Norwich is a lovely place to live. It is a compact, friendly city with lots to see and do, but it is considerably smaller and more rural than places such as London, Birmingham or Manchester. There is a great independent restaurant and cultural scene, with food from a wide range of countries and Norwich itself is green, safe and generally quite progressive. However, within 20 or 30 minutes you can be in very rural Norfolk where communities are smaller, less diverse and often more conservative.
I have lived in the area for around 20 years. When I first arrived, there were few Black and brown people in Norwich and even fewer in the surrounding villages and suburbs. At that time, most of the diversity I encountered was within places such as the NHS, universities and social care. That has changed considerably over the years, particularly within Norwich, and we are no longer quite so rare when out and about.
Norfolk is not exempt from the wider trends we are seeing across the country. That said, I would not describe Norwich as a place where racism has dominated our lives. I experienced much more overt racism when I lived in Essex, including racial abuse shouted from cars. That has never happened to me in Norwich. I have had occasional interactions where something has felt odd or uncomfortable, in the familiar way where you cannot quite prove what was behind it, but those experiences have been relatively infrequent.
My children attended fee-paying pre prep and prep schools so unfortunately I cannot speak directly about primary schools. Their schools were very clear that racism would not be tolerated and neither child experienced significant racist bullying at school. Of course, that does not mean incidents could never happen, but it was not a feature of their school lives. There was the slightly amusing tendency for my son to appear in prospectuses and promotional photographs whenever the school needed to demonstrate its diversity, which I suspect many parents of children of colour will recognise! They are both in the local state high school and have had no episodes of bullying but we are keeping an eye out.
What has affected me has been watching my son grow into a teenage Black male and become subject to some of the assumptions that society places on young Black men. He is sweet, kind, studious and academically very able. There have been occasions when he has been perceived or treated differently and that has been upsetting. Norwich cannot completely insulate a Black child from the stereotypes as much as you can try to.
I think that is the real trade-off. In Norfolk, you get a greener, quieter lifestyle, more space for your money, beautiful countryside and a coast that is never very far away (and literally a million beaches - ok I exagerate but am not far off 😂). It is a safe and genuinely lovely place to raise a family. What you do not necessarily have is the same diversity, community infrastructure or safety in numbers that you may find in bigger cities. Overall, I would still encourage you to consider moving here - it's a fine city (as the locals will say) and a fabulous place to live.