Moving up north, best places to live

[Sleepylou]

Hi folks,

I’m just after some advice please.
Please bear with me, it’s going to be quite the novel 🤦🏼‍♀️
Myself, husband and two young sons are looking to move up to Northumberland.
We currently live in a very small village down south in West Sussex, were pretty far south and fairly close to Brighton.
Our eldest son goes to the local village school which he is very happy at, it is very small and suits his needs/personality well.
We are very lucky that we are able to walk to school and have a lovely park and green incredibly close.
Our reason for moving is that we are completely priced out of the area that we have always lived, and renting is just too expensive, £950 for a small two bed house. This is just about fine for our current needs but a property where we live for what we actually need would set us back about £1300-£1400 a month.
My husband works as an engineer in London but also has a job in a supermarket doing 3 nightshifts a week, as you can imagine we cannot continue like this.
I’m unable to get a job as I look after our youngest son, due to husbands earnings we don’t qualify for the free nursery hours, and we have no family available to help us out with childcare, even so this would still not be enough to cover living costs, potential unexpected bills etc.
We have had enough and want better for all of us, hubby spent 6 years at uni and at the moment it feels like it was for nothing. We are getting no where fast.
Up in Northumberland we can actually afford to buy our own house that’s suitable for our families size, where as down here we really have no hope, a one bed flat would even be too much.
We’d be able to have evenings and weekends as a family and money to spare to go holiday etc, things that do not happen currently.
I apologise I’ve rambled, my question is, what villages are nice to live in but have some community feel and a walkable primary school that isn’t huge.
We have been looking at Alnwick, Morpeth, Pegswood but we really have no idea.
My husband would need to be around 30-40 minutes commute to Newcastle for work.
We’re all excited for a new adventure and looking forward to see how much friendlier people are than us southerners 😉

Perhaps somewhere that has a metro station so you don't feel too unconnected from a city & can get into Newcastle easily. That might be beneficial for your kids once they're teenagers and want a bit of freedom & jobs etc..
Newcastle's a great city. I have an uncle in Brighton and and Aunt in Newcastle and enjoy visiting both cities equally. Good luck.

Were in the really early stages of thinking things through and looking at different places, so it's really helpful to get different feedback about the area.
We were thinking Northumberland as we are after countryside living but also would like to be fairly near to the coast.
All of the info is really appreciated and helpful.
We live in a really small village now and would likely be cut off if we ever had snow bad enough 😆
I do like the sound of a good cheese shop!

As a southerner it's best not to make jokes about whippets or do a 'funny' northern accent.
There are people from all over the place in the nice bits of the north so you won't be the only southerners. Not so much in the ex-mining areas though.

There's a fast and reliable train Alnmouth to Newcastle.

Has he got a job lined up because that can be a factor. Places are cheaper to live sometimes because there are less jobs!

Thirding Whitley Bay. How old are your children? Lots of play centres, parks, swimming pool, independent cinema, loads of new restaurants and small independent brewery style bars all within walking distance. Newcastle 25 mins away by metro. Outstanding schools.

Two cinemas chain cinemas at silverlink and cramlington about 15 drive away. Obviously one in Newcastle. Nearest bowling place is 20 mins drive or again more in Newcastle.

Please look at corbridge and Hexham - they both sprang instantly to mind when I read your brief!

I live in the Tyne Valley & commute to Newcastle. Can answer any questions you might have?

I'll be sure to not make any jokes, I want to make friends not lose them 😆

Hubby hasn't got any work lined up yet as we aren't looking to go until next summer, we feel we've left it too late for this year and don't want to rush things, but want to do it before our youngest starts school next year.
Our kids will be 7 and 4 at the point we move.

Hi this is the OP's husband.

I work as a civil infrastructure design engineer (highways and drainage for housing estates, commercial developments etc). Currently have a company car as needed for site visits, so likely to commute into Newcastle by car. My current commute is 45 mins so not opposed to a decent commute but ideally no more than that. Also, silly question, but if the A1 has a lane closed or gets shut in rush hour, is it total gridlock everywhere with everyone heading for Newcastle?

Ideally we are looking for a 3/4 bed for max £200k in a family friendly area with good schools (ideally within walking distance).

Morpeth looks good at the moment although we've seen that traffic can get bad at rush hour? Looks to be a nice town, a decent commute and affordable.

Alnwick does look nice too but a bit further out. We're heading up in the summer for a holiday so will visit both.

Appreciate all your responses

My commute from Hexham is about 45/50 mins. I don’t drive on A1 from the west, A69 to edge of Newcastle then into town.

The Tyne Valley is a really lovely place to live.

It's gorgeous up there, have wistfully thought dh could transfer to work at Newcastle uni, the countryside and the coast are beautiful. Just a matter of note, it's much drier on the east coast compared to 20 miles inland, my friend lives 30 mins south of Newcastle and said weather is very localised

Rothbury is lovely.

We've looked at Hexham as a choice also Northumberlamdlass. Will have a look at Tyne valley too, thanks for the info about your commute, it's really helpful.

What would be the main differences between living in County Durham compared to Northumberland or are they pretty similar?

That's a really interesting point about the weather anniehm.

We had heard rothbury is nice but we think it's a bit too far out for us.

I don’t really have much knowledge of Durham as a County as I only really visit the city.

Sorry! I know there are some Durham Mnetters though who could help with more info.

Rothbury is lovely & we regularly take trips up to cheviots, Rothbury & onto the coast, but it is quite isolated & a trek to Newcastle.

Any questions just ask!

What is your budget & what do you hope to buy? Number of bedrooms etc

Sorry I see you answered this!

If you want a small village embedded in the countryside you could look at Matfen, Dalton, Wark, Corbridge, Wylam or inumerable other options. If you're looking for a slightly larger town in the countryside Ponteland (can be expensive), Hexham, Morpeth and Alnwick, are all really nice. If you want seaside then there are lots of options Tynemouth (expensive), Cullercoats & Whitley Bay are all pretty acceptable and have the benefit of metro connections to Newcastle and surrounds. If you want something smaller near the sea then Alnmouth, Warkworth and Craster are all nice villages and really close to Northumberland's great beaches. Depends what you're looking for really.

@Sleepylou

In terms of cinemas, restaurants, bowling etc, would the nearest for this be Newcastle?
Newcastle would be your nearest city but there's certainly plenty of out of town places with cinemas etc. Boldon has an excellent Cineworld and there are some others dotted about and plenty of shopping parks with entertainment like Silverlink

Is it pretty standard to have the 3 tier schooling system in the north?
Yeah, I think it's pretty standard but there are some that fall outside of that. Most of my friends who grew up there went through three tier

@Sleepylou did you make the move?! My husband's just started a job in Newcastle while I am stuck in Suffolk with kids waiting for the house sale to complete! Just having same predicament as you trying to decide where to live!!!!

For 200K you would be stretched in Alnwick/Morpeth areas I would imagine. County Durham would offer you more bang for your buck and good rail link from Durham/Darlington to Newcastle however again avoid any former mining villages.
County Durham is massive, much of it rural or semi-rural but less expensive than Northumberland.