Can’t decide if I’m a townie or a country girl?

[mischco]

Alright excuse the jokey title. But are others conflicted on whether they prefer to live in the countryside or the city?

I grew up in the country and couldn’t wait to escape. Lived in Cambridge for a few years, then moved to the West End in London for a few years. Now living in Hampstead village. Getting a bit bored here. Keep flitting between moving and living in Bayswater/Notting Hill area or moving out to the countryside and living in a cottage.

Same! I love rural living especially by the coast but I also love city centre (has to be an old / heritage city though!) living.

I'm 50:50. DH and I go around in circles 😂

No I’m 100% sure I’m not a country girl. Too much countryside actually makes me feel slightly anxious like when can I get away? It seems to rain more than in cities and just generally feels depressing to me.

I do like a bit of green so would be happy living somewhere like Hampstead. Just not too much green!

We are on the edge of North Yorkshire in a small town but only around 1.5hrs into Newcastle or an hour into Leeds and we love it.

If money isn’t a pressing concern, and it doesn’t sound as though it is, I’d live in the country and keep a little pied à terre in central London.

I grew up in a town, moved semi rural when my children were little, loved it until they became teens, then it’s just really inconvenient. We moved to a city, in lockdown, absolutely love it, life is much easier. Country is fab for a holiday, but never again to live in full time.

I'm a townie, but living in rural countryside for the sake of my husband's mental health.

It's taking a lot of adjustment...

I grew up in London and couldn't wait to move away to the country. I'm living semi rural in Suffolk and loved the time we lived near sea in Devon.

My children are almost out of school and I'm considering a move nearer to a town when they fly the nest. However I love the views from my house and the fact its not crowded. However I do have close neighbours so its not as if I'm not used to a degree of noise. Very conflicted. I'm single so also thinking about what will be easier as I move in the older part of my life as I will have to manage alone.

I’m in a small village in the Southwest. Love the people, love the community feel, gorgeous countryside. Hate with a passion that we have to drive to go anywhere other than the village pub. We’re moving to a town.

Grew up in a city. Spent most of my adult life in the country. I am 1000% a city girl. Moving to a town soon and can't wait. Living rurally has made me so miserable.

@Twiglets1 I get that anxious feeling like I can't get away too.

Definitely city for me. I like to live somewhere where things are on my doorstep. I've come to the conclusion that with family a good sized city with adjacent countryside suits me best. Just wished I'd settled somewhere slightly warmer 😄

i grew up in the country and then lived in London for many years.

We have a perfect balance which is rural village life literally just in the edge of a decently sized market town with great train links to cities. Best of both worlds! the only thing that would make it better would be a walkable shop.

I think country life near a big city and with great train line (to london) is really good. You can have it all!

I didn’t like being stuck in the city. That felt claustrophobic to me. And costly. Everything cost money.

I prefer towns. I know this about myself.

I was in london last week and I couldnt believe how many people were on the train platform, yikes 😟
Yet, total countryside scares me. My friend lives in a house a 25 minute drive from a village (in spain). I was shocked by how remote it is. She lives it, but id be scared there.

I would love to live in the very centre of my town (35,000 people)

I live a 25 minute walk out of town. Keeps me fit but feels like a hardship!

I get this feeling too. If in in a village (I'd never move to a village) but if I'm visiting, then there needs to be minimum a pub, a cafe, a newsagents, 7-11 type shop and a post office, and a bus stop on a regular route to a much bigger town or I really feel some sort of survival instinct kick in. It feels like anxiety but based on a survival fear.

I lived in a rural village in West Berkshire for a few years before heading back to London (where I am originally from). I really loved rural village life for about a year and half, the green and nature was really good for my health and I enjoyed the quiet. We lived in a nice two bed cottage, really cute and there was a lot of history. But after awhile, I realised that towns and cities don't just have more amenities that I need, but they are better. For example, I personally think GPs in rural villages only really know the main demographic and health needs for the people that live there i.e. the elderly and retired, mostly white middle to wealthy class. While in a bustling town or city, there is more diversity and therefore more knowledge and exposure to different problems and illnesses. Healthcare is definitely not equal across the country unfortunately and you really see and feel it when you experience that inequality. I also hated winter time. There were quite a few power cuts and if you live rural, icy roads mean that you won't be able to drive safely or properly and might have to even abandon your car on the road til it melts away. Also, you can feel quite isolated, even stranded sometimes when the Sainsbury's delivery (for us) or the Waitrose delivery (for the neighbours) can't get through those narrow icy roads. Other issues I had were that a lot of these areas are heavily Conservative voting people. Each to their own, but it really gave me insight into why a lot of Conservative people are seen as close minded. Because they actually are. Not all, but many are.

We have our main house in SW london but have a small house with a big garden in the home counties. best of both worlds really x

Surely it doesn't have to be one extreme or the other? Can't you look for a location in a decent sized town, but with easy access to countryside, or in the country near a decent town?

100% country girl. I get anxiety if I can't see trees/green space and big skies. Lived in London and Leeds but never settled and finally moving semi-rural at 30 yrs old helped my mental health so much.
However I have dogs + horses so am never bored. Walk dog twice a day in all weathers and see to horses twice a day, I love it all. DH has am allotment a 2 min walk from the house and although we are in a village we have fields to yhw front and rear of us, no-one overlooking us. I love the closeknit community feel, it is reassuring that we know most people in the village so DD can be out in the village with friends and I will always know what they have been doing 😄.
It isn't for everyone and if you aren't naturally outdoorsy then you have to work harder to find things to do.
I'm spending this week stocking up on wood, heat logs, candles and canned food ready for the inevitable rounds of power cuts October through to March.
We love it here and I won't ever move out of the village now but I hope DD chooses to live in a city even for a brief period of time, just to experience it. However, she is also a country girl at heart so I'm pretty sure she will end up somewhere rural eventually.

I grew up in London suburbia and then moved to zone 2. When we moved out my non negotiable was a train station back to London.
We live in a slightly boring commuter town but can be in countryside within about a mile from our house (obviously not proper isolated countryside but farms, fields, woods, footpaths, etc)

If you’re bored in Hampstead aren’t you going to be bored in the countryside?

god I’m a townie. Even just suburbia bored the pants off me. The thought of actual country living fills me with dread!

Same. I would move back to London in a heartbeat

This is me, too!

I grew up in a coastal city, then lived in a 'village-like' area that had decent shopping and seaside in walking distance on the edge of it for many years with DH who had lived slightly more rurally as a child. He'd always felt more of a country boy and longed to live completely rurally so eventually - after we'd tried suburbia for a while which we both hated - we sold that house too, moving to a village with just a pub, butcher and village store/Post office.

Our house was large with 0.3 acre garden and although a project when we purchased it, was stunning by the time we'd renovated it.

However, within 3.5 years I was climbing the walls, feeling like I needed to escape to 'civilisation' every so often, but I put it down to the village straddling a busy A road and the fact our next door neighbour (not attached) was a nosey, gossiping cow. We sold up and bought in a larger, edge of city type village which I actually loved but our circs changed and DH persuaded me to move back to a more rural - although different part of UK - location, this time without the noisy road. It's within a few miles of a lovely 'boutique' town and there's great countryside walking all around. We're also very fortunate to have a 0.5 acre garden which was fantastic during lockdown.

Somehow I've managed to tolerate living rurally (very isolated with just two nearish neighbours one of whom I've spoken to only once) for 5.5 years, but I've been unbearably miserable here and I also have that anxious feeling of needing to escape. It was a(nother - our 7th) project house and it's just about finished now, looking fab but I can't wait to sell it and move back to somewhere with houses and people around me.

DH has finally accepted the countryside isn't for me and is happy - having had his rural living fix - for us to buy our next home in a large town or small city. I can't wait!

This. Don't understand threads like this. It's almost as if cities other than London, towns or any suburbs don't exist.

I live in a suburb on the edge of a large city. I have village amenities and green belt in walking distance, a town and retail parks within a couple of miles, plus the city a bus ride/drive away. So a good balance but neither big city or isolated countryside.

I love both too but only the extremes- a big city or proper countryside. I’d hate to live somewhere in between.

If you are bored in Hampstead , with the largest wild green space on your doorstep, and access to central city life in 20mins… I am not sure where you would be happy…
Are you bored and craving more green? Or more city life? Surely, you have the best of both worlds ..?