Moving to Lincolnshire need area advice

[FreemanHaines]

Hi, I am really hoping you can all help me with some area information, there are so many mixed messages when researching on google.

We are moving from Kent to Lincolnshire, we would like a respectable, pretty village location, semi-rural, we do not need to worry about commuting or schools, but would like to be within easy reach of a town up to 20 minutes by car would be fine. We want to be near the wolds, for walks and scenery, we are considering all of Lincolnshire and north Norfolk.
So far from research and street view, we like the sound of Horncastle, Alford, Louth, Tealby.
We are very concerned about moving into a rough or deprived area by accident.

Horncastle sounds really nice, Alford looks good but not much written about it, it’s also very close to Mablethorpe, St Leonard’s and Skegness which all have very bad reviews and seem to be deprived, run down and higher crime and drugs problems.
Louth maybe a bit to big, but outskirts would be good, we looked at Thoresthorpe.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.
Kelly.

Retford near Horncastle. Beautiful little village, two local pubs, great community, 30mins to Skegness 30mins to Lincoln 20 minutes to Louth.

Though i think you might be surprised as although a lot of Lincolnshire is very pretty a lot of it is deprived. Even in pretty little villages. Very few jobs in the area that you don't need a car to get to so a lot of unemployment.

Tetford* not Retford. Bloody AutoCorrect

Hi Whenwilligrowup, great info, Navenby sounds lovely but nothing coming up on rightmove that fits requirements, doesn’t seem to be much on the market around there at the moment, but we will keep looking there to see what comes up.

Moved from horncastle three years ago, would never want to live there again. We only moved twenty minutes away to a lovely village but town life is definitely not for me. Everywhere you’ve mentioned differ greatly in price. Tealby is stunning if you can afford it I would live there in a heartbeat. Many people love Woodhall spa and while we visit a lot as it’s only a few miles away I’d find it to busy to live there especially in the summer.

@MrsRogerLima everyone near me seems to be either military or retired!

MrsRogerLima, thank you, Tetford sounds lovely, I have heard of it before, it sounds great with a good distance from everything.

It's lovely and where my now DH grew up.

@Sunbird24 IKR! 😂 Conningsby and Tattershall the former being where my RAF BIL and family live.

And if your not RAF or retired you work at Brakes or Fresh time or Moy Park

LeahDownTheLane, yes I know the prices are majorly different, I agree directly in town would be to busy for us, we want more outskirts of a village, we are happy to have a small drive into to town.

Not sure if anyone on here has been to the following towns in Kent, but if anyone has, would I be right in thinking, size wise that: Canterbury would be similar to Lincoln, and Sevenoaks similar to Louth?

I live in Lincolnshire

Spent most of my life in spalding and currently live in west pinchbeck.

There is a school in WP but no stores. Nearest one is a 10 min drive away in pinchbeck or 15 min drive back into spalding

Lincs is an odd place. I grew up there so feel I can say it but I still don't want to sound rude. I'd never move back. But obviously it's a massive county so cant say it's all strange! Lincoln itself is beautiful.
It's just very 'cut off' but if you want that then you'll enjoy it.
Agree with the PP who says it has some very deprived areas although I think they tend to be areas closer to the coast.

There’s a reason the houses are cheaper.

There’s a reason the houses are cheaper. one of the main reasons being the train links to London are not great. Newark is better for commuting but personally I wouldn’t want to live there!

NooneElseIsSingingMySong From what I can gather, I totally agree with you, it seems to be the commuting access that has more to do with the price, giving good links for work etc.... some areas seem to be really lovely, with good communities, and very low crime rates, but no train line, so house prices are lower.
I maybe very wrong, due to not knowing any area at all yet, which is the purpose of this post.

Where we live (and most of the villages close to Lincoln) isn't deprived at all! There are better train links to London now too as they recently introduced more direct trains. Agree that areas like Boston are quite deprived but the same could be said for anywhere really.

@Soubriquet [waves] I grew up in nearby Donington, live in Sth Leicestershire now but all my family still live in Donington, Gosberton Pinchbeck and Spalding.

@FreemanHaines are you dead set on Lincs Wolds? Billingborough or Horbling have good links to Bourne, Lincoln and Peterborough.

Within next door Leicestershire, Waltham on the Wolds is lovely, not far to Melton Mowbray, a market town. Totally landlocked though if you like the coast (you mentioned Norfolk).

No idea of house prices though. Good luck, how exciting!

Hi Snooks1971, no not dead set on the Lincolnshire but we have been searching in Norfolk, Suffolk and Leicestershire and can not find anything as lovely as the ones we have seen in Lincs, we don’t mind being landlocked, in fact being to close to seaside towns is one of the things that has made us worry about choosing some locations, we like beaches but not the arcade type as they generally have a different feel.
But you mentioned Donnington, is that the same as Donnington in Bain as there have been properties in that area and Gosberton, are they nice areas?

Hi @FreemanHaines the Donington I mentioned is a different Donington to D on Bain in the Wolds near Louth.
Gosberton and surrounding areas have nice pockets, tons of land and the properties give you excellent huge amounts of space for your money. You need to ask Kirsty & Phil!

Yes, I really do need Kirsty and Phil. lol

Hi Freeman. One good tip for getting local information is to search online for the "Local Plan" this sets out what housing density is anticipated in the coming years, eg whether schools/health centres will need to expand. The document gives a very detailed breakdown of local demographics, crime stats, upcoming housing estates etc. I was looking at the Nettleham local plan recently, and it tells you the average age of the residents, average style/age of housing stock, local businesses etc. I can confirm from my frequent visits there that it is a very nice little centre, loads of community spirit and picturesque as well. They have a good local magazine...maybe it's online?

Best of luck with your search. I can see why you fancy living nearer the wolds, they are lovely, but be prepared for long drives and get a rugged car for winter as minor roads can be tricky. Nettleham or Navenby would both be a good choice. Also, the Lincoln bypass will extend to near Washingborough soon, not a miracle cure for Lincoln's dreadful traffic but may help some routes.

I know Lincolnshire very well, please feel free to PM me.

@TeaAndStrumpets I will look at the local information, I have been on quite a few stat sites, but I have not looked at the one you have mentioned. I will do that today. Very helpful thank you.

We did a similar move from near Sevenoaks/Maidstone area to Lincs. We spent several weekends here looking around areas (we were limited by commuting as I am normally in a London a couple of times a week). We did offer on a house but ended up having to pull out due to circumstances.
So we decided to rent first in Grantham (for ease) and then work out where we wanted to live. We ended up buying in an area we hadn’t looked at initially. Ended up in a village with not much more than a pub, village hall, school etc about 4 miles from a small town and 25 mins from Lincoln and are really happy with it🙏
We are so glad we rented first as we could take our time finding an area we liked with no pressure on us.we Can get to Lincoln, Nottingham, Leeds etc without any hassle.