Norfolk, Suffolk or Essex?

[Fave92xx]

Hi lovelies, all advice/ recommendations welcome! Me and my partner currently live in London (where we’re both from) and both work freelance in Essex / London.

Although London is our home, we’re both looking for somewhere else to put down some roots and start a family. We’ve been looking at Essex (Colchester mostly as it’s within our budget) but also looking at Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

We’re looking for somewhere where life’s a bit slower and there’s more of a community feel. We want to get away from that city feeling and city people!

We love North Norfolk and love the idea of still being within 45 min of Norwich, however feel both our businesses will suffer being so far out (I’m a hairdresser and my partners a DJ) however we have considered the option of buying somewhere close to the beach (mundesley, Cromer etc) and building a cabin to rent out as an air bnb for additional income. Not sure if this is a crazy idea considering there’s so many holiday accommodation options in Norfolk, any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated!

We’re also considering;

Essex : Colchester
Cambridgeshire: Ely
Norfolk: Norwich, north Walsham, kings Lynn, fakenham
Suffolk: Lowestoft

Honesty we’ve gone back and forth so much I’ve frazzled my brain! Would love to get some input

Thanks so much! Xx

Keep in mind that hospitals are few and far between in both Norfolk and Suffolk if you are likely to need treatment.

Norfolk Hospitals
Queen Elizabeth in King's Lynn
Norfolk and Norwich in Norwich
James Paget in Gorleston

Suffolk hospitals
Ipswich
West Suffolk

There are other smaller specialist ones but they don't have A&E and are mostly for clinics.

Also of you decide to live in a very rural, picturesque village being snowed in and cut off is a problem if we get heavy snowfall (doesn't happen often but does happen) and broadband and mobile signal can be sketchy in the sticks.

Have you considered Sudbury, Saffron Walden, Earls Colne / Coggeshall, villages around Braintree., Great Dunmow
All much nicer areas...

I live in the area, and you've picked a list of, (sorry, but saying it how it is) utter dumps.

Norwich is ok, but so backwards. It's endearing in short bursts. If you're London people, it will drive you mad to actually live there. Although, whilst there's no sophistication or sense of modernisation past the 80s, there's bugger all crime too.

If you need to commute to London and Essex at all, there are other parts of Cambridgeshire as close as Ely. St Neots is the fastest growing town in Cambridgeshire, also Biggleswade (might be Bedfordshire), and St Ives are worth a look.

If the op is considering Kings Lynn and Lowestoft it’s daft suggesting places like Holt, Bury St Edmunds and Woodbridge, they’re different worlds and you need vastly more £££ to live there, even Norwich is pricey compared to the original list) I’m sure they would have been obvious places that the op would have already considered if they’d been viable.
Perhaps Bungay, Beccles if you are happy to live inland?
If not Lowestoft does have some nice residential areas and nice surrounding villages if you choose wisely. There might be summer DJ work in holiday camps perhaps (if he is that type of DJ). Lowestoft could be ok the up - it has a shabby town center but the beach is stunning and it’s got a fab promenade area with money often being spent on it.

What sort of DJ-ing does your DH do? I think he could end up driving miles on small rural roads to far flung villages for a wedding or a pub night.

I love when Norfolk gets mentioned because it's such a big county with very different areas.
North Norfolk is expensive and remote with few good transport connections except Kings Lynn (which is excluded from the 'desirable' areas). Beautiful though.
West Norfolk has better connections to Cambs/Suffolk but obvs no coastline.
South Norfolk has some nice places and is better connected, but also more expensive (I think).
Norwich is lovely in multiple ways, but houses can be expensive and market is competitive. Probably the only place a DJ might reasonably work?
East Norfolk tends to be overlooked and is very affordable with some lovely beaches, but is that bit further from everywhere else (GY is 2h30 from London).

I think I live near @HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime and would agree with the villages near Lowestoft (which does have it's good areas and is better for a London train and beaches are great).

@stripesandyellow

I love when Norfolk gets mentioned because it's such a big county with very different areas. North Norfolk is expensive and remote with few good transport connections except Kings Lynn (which is excluded from the 'desirable' areas). Beautiful though. West Norfolk has better connections to Cambs/Suffolk but obvs no coastline. South Norfolk has some nice places and is better connected, but also more expensive (I think). Norwich is lovely in multiple ways, but houses can be expensive and market is competitive. Probably the only place a DJ might reasonably work? East Norfolk tends to be overlooked and is very affordable with some lovely beaches, but is that bit further from everywhere else (GY is 2h30 from London).

I think I live near @HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime and would agree with the villages near Lowestoft (which does have it's good areas and is better for a London train and beaches are great).

Completely.

They think of little chocolate box villages, and the good life. Slap of the knee, jolly old rural communities.

Then they say Wisbech looks great.

Or "considering Haverhill, or Holt." Well you can't be. Because a 400k house in Haverhill is £1m+ in Holt. If you've got a budget of £1m+ you're not looking in Haverhill. If you're realistically looking in Haverhill, you can't afford Holt.

North Norfolk, to people that don't know the area, actually means the tiny section that is Burnham, Holt, Brancaster etc. That's what they think of as the NN coast. The majority of it, is nothing like this teeny cross section and is bleak, badly serviced, and much cheaper.

Wisbech has some really lovely old properties at relatively cheap prices though….

(I’m not planning to move there, it’s quite local to me already, although I’ve never been)

Wisbech has some really lovely old properties at relatively cheap prices though….

Well, yes, they would be cheap, wouldn't they. Because it's a dump!

Avoid Colchester. The traffic is awful and I’ve never known a town have such consistent drug issues as there.
I can’t stand the place. I get depressed just having to drive there to see my adult ds.

Op asked this question on 2/12 and never came back or commented on people's suggestions.

Op (if you're coming back) you seem to have picked some rough places. What made you choose them?

@rainbowandglitter

Op (if you're coming back) you seem to have picked some rough places. What made you choose them?

Budget I presume.

The complete misconception by people that don't know the area, and just think it's the "countryside" one big mass of Miss Marple-Shire. So they see a 6 bed in Wisbech/Haverhill/Thetford/Colchester for peanuts, and generate this completely wrong image in their head.

It's a steal because the area is so so so undesirable.

What about East Sussex? Hastings? I moved here 6 months ago and there is genuinely a shortage of hairdressers. Or at least, none here ever seem to have an appointment available for about 3 weeks.