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Original poster

Moving to whitby - pros and cons

42 replies

fromtheshires · 14/06/2023 18:14

Hey all
Just looking for some experiences of locals who live in whitby.

We are fortunate enough to be able to wfh and have decided to up roots from city life and move to the seaside.

We both love whitby and have been in cold wet January's, easter breaks and summer holidays so know its either dead or everyone from the uk is in town so it seems to be the natural choice.

What we don't know is the realities of actually living in the town full time.

Those who live there already (anyone?) whats it like to live there all year round, pros and cons as the more we know the better.

Parking wont be an issue as we will get a drive and no children so we don't need to worry about keeping them busy and entertained.

TIA 

OP posts:
HatchetJob · 14/06/2023 18:19

Sorry I don’t live there, but close. Will you be working in town or somewhere with parking.
the town centre can be a total nightmare, BH weekends the place is rammed.

I remember someone who lived there and the hospital was quite small so was referred to Scarborough for certain things.

there’s limited roads round there so if something happens there’s a knock on effect. We got caught behind a crash once when we were leaving and got stuck for ages.

it’s lovely term time in the evenings though, we used to go down pre children a lot, much quieter.

FlyingSoap · 14/06/2023 18:27

There is a lot of deprivation and not many job opportunities - as is true of most coastal towns.
Emergency services would and do take longer to reach you in rural parts and your nearest A&E / major trauma is a long way away, if that bothers you or not I’m not sure. Do you have DC? You’re remote workers but that could change, I think moving might limit you and any children to less opportunities. I would instead aim for maybe Selby, you’re only 1hr from the coast but also near to York and Leeds

Original poster
fromtheshires · 14/06/2023 18:43

No children and no plans for children as we cant have any so a small bonus that way. WFH wont change as they are both stable jobs it was that way before masses ended up doing during covid.

I understand most seaside towns are deprived but will take a look at the other places mentioned and see whats around in them areas to see if they suit what we are looking for house and lifestyle wise.

OP posts:
HatchetJob · 14/06/2023 19:05

Is there enough for you to do in Whitby? There’s not much there really. In your boat I would look more towards the coast of Newcastle/Northumberland. Means you have access to stuff going on in Newcastle. I imagine Whitby is mostly full of young families and retirees. You could be somewhere near to a metro line which is great when you don’t have to use it for commuting.

WhitbyNative · 14/06/2023 19:18

Born & bread Whitby person here 👋🏻 I always have to name change when a question comes up.

What would you like to know OP?

The truth is coming for a week / weekend is a very different experience to living here full time. Personally I would never want to live anywhere else but it is getting harder & harder to be a local.

You will have to travel out of town for everything except food shopping - cinema, clothes, shoes, appliances, a bank.

In the summer it is unbearable to drive or park anywhere in town.

House prices are crazy compared to the rest of the area.

Those are the negatives, the positives far outweigh them.

WhitbyNative · 14/06/2023 19:33

Also yes a good point from Hatchet... our hospital is only a minor injuries which is open certain hours, there's no A&E and although we have a police station it isn't actually manned

RabbitsRock · 14/06/2023 19:35

Whitbynative it’s born & bred

WhitbyNative · 14/06/2023 20:58

RabbitsRock · 14/06/2023 19:35

Whitbynative it’s born & bred

Soz 🙄

Original poster
fromtheshires · 14/06/2023 21:19

WhitbyNative · 14/06/2023 19:18

Born & bread Whitby person here 👋🏻 I always have to name change when a question comes up.

What would you like to know OP?

The truth is coming for a week / weekend is a very different experience to living here full time. Personally I would never want to live anywhere else but it is getting harder & harder to be a local.

You will have to travel out of town for everything except food shopping - cinema, clothes, shoes, appliances, a bank.

In the summer it is unbearable to drive or park anywhere in town.

House prices are crazy compared to the rest of the area.

Those are the negatives, the positives far outweigh them.

Hey, always good to hear views from a local.

To be honest, I'm used to small town life realities with no police, terrible job opportunities, local hospital without a casualty dept etc as thats similar to the area that i grew up in.

We aren't ones for night life, just a pub will do us. As long as there is a supermarket, places to walk and sit to reflect on life thats good enough for us. We both sussed out the cons of sheer numbers of people in summer and terrible traffic as we are regular visitors to the area.

I agree that house prices seem a little bit inflated for what they are but i guess its holiday let premium as sellers think second homers will be buying them to make lots of money...

The draw for us is the chance to take winter walks by the coast getting soaked (we are a bit odd like that), sea air, half the year with literally no one around, and space to just chill with amazing views. You say that the pro's outweigh the cons so what keeps you here

OP posts:
WhitbyNative · 14/06/2023 22:03

In that case it will be perfect for you.

It's not that there aren't job opportunities, there just aren't great job opportunities in the town itself, I spent 10 years travelling to Teesside before having DC (I work from home now).

Thinking back to my school friends it's a pretty even split between those that have moved away and those that have stayed.

As much as I moan about travelling there is a certain calmness that descends when driving back into town and seeing the Abbey. I've been to Middlesbrough today for example and I could never live there, even to have all everything in close reach.

I do also think that we have the best of both worlds to be able to chose between beach or countryside 5 minutes in either direction.

Catbumps · 14/06/2023 22:06

God I hated it when I went. No decent pubs or restaurants and people fighting on the street. Apart from the beautiful abbey it’s a complete shithole

Original poster
fromtheshires · 14/06/2023 22:23

Catbumps · 14/06/2023 22:06

God I hated it when I went. No decent pubs or restaurants and people fighting on the street. Apart from the beautiful abbey it’s a complete shithole

So basically like every other place in the UK then yeah.......HmmWink

OP posts:
Catbumps · 14/06/2023 22:50

No, I live in London and there’s a thousand good pubs and restaurants and I’ve genuinely never seen anyone fighting in the street. Whitby, from what I experienced, was the worst of Britain.

Alittlebitolderandeeperindebt · 14/06/2023 23:01

Bloody cold- have you been in February?
Rural deprivation
You need to do a lot of online shopping! Quite expensive for some stuff - supermarkets etc are more expensive than many parts of the country and really limited choice
Almost non existent public transport

( I grew up in N Yorks Moors and have lived and worked most of life in North Yorkshire- I have worked in Whitby but not for 13 years)

Alittlebitolderandeeperindebt · 14/06/2023 23:02

Catbumps · 14/06/2023 22:50

No, I live in London and there’s a thousand good pubs and restaurants and I’ve genuinely never seen anyone fighting in the street. Whitby, from what I experienced, was the worst of Britain.

HaHa. Where do you live in London?
Loads of fighting here in Westminster

Catbumps · 14/06/2023 23:11

No-one lives in Westminster. Are you Boris?

Sundaefraise · 14/06/2023 23:14

I love Whitby, I really do, but I have family there and their feeling is that there are so many holiday lets that’s it’s ruining any sense of community. So, while I love that area I think might be tempted by one of the market towns slightly in-land.

Tulipblank · 14/06/2023 23:16

Ahhhh kool kid @Catbumps came on the thread specifically to piss on your bonfire. How nice.

And fwiw the most brazen street fight I've seen was in central London on a Saturday afternoon between a ticket seller and a nut seller. Ergo, central London is shit.

Alittlebitolderandeeperindebt · 14/06/2023 23:18

Catbumps · 14/06/2023 23:11

No-one lives in Westminster. Are you Boris?

205,000 people disagree with that view

WhitbyNative · 14/06/2023 23:26

Catbumps · 14/06/2023 22:50

No, I live in London and there’s a thousand good pubs and restaurants and I’ve genuinely never seen anyone fighting in the street. Whitby, from what I experienced, was the worst of Britain.

Well when I last went to London a woman actually pulled her dress up and had a shIt on the pavement directly outside Marble Arch M&S. So the morale of the story is.... there are cranks wherever you go and also wherever you post on Mumsnet

Alittlebitolderandeeperindebt · 14/06/2023 23:32

WhitbyNative · 14/06/2023 23:26

Well when I last went to London a woman actually pulled her dress up and had a shIt on the pavement directly outside Marble Arch M&S. So the morale of the story is.... there are cranks wherever you go and also wherever you post on Mumsnet

Show quote history

To be fair- that's pretty much typical behaviour on race day in York

Catbumps · 15/06/2023 10:10

Ahhhh kool kid @Catbumps came on the thread specifically to piss on your bonfire. How nice @Tulipblank the op asked for opinions on moving to Whitby. I responded that when I sent it was awful, we literally couldn’t find a pub not filled with tourists and when we did there were people falling around drunk and fighting at 5pm. That’s my opinion. But I take the cool bit. I’m pretty cool

Catbumps · 15/06/2023 10:13

@WhitbyNative yes there are cranks everywhere (although I’ve lived here 40yrs and never seen anything like that!) but my point wasn’t based on one fight. As detailed it looked more representative of the culture there including no decent places to eat or have a drink and lots of drunks fighting. Or tourists. Lots and lots of them. So my recommendation would be not to live there

TellerTuesday · 15/06/2023 16:05

So were you not visiting as a tourist @Catbumps?

Sulusu · 15/06/2023 16:12

I can't get over Witby not having a manned police station when it's such a busy town!

misses point of thread

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