Friendly villages in North Yorkshire with good walking trails

[ThisBusyHiker]

Hi all. DH and I looking to move so he has less of a commute - he's based in Darlington and I work remotely with monthly trip to London. We really love York, but ideally we'd like a a village as we both grew up pretty rural and need nature around us, and want to bring up kids this way, but it'd be good to have some community things going on/local shop/yoga if lucky. We're also big hikers and get out when we can. Any recommendations up to 45 mins around Darlo? We're keen to find/be a part of a community which is welcoming.
We really like the look of Osmotherley, seems there's a bit going on and great for walks - does anyone know it well/can recommend?
Any other recommendations welcome. Cheers :)

Scarborough is great plus you could do the cliff walk (Cleveland Way) from Cayton Bay to Filey. It's a cracking walk with stunning views.

Thank you, unfortunately almost 2 hours to Darlington!

Northallerton? It’s a fairly quick commute to Darlington and has direct trains to London. Moors on one side, Dales on the other. Tons of villages to choose from.

Richmond is lovely with plenty of walks, likewise Yarm. Thirsk a bit further south. You can’t really go far wrong, there aren’t many bad areas around there.

Thank you! Heard good things about northallerton, plenty going on it seems. I guess we are partly idealising something smaller but afraid of feeling isolated too! We stumbled on Osmotherley has having a few things going on but I think a lot of the time you never know til you get there

osmotherley is lovely it’s kinda isolated with Northallerton being the nearest town, sure it has a bus route to Northallerton. Good pubs in ozzy as we call it, but be warned in the summer it is heaving!! Also attract a lot of people from Middlesbrough as it’s not far away who like to come to experience rural life!
Northallerton is obviously a town with a train station direct train to London and Darlington with a bustling high street with good independent shops!
where you moving from?

Thank you! We're moving over from Cumbria, so not a stranger to places getting busy in the summer (well all year round really now). Doesn't feel too isolated 10 mins into Northallerton but yeah it's definitely not a town! Is it friendly? We also considered just moving to Darlington as it's obviously so much better value for money but really want to be in the hills!

I love York, but are you happy walking somewhere so flat.. it would be a consideration for me as a hiker.

It is strangely flat isn't it! But does have access to some amazing national parks/hiking areas around it

if If I had to choose between Darlington and ozzy it would be ozzy 💯 Darlington is a bigger town than Northallerton!!!
every time I go to ozzy it’s friendly there is a very small primary school there and think there may be a small shop. Fish and chip shop now closed and two out of the three pubs are open I think!
great for walks though on your door step.
not sure what size house your looking at buy houses prices in ozzy are a bit spenny but there are beautiful older ones.
its 10 mins from Northallerton by car

Great Ayton?
Guisborough is a bit bigger.

Yarm doesn't have "walk from the front door" access to the hills.

Train line between Leeds/harrogate/York serves multiple lovely villages with easy access to to A1.

Thank you! really helpful! think we might just go view a place to get a feel for it and maybe spend a night or two there.

they look lovely, just a bit further for DH to work - but will check out thank you!

Hi OP

Have you considered Teesdale as an alternative to N Yorks? I would move to Barnard Castle in a heartbeat and I think it would give you the community vibe you’re looking for, as well as easy reach of Darlington and plenty of “straight from the front door” options for walks.

Lots of lovely villages out that way too if you’d rather somewhere smaller.

The bits of N Yorks within easy drive of Darlington tend IMO to be flatter and less picturesque, and dealing with/crossing the A19 on a regular basis is something I’d avoid if at all possible.

I always think Stokeseley seems a nice small town to live in, v close to the Cleveland Hills. I’d also cheerfully live closer to Roseberry Topping.

Barnard Castle is lovely but that road to Darlington always takes longer than I expect. I suppose it also depends on what side of Darlington you need to get to, whilst it’s not enormous it is growing and getting busier. Further up into Teesdale you’ve got small villages like Cotherstone. But also trickier driving in the snow!

Thank you so much. Few people have mentioned issues with A19 and getting off at Osmotherley - is there a reason the road is bad? Barnard Castle looks very pretty!

I would take Barney over Darlo plus only 40 mins from the start of the Lakes/Penrith/Carlisle for great walking. Also close to the Borders etc

I think the A19 is single lane at Osmotherley so maybe that's why it gets bad(?)
It's right on the Cleveland Way so loads of lush walking.

Could be. Looks like it just merges on to the A road. Might as well go and see what it's all about!

Not a village, but Knaresborough has good walks along the Nidd Gorge. It's a small town and very friendly 😊

The A19 is dualled all the way. The exit to Osmotherly is a single carriage A road (A168? to Northallerton) with a left turn about 500m in onto a B road that takes you directly to the village.
The A19 is fine, good slip roads but is very busy and fast. There are often accidents on that stretch because there are still gaps in the central barrier that allow cars to turn right or cross straight across all 4 lanes 😳 although these are being systematically closed.
Osmotherly is a small, picturesque, very busy, expensive village. Great walks but limited facilities.

Guisborough is lovely but I think too far if you think Yarm is too far. My OH commutes from the latter to Darlo and it’s fine (we’ve commuted Yarm to Durham and Yarm to Gateshead in the past)

There are some lovely villages around though (Hutton Rudby, Stokesley, Hurworth). Barnard Castle can be tricky in the snow whereas this side of Darlington is ok (as long as you stay off the 171 moor road!)

I see others have beaten me to it with more helpful and probably more constructive comments.

I actually live in Darlington, have worked on Teesside and have family near Osmotherly and in Northallerton, and (to me) the A19 is just not a nice road to drive. It’s fast, but with a lot of local access points so much more joining/leaving/crossing than you’d expect for a road that busy and fast.

It’s also the main spine up and down which people drive to and from lots of “dormitory” type towns and villages to work on Teesside; round Wynyard, and up to North Tyneside and Newcastle.

If you live east of the A19 and are commuting to Darlo, you either have to cross it and then go overland round Northallerton, which is getting much busier and is also subject to a bit of a chokehold with two train crossings at either “end”; go up and then through Yarm, which is like swimming through treacle at rush hours, or go up to the flyover and then west along the A66, which is busy and thankless. On paper it looks like a 40 min drive to Darlington, but I’d guess a daily commute at anything like normal working hours would be way in excess. There are some lovely places round there (including Stokesley) but they’re not great to drive to work or to catch train from Darlington.

Northallerton is nice but IMO just that. It’s also growing an awful lot and there’s not really any walks of interest without a decent drive first. There are London trains but not anywhere near as many as Darlington and I think (don’t quote me) they’re reducing in number.

Hurworth just outside Darlington is good for schools and very pretty and community minded. Heighington similar.

Richmond and surround villages may also be worth a look, but my money would still be on Barney tbh.

Good luck!

Thanks so much, this is so helpful. It sounds like we might as well just move to Darlo😂What do you think of it living there? Seems a surprising amount of green space and independent shops... At least our money would go further (maybe we'll get a cheap camper with what we'd have spent in Osmotherley and just get out more😅)
I think DH would only have to commute 1-2 times a week, but part of the reason we're moving closer is so he can be in more, and that drive does not sound fun whichever way it is. Food for thought. Thanks again

Crikey! Sounds like we'd need to try that a few times