Wheres's a good town to live?

[jane313]

My partner and I are thinking of moving and as we are both teachers the field is wide open.(although it may just mean moving to where the jobs come up) I want it to be a biggish town with a bit of life, shops, restaurants, cinema, museum, etc and want to be able to walk to nearby shops/facilties, ie not a suburb with just houses or in the middle of nowhere. He wants it to have a bit of interesting landscape nearby. I'd quite like to be near the sea but its not a priority. We both want a few good preferably non-selective schools and a 3 bedroom house and garden for not more than £250,000.

I know a lot of towns in the south east and west but not many in the midlands or further north. We keep going round in circles talking about it and we are going to do lots of trips to place in the summer,

Do you love where you live?

north east -
newcastle area is great and has all of the above!

you will get plenty of house for your money too

I live in perth, and it's great, can walk to the shops, lots of lovely bars and restuarants.

Can drive 5 mins in any direction and be in country side, which is all beautiful. Only 40 mins to Edinburgh for the more cultural (festival etc)

Good schools and three bed house would cost between 130K - 250k dependant on what you want

I've neither been to either place (well only through Newcastle on a train). So they can go on our list. Although as we live in west london we may spend the whole school holidays visiting places!!

Perth sounds lovely

Edinburgh itself!!! Fab place to live, fits absolutely all your criteria, except that the house prices are a bit steep. Lots of good non-selective schools, plenty of parental choice. If you're primary school teachers I should add the following: no SATs, no school on Friday afternoons, no children having to start school before they're ready.....

Oh, I could go on and on Feel free to ask any questions, but if you visit in summer just be aware that Edinburgh in the festival is quite different from Edinburgh the rest of the year!

oooooooooooooooo
think a move to edinburgh may be in order for the popsycals......

Harogate. I've lived here for 9 years and it is a beautiful place to live.

Beautiful shops and boutiques, fantastic nightlife, lots of restaurants, museums, parks, gardens, statley homes, you name it we've got it. Lots of non selective schools with excellent reputations. only 10 mins away from the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, with the bustling cities of Leeds and York only 30 minutes away. With your budget you'd get a nice house in a nice area.

I LOVE where I live.

Yeah go on popsy, come too
Class contact time will be 22 hours 30 minutes from August 2005. Don't know how that compares with England, but just thought I'd mention it.

Suffolk is nice too - lots of pretty little villages and not far from the sea!!

tamum - OMG that contact time sounds fantastic....
dh LOVES edinburgh and has always said it is one of the few places he would like to move to....

and he is really stuck in a rut a the moment

sorry jane - hijacking your thread with my pipe dream!!

Weeren't we talking about him doing brewery tours along time ago, so that he could use his microbiology and people skills? I remember it was a bit off-the-wall! Unfortunately the brewery here is about to close, but I would have thought Edinburgh would be a good place for creative new opporutnities because there's so much going on in terms of tourism and festivals. I honestly think teachers have a better time here, at least at primary level. The school my children go to has what seems to me to be loads of support staff- I think that's how they get the contact time down. I know it's just a pipe dream at the moment, but feel free to email if you want!

wow tamum your memory amazes me!!!!

wll let you know how it all pans out

back to jane now!

Yes, sorry Jane!

(popsy, sorry, must have sounded like a weird stalker-type-person, but I just have got a good memory, honest )

Message withdrawn

Don't worry about the hijacking. I've been to Edinburgh a couple of times for the festival and loved it. That interesting about the teaching. Do the kids leave at lunchtime on a Friday then?

France would be lovely but I don't think I'm brave enough for the language barriers.

Hello jane313. In most areas the P1 and P2 children come out at 12 on Friday, and P3-P7 come out at 12.20. There are some areas which have Wednesday afternoons instead. I think High schools come out at about 1, it's certainly not far behind the primary schools. It makes a nice long weekend, although I don't suppose the teachers are swanning round the shops all afternoon!

If you fancy Edinburgh but can't afford it. Dunfermline is just 12 miles away, £250,000 would buy you a great house and the town of Dunfermline is improving all the time, lots of history, two lovely big parks, the local leisure centre is cheap and has loads to offer, there is a Bannatynes if you like something a bit more upmarket, a big Odeon cinema and quite a few nice restaurants, shops could do with a bit of improving but I believe it is on the cards.

Stirling is fantastic as well, your £250,000 won't stretch as far there but I think you could still get quite a nice three bedroomed property.

Birmingham - its great!!
Places I have visited that I also love are glasgow, edinburgh, plymouth, southampton, cardiff, liverpool, manchester and leeds.

Oldham's cheap!

edinburgh or is that getting to far north

Why ahs this re surfaced when the OP was in 2004?

inverness is the fastest growing city in the uk at the moment. Fantastic scenary all around, near aviemore if you are into the outdoors, skiing etc, has good air link these days and you could get soem fantastic property. I live near aberdeen and i would move up there in a shot.

didnt even notice the date! well spotted northerner

I live in Sleaford Lincs
Great schools, priamry and secondary - infact no bad ones Grammar boys and girls plus a fab co ed secondary
4 bed detached exec house in rural town or on new estates for under £250k
WE are not biggish towns, great pubs, no cinema
You could look at Lincoln or Grantham for more activity though
We frequently drive up to the East Yorkshire coast