Coastal villages in the South or East

[lcw23]

My husband and I have decided we need to leave London and move to the country- something we said we'd never do! We've spent a lot of time in Suffolk and recently visited Orford in Suffolk and loved it! Looking for either views on living in Orford with a young family, or suggestions of other lovely coastal villages along the south or east coast that don't die once summer is over. A nice welcoming community. Probably looking for a 4 bed with a large garden for around £800k. Thanks!

Just a heads up. Orford dies. I’ve been there in early spring and walking from the church to the Crown & Castle in the evenings there is hardly a light to be seen in any of the houses. Mind you, there’s the Pump Street Bakery so that makes up for a lot. 😂. It seems to me that many of the places along that coast, Southwold, Aldeburgh, Walberswick are very second home heavy. To get family friendly places with schools etc. you need to go inland.

I think most coastal places will be quieter out of season, but the south coast has the South Downs as well as the coast. Around the Chichester area, there are plenty of lovely villages and Chichester itself has the Festival theatre, good transport links to London, Brighton, Southampton, Portsmouth etc.

You would get an amazing house in or near Leiston for that money. It's not far from the coast.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/162952637?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

What do you want from coastal village life? How will you spend your time, will you be working? Is excellent broadband important to you? Why must the village "not die" in winter, are you actually thinking there will be arts theatre culture and meals out?

I dunno about welcoming because a lot of these coastal villages struggle with incomers and a fair few residents who don't even like tourists.
In an area where there is only 1.5 degrees of separation between most residents, you'd be an odd one out.
In London you must be used to long travel distances for many entertainment or work, purposes but short distances for health care, supermarkets, meals out, shopping.
In Orford you'll have to drive everywhere for almost every service.
You can look up for yourself how big the schools are, which is a good indicator of how many young families are kind of nearby.
Is Orford even on mains gas? Might be mostly oil-fired heating.

West Mersea is a very active community all through the year

Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex is lovely, on the coast and river, right by the South Downs, great community feel and only 20 minutes from both Brighton and Worthing, an hour to London.