York, Leeds, Sheffield or somewhere else?

[Eastender123]

Hi, I’ve reached the point where I am no longer enjoying living in London and would like to move back north closer to family. My family live rurally - I don’t think I could manage that, but I would like to be in a smaller city or could do a village very close to a city. Ideally would like to be somewhere that is left leaning, has a good community vibe and has good secondaries (will be applying next year). We don’t know anyone in these cities - so openness is equally important. Feels a bit daunting to be starting over again in our early 40s. Thanks all.

If OP ends up living in SW Sheffield, the best junction for the MI is J29 for Chesterfield if you're coming from London or heading south.

I lived in York for 5 years. I loved it there. Yes it gets busy during tourist season, but I personally think it has a lovely vibe, and you won't find a prettier city. There are some lovely places on the outskirts like Pocklingon (about 30 mins from York) if you don't want to be too close. It feels very safe, and everything is walkable, but due to the popularity, it still has city vibes. Nowhere tbh is truly rough in York.

I'm from Chesterfield and live there now, so visit Sheffield often. I think it has a real grunge/hipster vibe. The people are friendly. The theatre scene is great, and public transport is good. You are near the Peak District which is lovely.

I’ve just got home from working in York. It is so full today that it took the p&r bus 40 mins to do a 15 min journey. York is lovely, but millions of people agree!

I always park at Askham Bar P & R. There are bus lanes going in which makes for a quick journey, but none coming out so you get stuck in all the traffic.

@Milkbloo I think Leeds was a little cooler than London (ex Londoner), but not significantly so. I am in South Yorkshire on the edge of the Pennines, but at a higher altitude, so it is cooler and wetter than where we lived in Leeds.

I’ve just got back from a social event in York. It’s very very pretty with all the festive lights and the Minster is stunning . But the truth it’s it’s too small for the volume of visitors ( made worse by the Harry Potter stuff) . Also the works outside the station are causing a lot of congestion. It doesn’t matter to me , but I can imagine how it feels if you live there.

With that budget I would definitely consider Ilkley. Leeds is great but Leeds schools are not always brilliant so look carefully. Harrogate & North Leeds towards Wetherby also worth a look. Trains are limited in North Leeds and none in/around Wetherby but just part of life for most of us!

I also always park at Askham Bar. I’m probably in York about twice a fortnight for work. Roadworks, volume of traffic, volume of passengers all held things up today.

The station roadworks are just temporary, and will make things much better in the long run.

A medieval city is never going to be able to accommodate vast amounts of traffic, so better public transport is needed.

It's rubbish that Leeds doesn't have trams. I use the P & R in Sheffield and use the supertram all the time. It's brilliant.

@IdaGlossop he was one of the tree protestor protecting the trees in netheredge. I think he is French and does Mime.

Ah. I hadn't hearď of him before.

How long have you been in Sheffield? What aspects have you found hard? Thanks I will take a look at those postcodes.

what part of London are you coming from and how long have you lived there?

This is really sad to hear. In my mind York was the front-runner. I spent part of my childhood and early 20s in Edinburgh and loved living there. I thought York was quite similar to Edinburgh but I never felt people in Edinburgh were small minded.

we actually haven’t moved in yet (sorry didn’t want to make my post to overly complicated so wasn’t explicit) because we are renovating. We’re actually living in a very rural location near Penistone (hence my response to another post about that suggestion) but our eldest has already started primary school in Broomhill (we bought before the deadline) and we are moving soon. Whilst we have been living a 30min drive away we’ve spent a fair bit of time in west Sheffield. I would say that the parents I have met through the school are people I think I would likely become friends with. Several of them have lived in London until recently and moved up when they had kids. Others have come from other countries and have interesting backgrounds. I don’t want to sound like a dick who can only be friends with ‘London people’ but life experience does make a difference and having come from such a diverse / international city I’ve struggled to find common ground with people in my rural location who have lived here their whole life and all of their mates have too. Where in London do you live now?

Thanks - I'll add Ilkley and Harrogate to the list. I went to Harrogate once and liked it there.

East London - we started out in Stoke Newington and now live further out near Essex borders. Been here for just over 15 years!

Harrogate isn’t left leaning though.

Definitely not!

Yes, I understand this completely and know exactly what you mean. We're in East London. Nice you have met people from different walks of life where you are. I hope it all works out for you!

Thank you to everyone who has commented on this thread in the last couple of days and I'm sorry that I cannot respond to each of your replies. Your feedback is really appreciated. I thought there would have been one clear winner but it doesn't seem to be that way and there have been some additional suggestions I had not considered. More food for thought!

Broomhill💕💕💕John Betjamin described it as the most beautiful suburb in England. I grew up round there and live not far away now.

Read ‘This Northern Clemency’ all about Broomhill. Broomhill school is lovely.

Ah yeah, sorry, should have clocked the name. It’s a tough move. I’m still not sure it’s gonna work for us… we’re here for family and I’m still wondering if the sacrifice is too much. We can afford to stay in London but room for guests is too much of a stretch so it makes it hard for the kids to be close to their GPs if we are there. Time will tell. Good luck OP.

Ahhh - I’m going to buy that book for my OH for Christmas. He’s generally into history but especially as it pertains to ‘place’. Thanks for the recommendation.

Well it’s Broomhill in the 70’s! Is that history? And the secondary school in it is Tapton. Which has just won best Northern School.

Im sure you’ll settle in Broomhill. It’s very diverse and friendly.