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

@Warrick23 as mentioned some of the more ‘working class ‘ ex mining areas outside Bath may well suit for all kinds of reasons and are close enough in too to get good placements .

another area that might suit what you are after and fit budgets etc is south wales - lots of down to earth places , but nice rural countryside on doorstep from done areas and again if not too far over the border, close enough to Cardiff/Newport even Bristol for placements . Friendly too I think !

You're so amazing and louche and cool OP. Just move anywhere - I'm sure you'll improve it.

You need to stop saying "naice" though. That just fucking embarrassing and not cool.

I just want to clarify I mean, this is a good thing, by the way. When I lived in rural East Midlands you could practically trace the coal from village to village by how gentrified they were. Being a teacher is a good way in to the community though.

People are suggesting lots of unpretentious places but in my experience some of them aren’t that nice e.g. fens (in my opinion).

I think you’ll be shocked and would find lots of down to earth places closer to London/ south east by looking for average towns. Not the prettiest towns in the county but large enough for 1/2 secondary schools you could work in. The sort of places could be Didcot, Swindon, Braintree, Chesterfield. You could live even in a slightly ‘naicer’ or more picturesque town if you wanted.

I use ‘naice’ as it seems to be a technical term on mumsnet to signify the type of place I don’t want to be or to move to. The fact that ‘naice’ is a commonly used and understood word on here and elsewhere is pretty much positive proof that the thing I’m trying to describe and avoid is a real and known phenomenon!

Don’t want a town I’m afraid - village or hamlet is the dream for me.

Cornwall (although avoid Truro as that’s the only Waitrose I think).

Are you new to mumsnet?

The Fenland areas of north Cambs/south Lincs. So around Wisbech, March etc. You wouldn't get me living there, mind you.

It's very easy to find genuine people and pubs even in the rural south east. Just become friends with the locals, not the DFL's. We have lovely non gastro pubs with good food.

We finished a dog walk this afternoon and as we got into our car, two new 4x4's turned up and parked in front of us, blocking us in. Man got out in plus 4's looking a complete twat and a woman in the other car was in white trainers. We asked them to move as car next to us had also finished their walk and were loading their dogs.
Their response - if we park elsewhere it's muddy. It's the fucking countryside you absolute twunt. Honestly Covid has a lot to answer for. Don't get me started on the arrogance of the shooting parties driving over our fields and parking wherever they want as they've paid to shoot.

There are loads of places in the south east that aren’t like what you describe all along the south coast towns like Bognor Regis, Hastings Littlehampton etc even cities like Portsmouth.

In all honesty I think places like what you describe are the minority even in the south east.

I’ve got the ideal place for you Timsbury - it’s a large village in Somerset - about 9 miles from Bath, pretty , but not posh ( in my opinion) has shop, several churches, pub, pharmacy, village community hub, etc - lots of locals still, not really gentrified enough for DFLs - lovely walks nearby

Devon surely, @Warrick23 ! There are one or two areas that you might want to avoid given your particular wishlist, but huge swathes of the county where it's perfectly acceptable to use bailer twine as a belt and people are more John Deere than Jonty Dahling. I think the key isn't North, South, East or West, but distance from London. The less commutable, the less shiny so long as you miss the London weekender haunts (Chagford, Salcombe, Topsham, Instow). And because you grew up in rural Devon, you have fast track acceptability in a rural community here (that's my story too).

@BotterMon You think poorly paid locals swarm to the gastro pub? Really?

If the well paid and wealthy retirees are taken out of village life, the local amenities like gastro pubs are no more. In fact any local pub is no more. The joke of a gastro pub is that the locals cannot afford them and swerve them. They are only there for in comers. You won’t find villages full of locals anywhere. Most likely in ones with social housing as they are priced out of cute cottages. This idea of a bucolic untouched countryside waiting for the op that no one has discovered is laughable really. Plus the op has made money and is a rich incomer themselves.

Me too. Scotland.

Naaa, many bitey venomous things in Perth, Scotland plus it’s overrun with Poundland ‘poshos’.

I think it’s why I mentioned a couple of places here in Somerset that ‘might ‘ suit, (ex mining) because you of course are quite right - most of the more attractive villages here with nice countryside on tap that still have pubs ( or even ‘a’ pub ) and a shop etc have a certain amount of incomers /weekenders /retired couples with cash, rather than lots of locals without high earning jobs. Same will be true in new forest/Lake District/Dorset/Hants etc - I think if you want down to earth but decent countryside and not loads of people like the OP herself coming from areas with more cash you are going to have to maybe look in South wales, Yorkshire, humberside, Lincs ( countryside a bit boring in my opinion though) bits of Peak District - and even in these places there will be areas that still have some of the ‘weekender’ gastro about them -

@Crikeyalmighty I think there are less weekender areas in Somerset but our friends are weekenders there and I’m just not sure anywhere is locals only now!

In the Cambridge/Ely bit if the fens there's always been quite a lot of not very poor farmers and now quite a lot of commuting darlings, coffee shops, farm shops and ladies who lunch.

Any deprived area should fulfill your desire, but remember deprived areas very often come with..........................You know.

Yep - it’s why I suggested the ex mining villages as tend to not have the cache forxweekenders but actually aren’t too bad if all you want is mainly locals, good value housing a coop, a fairly basic pub and maybe a chippy and nice countryside close by -wouldn’t personally be my bag but seems to be what OP is after.

Yes, there is a huge difference between the fen edge villages and the middle of the fens.

Completely agree with this. Definitely do training and NQT years before moving. You may think this is the dream, but for many of it, it just doesn’t work out. And I really wanted it to work out too

High Leicestershire/Rutland/Vale of Belvoir

I suggest Booths country - you'll avoid Waitrose by definition.