Move to York or Harrogate surrounding areas? 2 littles

[Where2Move]

Hiya! So happy to have found mumsnet and the wealth of information here! My husband and I and our two young kids (almost 3 and almost 5) moved from the States to Frome, Somerset. Husband is British but had lived in States for 15 years prior. Because all of our planning was done remotely due to COVID (not being able to visit prior), we kind of landed blind. After being here for a little over a month, it is clear Frome, while lovely, just isn’t for us. We are thinking about North Yorkshire, maybe around Harrogate or York. We would like a quiet suburb, rural feeling but kind of close to amenities, somewhere that feels more expansive and less built up than where we are now. But we also want to be able to drive less than an hour to a biggish city. We would like to send our kids to Catholic primary and secondary schools. We both WFH, so commutes aren’t an issue. Does anyone have any information about which suburbs or villages fit this wish list? Our budget for a home is 400-450. Thank you so much!

I know there are a few where to move threads in Other Subjects but the main busy areas of MN are Chat and AIBU (am I being unreasonable). If you ask in Chat I think you'll get way more replies.

If Catholic schools are non negotiable I think you'd have more choice around York but you need information on the commute because traffic can be a real problem in the area. There are lots of lovely areas outside of York that would meet a lot of your requirements but you need people who know the roads to advise.

Harrogate also has some gorgeous areas about. Again there are traffic bottlenecks in and out so again you'd need someone who knows the roads. But some of the areas that are lovely are Harewood, Pannal (v close to Harrogate), Green Hammerton ( half way between Harrogate and York), Killinghall, Collingham, Spofforth. I would definitely recommend asking in Chat as I'm useless with roads)traffic situations.

Thank you, Rhomboid! I posted in chat with a more focused question as we visited York and Harrogate recently.