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?

yeah sorry about that - i thought i had searched on current messages and didn't even look at the date. must have clicked all messages instead .. oops

still - could make it an interesting thread on why we all love (or hate) where we live.

I'm in Poole, Dorset. It really is gorgeous here. I really didn't appreciate it until I had my kids and we ended up having lots of days out. We are right near the see, loads of shopping places around, places to eat. Train station nearby to travel around. Short drive into the countryside. We aren't far from the New Forest. Can't beat it here.

I second Northerners post. Harrogate is a great place, for all the reasons she said.

Hebden Bridge!

Set in beautiful south Pennines: moors, crags, cloughs, woods etc; loads of independent shops (won some kind of survey about having most independent shops v identikit high street clones); cinema that serves cups of tea in real mugs, not polystyrene nonsense; lots of restaurants and cafes including organic, vegetarian and greasy spoon; arts festival every summer; music venue; circus skills workshops; seven types of baby yoga; highest ratio of lesbians in the country; within 45 minutes by train to Manchester and Leeds for anything not listed above.

Beat that.

isle of wight!

For all its bad press (over hyped!) I think Nottingham is a fab city.
Great road/rail/air links. Cracking place to shop and party.
Countryside within spitting distance and you can be at the seaside in little over an hour.
If you ignore the media circus....I work in an inner city area (gun crime central according to the press) but reality is far from the media portrayal.
Beautiful parks and country are only 4 or so miles from the city centre.
And not to mention the friendly locals!!!

Stratford-upon-Avon.I really liked it.Like living in a little bubble.Low crime,decent schools,shops,cinema..nice walks etc.
Houses a lot tho.But i reckon you could get what you're after.Also near Birmingham for shows.dryski slope and the arena for shows and Cadburys chocolate factory.
Suffolk is great i grew up there.
Framlingham..got a good primary and secondary.
Also Aldeburgh.Southwold etc but may be abit quiet re shops..tho Ipswich not far to travel.
Parts of Cumbria..where dp is from..Penrith etc and maybe Carlisle but not entirely sure about those 2 .
How exciting