Has anyone's widowed Mum moved to a new area?

[Salome61]

Hello, I have just sold my house in the NE, and hope to move to the coast. I'm having a hard time choosing where to go.

Neither of my young adult children are house owners or parents yet, I am free to go anywhere in the country.

Can anyone recommend a nice community? I'd hope to volunteer in a charity shop, animal sanctuary, somewhere I could be useful.

Thank you.

Isle of Wight! Depends on your budget but there are plenty of small towns and villages that you could live near the coast and get involved in the local community. Quite a ways from NE but when your kids do have kids a great place for them to visit!

Thank you Pipandmum. My mother retired there, along with my aunt and uncle. I am from Twickenham and always wanted to retire to Brighton, unfortunately out of budget.

Coastal areas vary so much - what sort of things do you like? How quiet/busy would you want it to be? Where do your children live and how far would you want to be from them? I love Bournemouth but it's quite busy traffic-wise. I also like Frinton in north Essex - a small town with a good high street, great community and lots of clubs to join. The beach is sandy and it's easy to get to Colchester for a large town (train, bus or park/ride). The train gets to London in about 1 1/4 hours if that matters to you. I'd like to live there.

Thanks DC10. I definitely can't afford Bournemouth, I'll have a look at Frinton or the outskirts, it sounds lovely.

I want to be able to go to the beach with my sheltie every day, have a shop I can walk to, sit outside a nice cafe people watching, go to the cinema and theatre, have good transport links for when I have to stop driving, and contribute to the community in some way. My son lives in Durham, my daughter is applying for jobs all over the UK.

I thought I'd go mad with boredom when we first moved here, but have finally got used to the quiet life after twenty years. It's just so very cold from October to May. I'm not sure how I'll cope with busy now. Northumberland is the least populated county in the UK and we don't have traffic, generally, you can leave home for an appointment without factoring in any additional time.