Where to move.

[milwife]

Hi lovely people,
Does the following list of wants generate any ideas for a place to settle our family?
-Near a town/city for choirs, events, estates to visit
-Preferably near water
-Good free schools (all ages)
-Friendly
-Near somewhere peaceful
-5 bed house - £880k absolute max, but v happy if cheaper haha!
Thanks,
Gx

Lewes, East Sussex.

Portobello in Edinburgh but it might stretch your budget.
or Whitley bay, Tynemouth area

Canterbury is in Kent , so a grammar school area .

Fab! Thanks.

Yes Scarborough/whitby/sandsened/ RHBay about and hour away (I consider that close but it's a matter of opinion)

I was actually thinking of the lovely river providing the water aspect though!

Ah perfect, thank you!

Good luck finding a 5-bedroom house for under £880k!

It did look quite expensive, but grateful for the ideas :)

Chichester is a nightmare. The 'villages' nearby are being linked up by massive housing estates and the traffic is horrendous. Avoid!! It's literally joined up almost to Worthing, now.

That's pretty much anywhere outside of London. You need to focus on one particular area. Personally I love North Yorkshire, but everyone is different.

When you say "near water", what do you really mean? York is livery, yucks muscle those boxes, but the water is a couple of big rivers. There's a rowing club, tourist boats, and you can walk along the river, but not loads of watery stuff. If you just want water to look at, walk along that's fine (beware flood zones). If you teally want sea, the Tynemouth, Portobello, Penarth are all worth a look.

We're open so interested in learning about areas :) what do you think of York?

We're pretty open - interested in learning about different areas :) river vs sea doesn't matter too much, but being able to get to sea in around 1 hour tops would be good. Currently thinking Canterbury/Chichester/York x

North Berwick but you would struggle to find a five bed house for that budget.

Do you need to consider work at all?

York is a great city, and North Yorkshire is a fabulous county. Incidentally there are loads of great choirs in York - lots of early music stuff too.

There are a good range of jobs and schools, although Leeds (commutable) will have a larger range of jobs.

Thanks - looks lovely, found a few! X

I think York looks fabulous! Agreed re the musical culture x

I don’t think you would get 5 bed for 800k.

Cirencester is lovely. Great town centre where everyone seems to be smiling but nowhere near the sea and as a pp says very pricey but for a reason of course.

Haha - I got to number two on the list and thought Exeter!!

Thank you! Yes, think the distance from water wouldn't be ideal for his, but fab place! X

Fareham. Close to the beach and Portsmouth and Southampton

There is always a reason why an area is expensive.

It's very pretty.