Where to go to escape gentrification/‘daaarrrling’ brigade?

[Warrick23]

Currently south east, finance-working Waterloo commuter - but not for much longer!

Taking Vol. Redundancy and will be retraining (maths teacher training) in Sept 26. Want to then look for secondary schools somewhere rural (I love walking and lived in a Devon village as a kid) in England (elderly parents down south so need to stay in England/Wales I think). Know I’m swapping one set of long hours (8.00 - 20/22.00)for another but looking forward to doing something less robotic/grey.

Not interested in ‘naice’/‘it’s just like London/south east’ type places and got no kids so schools (other than working in one) not an issue. I don’t drink coffee either so no ‘cafe culture’ required!

Just had enough of long hours, soul
less work/how busy it all is and the way people talk endlessly (just endured a fortnight of Xmas parties) about their “role/career” as though it’s something far more than a job; final straw was when someone introduced a friend last week (with what seemed like genuine sincerity) as ‘one of the leading online marketing experts of his generation’ last week.

I’d also like a pub that just serves beer without a fuss/a back story/an autobiography about the landlord and landlady etc. In short, I’m out of patience with all the braying south east BS and noisy self-importance.

If you live in the south east are are not like this (or I’ve got it all wrong and everyone is really actually modest and softly spoken but just comes across lile this sometimes) then I apologise - perhaps it’s simply my town/line of work - but it does feel pretty pervasive.

So, do you live in a rural place where there isn’t a Waitrose, where no one puts their hands on their hips/in their belt when they talk, no one wears red trousers, where people use their voice at a moderate volume in public/on their phone and can discuss something other than themselves/how important their work is or skiing - and there’s a normal (ungastro-ed) pub?

Thanks.

GS

I think this is sensible.

I’ve had 3 friends go from PhD to Maths/Physics teacher training and quit before the start of the NQT year.

And individual schools can make or break your relationship with teaching. I would probably stay where I was for training and then move based on the school.

I second this! FOD is beautiful.

Definitely not Tunbridge Wells or Sevenoaks.

Petersfield, Wickham or Alton (has a Waitrose but it's a very down to earth, rural market town). Not Farnham or Winchester.

There are? 16 years here and I've not yet found the gentrified bits. There is a very naice deli in Coleford now I suppose so maybe it's creeping in...

@backinthebox

I think it's partly how receptive people are though and that can be different geographically.

In the last three years I've engaged with many more people randomly on my holidays in Harrogate than I have during the rest of the time I'm at home. Everyone seems much more approachable, I suspect partly because the pace is a bit slower so everyone is less hyper focused on doing and achieving all the bloody time.

Harwich (lots of rural Essex).

There are some lovely bits of Worcestershire. It’s far enough away from the Cotswolds to avoid most of the red trouser brigade.

What do you mean?

I don’t think you’ve read the OP’s post properly.

Definitely consider Somerset. Just avoid Frome/Bruton. There are plenty of 'proper' villages which are completely unsullied by 'down from Londoners' and also a lot of independent schools - Taunton has 3 - which might be good to teach in.
Also Yorkshire which has a good choice of villages/market towns/cities plus countryside and coast, whilst being too far from London for the Waitrose set.

Come to Wales. You won't find any of that Shite here. Brecon might be a good shout?

Thanks everyone - the pride in kids was an analogy not a specific point about children.

I don’t mind mixing but what I’d rather do is be in a place where there is a mix - not a monoculture of values and attitudes that has arisen from the noisy hegemony created by a rah/loud group in an area. And also, dream of dreams, if this mix doesn’t include the type of persona I’ve described above in great quantities as they tend to drown out/dominate others even if they exist in relatively modest numbers.

i appreciate there will be pockets of this in (probably less affluent) areas of the south east as well but id like to not live in ‘one of the last enclaves of normal’ in the south east but rather somewhere where non-rah is the extensive norm not the exceptional pocket.

Thanks again for all the suggestions - I think a PP is right and a break from colleagues and clients in my old industry will be just as refreshing as the move.

Carlisle. Beautiful, strong community and DESPERATE for Maths teachers!

wales

North Hampshire

there are these types around, but it’s not overwhelmingly so, and you can choose your crowd.

somewhere like Hook, not pretty, but due to proximity to transport networks, there’s a mix of everyone. Posher villages exist, but then the red trouser quotient does rise… HW or Odiham for example.

or you could try out by Alton way, the villages there are pretty and you have the train to Waterloo too.

I think I have. Snobs, red trousers, Waitrose etc I get what she’s trying to say. I’m just saying I live in a small town on the Sussex coast, one of the wealthiest counties in the south and I’ve not experienced this.
So it might just be an op village problem and there’s less drastic move options than moving hundreds of miles north

Don’t dis the deli! Only decent place to get some proper cheese around here!

I'm not dissing the deli, I spent a small fortune in it yesterday morning! Saved me a trip to you-know-where for Waitrose 😂

Avoid the Cotswold stone villages though eg Broadway. Avoid the Slaughters too.

Except some areas in the Vale of Glamorgan eg Cowbridge

Avoid anywhere within 10 miles of the coast in Dorset and East Devon.

North York moors

Yes.

IME the sort of non pretentious places you're looking at are not that keen on Londoners OP. We moved to a non pretentious rural place (on the outskirts of a pretty posh town though) and were viewed with suspicion as we'd come from London. People visibly relaxed when I said I'd grown up on a farm!

agreed