Experts on north-ish Yorkshire- 2nd home suggestions?

[HottestChoc]

Considering a 2nd home purchase in Yorks partly for holidays but also going back to my roots and to be near family further north. I know the Dales and some villages to the west of York, further north, but we want to keep our journey to 3 hours if possible (from north of London.)

Any ideas for somewhere quite rural, but with a bit of village life, but with easy-ish access to York itself ( like 30 mins) and the east coast.
Not asking for much!

Please don’t buy a house and leave it empty and unused for most of the year. This is why house prices are through the roof and locals can’t live where they work

^ this

North Yorkshire residents really aren't thrilled about Londoners buying second homes up here.

It's not even just the fact that it drives prices up.... It's the fact that a village or town with increasing numbers of second homes becomes less of a proper community. If lots of houses aren't occupied by full time residents, local services (GP, buses, shops) will close down, making things worse for the locals who actually live and work there. It's actively detrimental to these communities.

@theboxofdelights

You’re so lucky, I’m going to go back there for a week at Easter for a holiday, loved the old sweet shop in Pately Bridge and people were so friendly, someone gave me their car park ticket as they were leaving early and insisted I use it. Stunning countryside.

someone gave me their car park ticket as they were leaving early and insisted I use it

This is totally normal round here. Nice, isn't it?

Quite unlike the OP's attitude on this thread.

I'm not stopping a local buying a home if they can afford it.

But you are contributing to the rise in house prices making those houses unaffordable for local people.

Yes it is normal Villan - we don’t like wasting money 😂, combined with friendliness that means giving your parking ticket away or sticking it on the machine if there is no one to give it to is the thing to do!

I moved away when I went to uni and always spent Easter in the Dales until I moved back nearly 30 years later.

I absolutely love the area I live in.

I don’t see this thread as being about the principle of buying a second home tbh - central and local government need to act to address that and until they do folk will continue to do what they want to. The house two doors away from me in nidderdale was a holiday home.

The visitors used the local high end butchers and greengrocers, ate out, went to the pub, etc., etc., thereby contributing to the local economy.

The visitors used the local high end butchers and greengrocers, ate out, went to the pub, etc., etc., thereby contributing to the local economy.

They most likely didn't put the children in the local school though or use the post office, or the only bus on a Sunday in the middle of winter on a threatened rural route.

They also probably didn't work as care workers for the elderly population of the village who are the only people that can now afford to live there because second home owners bought all the cute two up two downs that would previously have been starter homes for young families. Only the old people can't live there any more either because none of the care agencies have workers willing to travel there.

I can speak for the locals when I say I would rather the threatened village primary school (only 25 pupils left now) could stay open. Its really sad at this time of year to drive through the village in the evening and see that at least 60% of the houses haven't got lights on. It's been decimated by second home ownership in the last 20 years and there is now a whole generation of local people basically missing from it.

Have you thought about buying a lodge on a Park in one of gthe areas you like?

They most likely didn't put the children in the local school though or use the post office, or the only bus on a Sunday in the middle of winter on a threatened rural route.

Yep - this is the issue. High end butchers are great, but seasonal visitors simply do not contribute in a way that sustains essential local services.

No one thinks it's fine that foreign millionaires buy houses in London and leave them empty for most of the year. They may spend a fortune in Harrods when they visit, but it's still not a good thing for the local community. This is no different.

You're right that it's an issue the government needs to address, but that doesn't mean we can't point out to the OP the impact of her choices. That lovely village she buys a house in will be detrminetally affected by her decision to do so.

And if she displays the same contempt to the locals that she's displayed on this thread, we really would rather she stayed down south.

It's not 2.5 hours from London to YORK on the train if it's direct - it's 1.50. I make the journey regularly. OP we have a place in the Dales. Feel free to PM me if it's that part of the world you're interested in.

I've not looked at this thread since early yesterday mainly as I was very upset and also shocked at the way some posters were taking me to task for wanting a 2nd home. I don't feel this is the place to debate the whole issue of 2nd homes.

Let me just clear up a few points for those posters who have been very aggressive and downright nasty.

I am a northerner. My family are up north. That includes a parent in their 90s. Part of the plan is I will be closer to them rather than driving for 5 hours. The plan is not to rock up once a month or every 6 weeks for weekend, but to make it a SECOND HOME where we will live for perhaps 50% of the year and get to know the locals (and support the local economy.)

I completely agree with the people who complain about bankers spending a £1M bonus on a house in Cornwall and hardly using it and villages dying as local move out . But the fact is that locals often move out as there is no work and the local economy doesn't support them any more- there are no tin mines left in Cornwall.

Some areas in national parks have a local residency clause in their house sales and that's fine with me.

Thanks to the posters who have made suggestions on location. As I said at the start, I am northern. I know the Dales, the east coast and many of the areas already, having holidayed there and lived there, but there is one area around York - maybe a 10 mile radius- that I'm not as familiar with so I thought asking here would be a short-out to travelling and viewing those areas.

WomanWithAltitude

If you had bothered to read my thread you would see I am NOT a Londoner. I come from a tiny pit village in the north. I moved south rather than be unemployed as there were no jobs up north when I let uni and I'd like to spend some of my last years back in the north more, rather than renting someone else's holiday home.

There are some really scathing comments on here from judgy posters who know nothing about my circs but are quick to wade in.

And if I sound annoyed- yes, I am, and so would you be if people were making assumptions that were untrue.

Flippin' heck, if you want help, maybe start by being a bit less arsey

Well that's helpful peagreen after the OP has been back to explain.

I can't help you OP. I will say that it wasn't clear to me reading your first post that you were only interested in villages and you were rather brusque in your responses. Your posts today provide much more context and, if you had said some of these things initially, I think you would have got different responses from a lot of people.

A lot of MNetters are anti second home owner and anti landlord. I'm afraid some of what you were on the receiving end of is par for the course.

I don't know any of them in particular but in general the villages between York and Harrogate are very nice. And your conscience can be eased slightly in that you are not in traditional holiday home territory...

Abeautifulpeagreenboat have a look at the nasty comments that were posted asking me to justify my desire to have a house and then see if you think it was odd that I got annoyed.

wowfudge Thank you. I honestly didn't think it was necessary to defend my desire to buy another home first! I'm afraid it wasn't ME who was arsey- I was kicking back at some rather nasty comments. If I'd asked friends in RL for suggestions I doubt very much they would have started kicking off about not buying one.

There are 2 sides to all the 2nd home arguments. Some of the homes I've considered in the northern pennines and weardale have been on the market for months or years. There is no work there and they are too remote for working families. The industry that supported the local economy has died. Families want to be close to good roads, schools and shops not stuck on a hillside 5 miles from anywhere.

if people didn't buy them as 2nd homes, they would fall into disrepair, as many are doing now. At least by buying them up they are being used, money is spent on the local shop and pub.

Northern pennines are lovely, and as you say not prime second home market. Quieter than the dales too. But a bit far away I'd have thought?

Northern Pennines, Teesdale and Weardale have always been by 1st choice but as we are 60s now, and looking ahead, the extra hour and a half driving would make a difference. This is why we've decided to go slightly further south and it also means family here in the south can access us and us them (in emergencies too) via good train services from York.

We are in a semi rural location and I wouldn't want to be any more rural/remote when we come to retire. You do need to consider your own health and mobility in future years in relation to local amenities.

@HottestChoc I don't know why you bothered to come back after you dramatically announced you were leaving the thread. No one was rude to you or scathing. People simply stated an opinion on a topic you mentioned in the TITLE of your post.

You were rude first & oversensitive to boot. 2nd homeownership is by and large a vile unsustainable practice & this view is becoming more widespread amongst the younger generations. Get used to receiving negative reactions if you mention it in future.

The anti-second home comments didn't start off nasty, they were perfectly polite and then you responded rudely and they got ruder and it all escalated. You were also pretty short with the people who said nothing at all about second homes and were only trying to help.
If you were genuinely upset by this and want to avoid it in future, maybe look at how you're coming across rather than assuming the fault is all on the other side. Most of the time if you're nice to people you get that back, online just as in RL.

The best bit of local advice I can give you (though I hesitate as you'll probably tell me irritably that you've already said you know the area) is to be aware that the A64 towards the coast can get unbelievably busy in the holiday season so if you are going to want to go to the seaside at all in holidays and weekends, pick somewhere where your route won't go that way.

I think you need to take a look at your posts on this thread and consider how these are linked to the replies you've had.

Do you really think that saying "Sorry but I didn't come asking for opinions like yours" or "fuck off" was anything other than a display of rudeness and contempt?

The fact that you grew up in the north is neither here nor there, it has no impact on the second home issue. Nobody has an inviolable right to be protected from hearing valid criticism of their choices, particularly where those choices affect others.

And it's Arkengathdale, not Arkendale 😁

Garth not gath!!!