s cottage. Semi detached and the two cottages have fields on each side belonging to four different farms. Village green with two ponds, a church, a tiny shop, loads of thatched cottages, there’s a bus to the city twice a day.

Hopeless for non-drivers. Waitrose is 7 mikes away and only reachable by car, other supermarkets even further.

@MinieggyThis is exactly how I picture it! (Maybe I was being a bit dramatic with the mountains ) looks so peaceful!

I have a farm opposite. No pavement for a kilometre either way from my house. A pub. No shop. Another village two kilometres away with a pub, shop ans garage and a small town five kilometres away. Can only see fields and houses.

I've often wondered this, im not in the UK and to me 'rural' mean a house is surrounded by farmland with no or very few neighbours that can be seen. Shops are 20min drive.

Sometimes I get the idea that on here rural means not urban; and urban mean living in a large town or a city.

Hardly any neighbours, more Green land than tarmac, growing my own fruit trees, having to drive to the nearest shop, pub on doorstep. Tranquility personified.

Those villages on the outskirts of london with winding roads that youre expected to do 60 on

There's rural, there more rural, and then there's very rural.

My house is in a hamlet with maybe 4 others, down a single track lane, a few minutes from a nearby village. The nearby village has a pub, that's it.
15 minutes drive to a town which has a supermarket.

So yea, I'd say I'm rural, but then I'm not Scottish Highlands rural (like that house on one of the Bond films).

No McDonalds for an hour in any direction . It's been a wonderful area to bring my children up in. Small town, everyone knows everyone but there's shops and churches/chapels, cinema, leisure centre, umm a supermarket, yeah that's about it. And no chain fast food for miles and miles in any direction. Or dual carriageways.

That's funny, because my nearest McDonalds is 10 minutes away because I'm also quite close to a major motorway and services, despite being rural. In fact I get to that before I get to any decent supermarket.

But yea, still rural.

Deer, owls, foxes, hawks. A lot of sheep. Pasture to the back, woodland to the front.

Tractors cutting hay at 1 in the morning. No shop. 3 miles to the nearest pub, 4 miles to the closest primary school.

Love it 😊

I describe our home as rural.

Nearest tarmacked road is a mile away, as is the nearest village. Village has a pub, a school with 30 pupils, a shop. Buses to nearest small market town (5 miles) every hour from 8am-5pm weekdays only. Nearest train station 15 miles. Nearest hospital 25 miles.

We’re ‘rural’, just 1 neighbour, surrounded by livery stables and woods, 15 minutes walk to the hamlet, no amenities at all, the last pub in the hamlet closed a few weeks back, 5 miles to a fair sized town where the kids went to school, with lots of shops / pubs / restaurants and a railway station for my 45 minute commute into London. I love it.

We're outskirts of a small town large garden and green belt behind. I wouldn't call it rural but pretty nice, best of both worlds really can walk into town or out into countryside.

I'm not in the UK and to me it is someone living on a farm, which is what it would mean here.

Here's my view:

Rural to me is fields, orchards, livestock, a two to three mile walk to the village shop, doctors, etc, probably a cesspit and perhaps no gas supply. Exactly as my grandparents lived. It was marvellous for them, they were the landowners and had plenty of money and wide horizons.

For the farm workers and others living so rurally, it was much narrower. Coal and log fires, not so romantic when there can only be one, ice inside the windows, a bit of damp, two or three buses a day and much cycling. Possibly an annual visit to the County Town ten miles away, wives gleaning and fruit picking to make a few extra Bob.

In a village , these days maybe no shop but maybe a shop within 2 to 5 miles , same with gps and like nurses etc , maybe um again 2 to 5 area , may or maybe not a bank or post office ,possibly no bus service or nearby bus route ,plus no school junior or senior in a 5 to 10 mile radius, most villages have phone and Internet. Some villages have no gas but have electric, that's where we live

This is my rural.

I usually say 'quite rural' or 'rural-ish'. I live in a village with population around 800. We have primary school, pub, co-op, good community stuff on that we organise ourselves. Lots of wellies & farm/forestry vehicles in the shop car park. But no secondary school in the village (and realistically no choice of secondary - bus goes to one only). 40 minutes to minor injuries unit, 50 mins to A&E. Swimming pool 20 mins. Train station 35 mins. One bus to city every 2 hrs on weekday daytimes.

Some people think that is loads of facilities, others think that is back of beyond!