Hi! We’ve lived in a little town called Howden for the past 13 years and absolutely love it! I think somewhere like this would suit you down the the ground. It’s got loads going on but still got a small friendly place vibe so it’s easy to get to know people and there are loads of people with children around -and lovely reasonably priced houses to suit all tastes. New or old - ours dated back over 300 years, it’s a Georgian town house facing onto the street with a huge walled very private garden behind. There’s a decent medical centre right in the town and a choice of hospitals, from a good but smallish one in Google, 5 miles away, to Scunthorpe, Doncaster, Sheffield and York. I prefer York, it’s a great hospital and the maternity wing is excellent. There’s masses going on for both parents and children with nurseries, a primary and secondary school in the town within walking distance of the centre. With 6 children, aged 9, 7, 4, 2 and twins nearly 5 months old, I’m pretty busy, but there’s so many out of school activities and mum and toddler groups, and the mums have an unofficial baby sitting roster so that the adults can get some special time together. We see snow fairly regularly and it’s no distance up to the North Yorkshire dales and moors. It’s got amazing train and car links - the town’s only 3 miles or so from the M62 but you’d never know it! There are regular train services to London and Edinburgh. There are some lovely shops, little individual ones, good clothes shops for adults and kids, and bakeries, butchers, wine shops, a post office, a big Co-op and lots of lovely tea shops and delis! Also a beautiful lingerie shop and plenty of good hairdressers, nail parlours and a wonderful beauty salon. The Minster is beautiful - we got married there - and there’s a gorgeous park, The Ashes, almost right next to it with a lovely, dedicated children only play area. The town’s no distance from York, Sheffield (including wonderful Meadowhall shopping centre which is a dream!) Leeds and Hull, and an easy drive to the coast. I’m actually Danish and was born near beautiful Copenhagen, (where we have loads of snow!) but I fell in love with a Yorkshire man, and have lived in Yorkshire since we married in 2011 and I love it almost as much as my home town of Køge! We’ve had lovely holidays in Northumberland, but as others have said, it is very bleak specially in winter, and the travel links are not very good unless you’re in Newcastle, right at the bottom of the county, and you don’t really get the flavour of Northumberland unless you go up towards the north of the county. Being in Newcastle, lovely as it is, is really just like living in any big city. We did consider it before the twins were born, but we also have dogs and cats and there are a lot of excellent vets round here with a fantastic 24 hour emergency hospital just outside Hull, only 20 mins drive from here. In Northumberland the vets are pretty few and far between if you’re further out. I think you’d love East Yorkshire especially the Howden area.