Lancashire or Leicestershire?

[DDRickyDD]

Out of these two counties, which would you say is best to live in and offers the best quality of life overall?

Garstang is a great choice! We’re about to move to a small village about 10 mins from Garstang from another Lancashire town. We wanted to moved to Garstang but it’s more expensive.

There is a Booths in my town too. The manager said on our local Facebook page that it's not closing. Edwin Booth put it up for sale a few years ago but changed his mind.
They seem to be doing very well through the virus and have even started home delivery of hampers and things.

Lancashire always comes up in the worst places to live lists along with Blackpool.

You do realise Blackpool is IN Lancashire right?
Lancashire is a huge County and my part of it has been on many "desirable places to live" list.

Just for a bit of balance, I hated living in Lancashire. Lasted less than 2 years before moving back to the Midlands.

The Charnwood towns of Leicestershire are lovely! Quorn is one of my favourite places.

Garstang is lovely! It has great schools, an ok high street, and is conveniently based for Preston and Lancaster. Lots of little villages nearby too. It’s a great choice!

Another vote for the Charnwood area of Leicestershire.

Pretty villages, reasonable house prices.

Good scenery and dog walking.

I like Leicester it has a real buzz, nice shops and restaurants.

Easy access to M1 for East Midlands or Birmingham airports.

London in an hour by train.

Loads of day trips in an hours drive e.g. Derbyshire/Warwickshire

No beaches

Lived in both. Back in Lancashire now. Lived in one of the Charnwood villages. Good links to notts, Leicester and not far from the m1.

No beaches which I struggled with

Lots of lovely parks though such as Bradgate Park.

I think unless you need to get in to London to work, go for Lancashire. Leicestershire, whilst not awful is just a bit nothingy.

Ribble Valley out towards the Trough of Bowland is beautiful and not as busy as the Dales and the Lakes.
@Headunderthecovers has it so right here. I spent most of my childhood with gran and grandad going to Whalley, Clitheroe, or playing in the streams of Trough of Bowland. Grandad telling us tall tales of the Sabden Treacle mines...

I live in Scotland now but we have an area close by that's pretty much a replica of ToB (except the surrounding hills are higher)

Like any place Lancashire has some dumps too, after all, Paul Abbot, the writer of C4's Shameless wrote about the people in the specific area of Burnley where he grew up. (It didn't go down well when the Burnley Council Estate folk saw pretty much themselves being portrayed on the telly!)

@Headunderthecovers

Are the Rutland villages prettier than Lancashire villages?

@LolaDarkdestroyer

Yes, I know that's why I have doubts and am shocked to see so many people recomending LAncs. I assumed Leicestershire would be much better and what most people would recomend.

@AnnofPeeves

What was wrong with Lancs? I know it has a terrible reputation.

@puguin86

Which did you prefer? Leicestershire or Lancashire?

I’m going to defend Leicestershire!

We have beautiful countryside which is perfect for walking & cycling. The area between Loughborough & Leicester, called Charnwood is one of the most affluent in the Midlands with lovely villages, country parks, reservoirs, Michelin starred restaurants and an excellent quality of life. This area is quite similar in many ways to the posh bits of Cheshire around Wilmslow.

Transport links are very good, most places are within a couple of hours drive. London is only an hour on the train. The city of Leicester is one of the most diverse places in the U.K., but the county is much less so. We are also far enough south & east here that the weather is significantly better than in the north west of the country. The main downside is that we are as far from the coast as it is possible to be in these islands.

Rutland has the pretty light stone -Cotswold like - thatched houses. Village green. Quintessential Southern English village to me (being brought up in Lancashire).

Lancashire has beautiful villages, but different, certainly Downham for instance is very pretty . It's the surrounding countryside which to me is very different (probably due to rainfall!) and more wild.

Both are lovely but different.

I don’t know Lancashire particularly well, and I don’t doubt that there are some very nice parts, but one comparison I can make is that nowhere in Leicestershire is as much of a shithole as either Blackpool or Skelmersdale.

@AgeLikeWine 😂

I've only every been to Ashby and Coleorton bear Coalville. Seemed lovely tbh.

Perhaps Lancashire is more the county of 2 extremes?

Lancashire, specifically the Ribble Valley of course.

I live in rural Leicestershire on the Rutland border, been here 5 years. I hail from the South West originally with the bulk of my life in the South East.
Absolutely LOVE it here, it’s gorgeous.

I don’t much like Leicester though (work there).

@Megan2018 I agree. Leicestershire is lovely, but the city of Leicester isn’t.

I worked in Leicester for a while and found it very dull. The city has been mucked about by developers, and is rather run down, and the High Cross shopping seemed to have leached the life out of the rest of the centre -- Fenwicks closing, lots of empty units and cheap charity shop lets on the main shopping streets. No significant arts/culture scene outside the Phoenix cinema and Curve theatre (and that seems to do little but host touring musicals any more, though it did more interesting things in the past). Richard 3's grave in the cathedral and a visitors' centre and that's pretty much your lot, other than a couple of tiny museums that never change their displays.

And the proximity to London on the train is probably fine if you are commuting for the working day it's technically 1 hr and 5 out of St Pancras but if you want to go to a play or concert in the evening, the last fast train back to Leicester used to leave before 10.30, and the trains after that took 2 hours, sometimes more, ditto weekends.

I also lived in rural east Leicestershire and wouldn't recommend it unless you are very much a homebody or are prepared to spend a lot of time driving to other places.