Worcestershire, West Mids or Warks - any friendly, creative towns or villages?

[Clebaby]

Hi there! I hope someone can help us.

We are moving out of London to have more space and less work pressure. It’s making us all sick! With Covid restrictions - and us being in Tier 3 now in London - we can’t look around the areas where there is property we like, so I’m hoping someone can help give us the low down!

I grew up near Banbury/Bicester (which I don’t like) and posted a while back about wanting to move to a diverse/open minded town or village in the Midlands, ideally near Leamington (but that seems too expensive) to be near family: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/4024215-Mixed-race-family-want-to-leave-London

Race was my main issue as we would hate kids (2 and 4) to be the only non-white ones in their class, but I think if we are to move to a more affordable house outside a city then that’s probably going to be the case. So instead I’m looking for places that are open-minded and friendly and welcoming, in the hope they won’t be places with overt or underlying racism. Places that welcome new people, or get lots of people coming and going, or maybe families moving out from Birmingham/Coventry/London would be good!

Stuff for a young family to do. Even better if there is creative or music or alternative things happening.

Rural is good, as we may do a project - open minded about crazy rundown places etc. But it be good to have a bit of friendliness in our nearest village or town.

The Warwickshire side of Worcestershire, towards the Rugby/Northampton side, and south of Birmingham seem to be more affordable for us, but all these towns and villages are unknown to me. I heard of them growing up but am clueless as to their community spirit or general people.

Can anyone tell me about these places:

• Alcester
• Evesham
• Pershore
• Bredon
• any villages near Worcester
• Bidford on Avon
• Northampton
• any villages near Leamington
• Southam/Cubbington/Kenilworth villages
• Alvechurch
• places near Rugby
• places near Milton Keynes

We looked at Malvern and Stroud for their culture but they are too far from family. We looked around Birmingham for diversity but we realised we do not want to be in a city anymore.

Any other ideas please let me know, we are basically clueless. All we know is that we are sick of working 24/7 and breathing in toxic air!

Thanks so much for any info you can share about these places x

I’m a newbie to Evesham having only moved here a few weeks ago from Essex and yes, the town shopping centre has a fair few empty shops (there’s conflicting stories depending on who you talk to - it’s either going to be rejuvenated with a council cash injection or sold off to build flats) but so far we absolutely love it here.

Haven’t witnessed any drug / gang / violence problems, everyone is so kind and friendly and it’s just a lovely place to live. Schools are all at capacity but they fitted my child in and right now you can’t get an NHS dentist for love nor money however the Community Dental Group who work at the hospital deal with emergencies and you get seen fast.

I don’t think anywhere will ever be 100% perfect. I’ve a friend who lives in a ridiculously expensive house in a small village - everyone knows each other, it’s all summer fetes, WI, duckpond on the village green etc but all that nice stuff doesn’t stop the local minimart being ram-raided for it’s attached cash point machine roughly every six weeks or their staff being robbed at knife point with equally alarming frequency.

@Woobeedoo thank you! I think you may have kindly replied on my post on the local Facebook group 😊 wondered how it was for outsiders like us. We're moving from Sussex. Nightmare getting a dentist down here too, I'm only on NHS as I've been at that dental practice since I was at school, hubby had to join as private patient

I know Pershore , Evesham and Worcester.
I don’t like Evesham personally. Just had no character for me and a bit dull. Pershore is a lovely town. Lots of families in and around and lovely countryside. I wouldn’t say it is ethically diverse but it has a great range of shops and an independent cinema. Also quick links to London as there is a train station.
Worcester is nice enough but a bit dull for me. It floods badly as does Pershore.
None of these areas are ethically diverse but they are quite accepting of different religions and cultural backgrounds. Many lovely villages around, as mentioned previously.