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!

I seriously doubt anyone on Mumsnet (and this thread is backing up this prejudice) has the vaguest clue what 'rural' actually looks or feels like.

A person who doesn't understand the difference between an adjective and an adverb.

But I'd think they mean "inconveniently far from shops".

Same as above, thatched cottage village with 25 houses and a pub, the next village along has the village hall and the green and we all have to drive 5 miles to get to any shop, saying that once we are past those 5 miles we only have another 10 miles until we hit a few major motorways so we are rural but kind of in thr middle of being very well connected by car and rail.

I like all these descriptions and love seeing some photos on here. I'd love to retire in an idyllic rural cottage somewhere.

What really irks me on MN is the number of threads where people say they 'live rurally' and then go on to complain about how they can't/don't drive, have eleventy billion kids and have to be up at 4am to get 3 buses to school and work, etc. Oh yes and in those scenarios the DH is always useless or could easily do the school run in his car but chooses not to for various selfish reasons.

Rural = knowing more than you ever wanted to about the workings of a non-mains drainage system.

anything else (fruit trees, no pavements, fresh milk dispensers, haybaling and owls at twilight, Young Farmers shenanigans, etc) is a bonus.

I grew up ‘rural’. Thatched farmhouse built in 1545, listed grade 2. 3 acres, 2 orchards, 2 ponds, no gas, no central heating, cess pit, oil tank and a bunch of outbuildings. It was a 25 min drive to the nearest shop - if you needed milk, you had to get in the car and drive for 25 mins. My school was an hour away. It was a miserable existence as a kid and at 18, I went to London for Uni and still there 35 years later. My kids are born and bred in SE London and I’d not subject them to rural living as teens. It’s so isolating.

My childhood home. Note it cost my boomer parents £100k when they bought it….

Mud mainly tbh. Dependance on a motor car, no pavements.

What’s your definition?

I used to live rurally. Right on the edge of the woods, no shops or anything within walking distance. Im so glad I moved to a village

It depends. Living rurally can mean lots of subtly different things:

• house in the middle of nowhere,
• farm in the middle of nowhere,
• in a small hamlet/village (with perhaps 1 shop or PO), but far away from any other hamlet/village,
• in small town, but far away from any other town/village/hamlet,
• on an island, especially a small one.

I seriously doubt that's actually true.

Rolling hills , no neighbours, isolated , no amenities on the doorstep , that’s rural to me .

It's possible to have flat rural locations too. 🫣

Where we live is still classed as a village, just. Twenty years ago it wasn't quite small but they've doubled the size by housebuilding and more happening. For us we have a village primary school, one pub, couple of farms and one small shop. It's a half an hour walk to our nearest town. We generally class ourselves as rural but in the West Midlands we probably are but compared to Scotland or areas of England we definitely aren't. I'd love to live somewhere that is rural but as we age I worry about lack of access to health facilities.

I live in a hamlet about 1 mile outside a small market town and would describe myself as living “semi rurally”. But it’s all relative - friends visiting from London think we live in the depths of the countryside!

We looked at some houses in Suffolk a few years back that were half an hour to anywhere with supermarkets and spaced along the road with 5-10 minute car drives between them. I’m envisaging that.

No it isn't That's an image you've generated using an AI image generator.

We live on "edge of rural village" - it takes about 30 seconds to drive from our house (open fields as far as you can see) to the other side of village and more fields. 1 pub, tiny village shop that is full up if there are more than about 5 people in there.

i like the standing naked on the porch theory!
I live in a large busy town which I love and the idea of living remotely/rurally also feels appealing briefly but I’d hate not being able to just walk from my front door to places and having to use the car for every little journey.

(Before reading the thread):

On oil-fired heating
1-2 inches thick mud on the road after sugar beet harvest
Spectacular rural vehicle activity to watch like potato harvest or tree harvesters
Lots of not-built-on land nearby, probably low biodiversity crops but maybe some heath or woodland too
Amazing amount of insect and rodent life in the house
Probably windy... weather matters a lot to many travel decisions
Poor broadband/wifi, electricity network a bit iffy too
Pheasants in the garden seems ordinary
Can see many stars at night within 5 minute walk of house
Could be in a village or edge of a market town or a hamlet or house on a prairie like wheat field 1-4km from the nearest other residential property
Home occupants probably work in the city and drive 40min to 1 hour each way when they go into ofice lol
High % of old people among nearest residents
Many roads are single car width wide although roads have passing places

It can mean different things to different people. Where I live is a tiny town with nothing for ages in either direction but small villages and hamlets and plenty of nothingness. Then the odd occasional small town. Its probably 100 miles to a city. Maybe remote is better to describe it. However the entire area including the town amd other local tiny towns have the healthcare issue of having to travel distances to hospital. So it's an incredible rural area but the tiny town has a coop, few shops, pubs, doctors, school and train station. Live 10 miles out and its the ruralist of rural.

We tend to plan food shopping around other things, so we don't make a bespoke trip without having several things to do at the same time. It saves time and fuel and it's something you get used to thinking about - if I have a hairdresser or opticians appointment I'd always get the shopping at the same time. I tend to plan according to how low we are on milk - last 4 pinter.

I grew up in a hamlet, 25 houses, no shop or pub, and 6 miles to the nearest town. It’s a pain in the arse. I now live in a large town. I’ve just come back from my parents and where I live is quieter and has more wildlife with the added bonus of corner shops, supermarkets and cafes in walking distance. I often think about moving back to where they live but I don’t want to deal with septic tanks, slow internet and getting in the car for everything. (That said a friend of mine who live just on the edge of town has a septic tank)

The view from my window.

I'm definitely rural but not isolated. It's a small village, fairly spread out. No shop, a pub on the outskirts and a small church. Surrounded by farms, I now know how noisy sheep can be.

Rural doesn't always mean isolated or remote.