Where to retire in the UK

[ARHarh]

12TS said:

Weather keeps getting a mention, and for me this would be quite a significant factor in the choice of any location.

I'm in Essex, but our parents are from W. Yorks and Manchester. During the regular catch up phone calls where we discuss what we've been up to we've often been able to do things due to the weather, whereas they've had to sit inside. It does seem to be a source of some angst for them, so I'm not sure I'd want to return there.

I don't like anywhere hot or really even warm. Anything over 25c and I don't want to know. Today is probably the warmest day so far this year and I think its time for lunch in the garden. 13c right now.

[Shnozz]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I would be surprised if there is much difference at all weather wise between Essex and Wiltshire?

[Louis Balfour]

Shnozz said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I would be surprised if there is much difference at all weather wise between Essex and Wiltshire?

I am still thinking south of Tunbridge Wells. Close to a pleasant town and the coast. Anyone from round there care to tell me I am wrong?

[Mark Benson]

ElectricSoup said:

alfaman said:

best UK retirement option

> UK in summer

> Asia / elsewhere in winter

New Zealand or Oz appeals to me during the UK winter. Rent a motorhome for three months out there - December, Jan and Feb. Sorted.

My parents used to have Christmas in the UK with my and my sister's families and New Year with friends, then in early Jan go to NZ for 3-4 months staying at the beach house on my uncle's fruit farm.
They did this for 25 years, from retirement until ill-health prevented them. I would love to do something similar in my retirement.

[milfordkong]

Tyre Tread said:

Was a lovely little Market Town but the massive amount of building (including the flood plains) has made it unreasonably congested.

I live in Harborough, I like it a lot for a number of reasons but they really don't seem to want to ever stop building whacking great housing estates on all the surrounding farm land which as you say causes major congestion issues, especially as all of the supermarkets are right in the middle of town. Not unique to here of course, it's happening all over. I really do struggle to understand it outside of the obvious short term capitalist gains, what is the end game? One day there just won't be any countryside left.

Haven't noticed any air quality issues but i'm going to look into that, my wife and I both get pretty bad hayfever and maybe it's a contributor to that.

Certainly plenty of people love to retire here, there are 'retirement communities' absolutely everywhere.

[ben5575]

My father has a house in Staindrop just outside of Barnard Castle (yes that one) and rents a house in whichever European city takes his fancy for 6 months of the year for not very much money. Seems like a very nice way to do retirement.

[Pit Pony]

velocemitch said:

Pit Pony said:

Wiltshire Lad said:

rlw said:

Wiltshire Lad said:

Hospital not so important - ask yourself - can I walk to the shops / pub / restaurants / gyms etc...? We lived in a picture postcard cotswold village for 5 years and frankly it became a pain in the butt having to drive everywhere. Now live in a larger village - small co-op, leisure centre, 3 pubs...so much better. And socially far better - various clubs, societies from sport to music and gardening.
Plus the lager the community it’s often easier to become part of it.

But that's not the back of beyong then, is it?

No it isn’t and that’s my point - I’ve lived in cities and small villages..absolutely love the country but it’s very easy to romanticise it if you’ve never lived there. It’s important to me now, and I imagine it will be even more so in 10 years or so when I retire, to be somewhere that I can stroll to local amenities.

I spent 3 years living on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. It took the love of the countryside away from.me.

I think retiring to a penthouse apartment in the centre of Manchester, Liverpool or Birmingham might suit me to be honest.

I’d be interested to know what the reasons are?

I spent my teenage years youth hostelling and camping and fell walking. When a job came up in Keighley I moved my wife and toddler up to Long Preston on the A65. We had another child and the oldest started school in the local primary. Seemed idyllic.
Great when the sun was shining. Everything was a pain. Need something from a shop. The local shop won't have it. Drive to Settle.
Need a car part. On a Sunday? Drive to Halfords in Burnley.
Want to go to a proper toy shop? How about Preston?
The village was full of cliques. There was locals and well off incomers and we were neither. People were nosey and pretended to be friendly.
Wife was lonely.

Moved to a suburb of Liverpool, where we were both brought up, to be near her family.

It wasn't until the kids were teenagers that we started exploring Liverpool, and experiencing the theatres and the night life. When my daughter finished university, her and her boyfriend rented a flat next to Liverpool Cathedral, and we had a few nights out with them. She's now in Manchester city centre on her own and I love the (per Covid) vibe.
The only spanner in the idea is that leasehold apartments fill me with dread.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Shnozz said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I would be surprised if there is much difference at all weather wise between Essex and Wiltshire?

Any difference will be pretty small and barely noticeable I suspect.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

LetsTryAgain said:

Do those who wish to jet off to Asia for a quarter of the year not have family or friends to consider?

I think that if I knew people who begrudged me disappearing on holiday for some of the year then they wouldn't be friends for long.

[LetsTryAgain]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

I think that if I knew people who begrudged me disappearing on holiday for some of the year then they wouldn't be friends for long.

I think it’s worth quoting the whole post as it wasn’t purely the ‘3 months somewhere warm’ crowd I was aiming at.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

LetsTryAgain said:

CharlesdeGaulle said:

I think that if I knew people who begrudged me disappearing on holiday for some of the year then they wouldn't be friends for long.

I think it’s worth quoting the whole post as it wasn’t purely the ‘3 months somewhere warm’ crowd I was aiming at.

OK:

LetsTryAgain said:

I think this thread is a good example of David Goodhart’s assertion of the existence of the “anywhere’s” and the “somewhere’s”.

Do those who wish to jet off to Asia for a quarter of the year not have family or friends to consider?

Edited by LetsTryAgain on Tuesday 16th March 11:26

I'm still not with you. In fairness, I haven't looked up Goodhart; what am I missing?

[LetsTryAgain]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

I'm still not with you. In fairness, I haven't looked up Goodhart; what am I missing?

Nothing profound.
Just someone who was considered a darling of the left wrote a book about immigration and he asserts one of the main differences in the two sides of the immigration debate is that some can pack up, move anywhere, set up shop and live there quite happily.
Whereas the other half have roots and ties (physical, emotional, spiritual etc) which keep them in certain areas.

Worth reading the book.
It’s not going to have a profound affect on anyone but if it could be found for a fiver on Amazon it’d be worth having.

[C70R]

rlw said:

Mr Dendrite said:

Although Lincoln and the wolds are nice as is north Norfolk, they both suffer from relatively poor connectivity to the rest of the UK. Which seems surprising as they don’t look remote the way somewhere like Cornwall does. As the fire chief of Norwich once said to in a lecture with only a slight exaggeration “my nearest motorway is in Belgium.” So if you’re staying put then Lincoln very handy for Caldwell park, Norfolk lovely but you if you need to be in easy access of the motorway network definitely worth checking the transport links.

Mr Dendrite speaks the truth. Lincoln, Norwich, Ipswich etc all suffer from poor connectivity, not to mention very slow connectivity.

We moved to York two years ago and love it. When things are normal, it's cosmoplitan, reasonably sophisticated, not too expensive and less than two hours to London. And it has access to just about everywhere by train or road. House prices are far lower than London on the whole, although if you want to live in a detached Georgian or Victorian mansion, you will still need a tidy sum.

People are very friendly, the weather isn't too bad - not cold like the east coast or wet like the west country - and it's in Yorkshire. The North York Moors, the Dales, the NRM. FFS. Just get here man.

That's really interesting. We're in the process of buying a second home in Norfolk. The North Norfolk coastal villages where we're looking seem to tick a lot of the general retirement boxes, with the exception of cost - unless you want small and/or modern, you're looking at £500k+ for good character properties in a desirable area.

MrsC has family there, so it's a journey we do quite regularly. While the rural wilds are not well connected, Norwich is less than 2hrs from London on the train. Dereham, which is near enough the middle of Norfolk, is doable in less than 3hrs from South London if we don't leave at rush hour. Once you're on the M11/A11, it's pretty plain sailing.

With the need to go back and forth to London fortnightly, it felt like the right balance for us.

Edited by C70R on Tuesday 16th March 14:34

[MattS5]

I wouldnt say connectivity is a problem in Norwich, or widely in Norfolk.

I'm in a small town in north norfolk but have 70+ gb download speeds. OK, its not Virgin fibre speeds, but isnt exactly slow either.

Location wise it is a pain to get to, but then that's part of the charm, you have to want to live here for the lifestyle, not the convinience of having a motorway within 5 miles of where you live.

[C70R]

MattS5 said:

I wouldnt say connectivity is a problem in Norwich, or widely in Norfolk.

I'm in a small town in north norfolk but have 70+ gb download speeds. OK, its not Virgin fibre speeds, but isnt exactly slow either.

If you read the rest of the post, he was talking more about access and ease of getting to other bits of the UK. But you're correct either way.

[Mark Benson]

C70R said:

rlw said:

Mr Dendrite said:

Although Lincoln and the wolds are nice as is north Norfolk, they both suffer from relatively poor connectivity to the rest of the UK. Which seems surprising as they don’t look remote the way somewhere like Cornwall does. As the fire chief of Norwich once said to in a lecture with only a slight exaggeration “my nearest motorway is in Belgium.” So if you’re staying put then Lincoln very handy for Caldwell park, Norfolk lovely but you if you need to be in easy access of the motorway network definitely worth checking the transport links.

Mr Dendrite speaks the truth. Lincoln, Norwich, Ipswich etc all suffer from poor connectivity, not to mention very slow connectivity.

We moved to York two years ago and love it. When things are normal, it's cosmoplitan, reasonably sophisticated, not too expensive and less than two hours to London. And it has access to just about everywhere by train or road. House prices are far lower than London on the whole, although if you want to live in a detached Georgian or Victorian mansion, you will still need a tidy sum.

People are very friendly, the weather isn't too bad - not cold like the east coast or wet like the west country - and it's in Yorkshire. The North York Moors, the Dales, the NRM. FFS. Just get here man.

That's really interesting. We're in the process of buying a second home in Norfolk. The North Norfolk coastal villages where we're looking seem to tick a lot of the general retirement boxes, with the exception of cost - unless you want small and/or modern, you're looking at £500k+ for good character properties in a desirable area.

MrsC has family there, so it's a journey we do quite regularly. While the rural wilds are not well connected, Norwich is less than 2hrs from London on the train. Dereham, which is near enough the middle of Norfolk, is doable in less than 3hrs from South London if we don't leave at rush hour. Once you're on the M11/A11, it's pretty plain sailing.

With the need to go back and forth to London fortnightly, it felt like the right balance for us.

Edited by C70R on Tuesday 16th March 14:34

As long as it's mainly London it's fine.
Norfolk-London connectivity is good but Norfolk-Everywhere else in the UK connectivity is awful.

[Roofless Toothless]

ben5575 said:

My father has a house in Staindrop just outside of Barnard Castle (yes that one) and rents a house in whichever European city takes his fancy for 6 months of the year for not very much money. Seems like a very nice way to do retirement.

We had a nice family holiday in a Peel Tower behind a farm in Staindrop. I liked the place.

For retirement through - either The Mumbles or Clun in Shropshire always appealed to me, but we ended up doing neither! Mumbles because I used to live there as a student, it's right by the Gower, and I love closed up holiday resorts in the depths of winter. Don't ask me why. Clun because Shropshire is beautiful and I'm a bit of an ex-Hippie so I would fit in fine.

The trouble is that when you actually get to retire practicalities like local shops, and easy access to a decent general hospital start to figure more. I'm happy in a village suburb of Chelmsford, near my grandchildren.

[C70R]

Mark Benson said:

C70R said:

rlw said:

Mr Dendrite said:

Although Lincoln and the wolds are nice as is north Norfolk, they both suffer from relatively poor connectivity to the rest of the UK. Which seems surprising as they don’t look remote the way somewhere like Cornwall does. As the fire chief of Norwich once said to in a lecture with only a slight exaggeration “my nearest motorway is in Belgium.” So if you’re staying put then Lincoln very handy for Caldwell park, Norfolk lovely but you if you need to be in easy access of the motorway network definitely worth checking the transport links.

Mr Dendrite speaks the truth. Lincoln, Norwich, Ipswich etc all suffer from poor connectivity, not to mention very slow connectivity.

We moved to York two years ago and love it. When things are normal, it's cosmoplitan, reasonably sophisticated, not too expensive and less than two hours to London. And it has access to just about everywhere by train or road. House prices are far lower than London on the whole, although if you want to live in a detached Georgian or Victorian mansion, you will still need a tidy sum.

People are very friendly, the weather isn't too bad - not cold like the east coast or wet like the west country - and it's in Yorkshire. The North York Moors, the Dales, the NRM. FFS. Just get here man.

That's really interesting. We're in the process of buying a second home in Norfolk. The North Norfolk coastal villages where we're looking seem to tick a lot of the general retirement boxes, with the exception of cost - unless you want small and/or modern, you're looking at £500k+ for good character properties in a desirable area.

MrsC has family there, so it's a journey we do quite regularly. While the rural wilds are not well connected, Norwich is less than 2hrs from London on the train. Dereham, which is near enough the middle of Norfolk, is doable in less than 3hrs from South London if we don't leave at rush hour. Once you're on the M11/A11, it's pretty plain sailing.

With the need to go back and forth to London fortnightly, it felt like the right balance for us.

Edited by C70R on Tuesday 16th March 14:34

As long as it's mainly London it's fine.
Norfolk-London connectivity is good but Norfolk-Everywhere else in the UK connectivity is awful.

Can't disagree too much with that. It's just that the previous poster has used London as his benchmark, so I thought it a fair comparison.

It's also very convenient (~3hrs to the Chunnel) for driving trips to the continent, which you can't do easily from many of the other places mentioned.

[Shy Torque]

Lost out on this yesterday to a higher offer. Only three miles from Stirling, but feels like the middle of nowhere. On a private road too.

https://www.acandco.com/property/details/aacrps-SL...

Built as a house for the engineer to look after this:

[blue_haddock]

paulguitar said:

Shropshire might be suitable.

As a proud salopian born and bred i would have to say its a pretty good place to live.