Where to retire in the UK

[Vasco]

worsy said:

Yeah I think Durham would be the A1(M) only. The A1 is only A1(M) in parts though I think. What about Rutland, the county with no Maccies
Dorset, Lincolnshire as well. East Sussex another one which surprised me.

Just been scouring the map

Unfortunately MacDonalds has infected Rutland - now at Oakham.

[loafer123]

Blib said:

And no, I'm not divulging where we live. I've been on this forum for many a year and I've learned in that time that I'm the only sensible person on here, and that every single one of you lot is a swivel-eyed lunatic that I'd crawl across a busy, eight lane motorway to avoid!

Hey! I resent resemble that remark!

[GT3Manthey]

PhilboSE said:

You'd be surprised - more than most villages in Suffolk & Norfolk. Great food shops selling local produce, harbour with freshly landed fish, dunes & marshes for walking, rugby & cricket club, 9 hole golf course & tennis courts. Keep a boat in the harbour or paddle a smaller boat up the river. In terms of arts, it's got a tiny arthouse cinema and lots of productions put on by the local arty crowd run by ones of the Freuds and book festivals held out of season. Boating lake and dedicated ponds for running model boats. Putting green, free outdoor gym, pier. Own brewery in the town centre, delicatessen, artisan bakers, excellent butcher. High street not spoiled by low grade chain shops. Mix of good quality housing, mostly good quality Victorian & Georgian and earlier fisherman's cottages (and some more recent stuff near the pier). Impressive church and lighthouse in the middle of the town. Art galleries for local artists in the town and across the river in Walberswick. All accessible without getting in a car. Not bad for a town of 1200.

Lots of great bike rides around, walks on Dunwich heath (Forestry Commission). Get in the car and there are more options, like Snape Maltings for more arts.

I consider myself very much standing corrected.

Tks for enlightening me , I’ll add southwold to my go visit list

[RichB]

loafer123 said:

And yet, just the other side of the M3, you have Hartley Witney and miles and miles of countryside.

Indeed, we front onto a cricket pitch and back onto Hawley Common/Woods so we've got a gates from our garden into 850 acres of woodland. There's not a single road between us and Minley Manor (and a pub) 2.5 miles away. I've just started fishing on the River Blackwater near Farley Hill which is 15 mins away. Really nice pub is at Eversley Cross - it's quite rural and yet I can walk to a railway station in 10 mins.

[GT3Manthey]

A quick search tells me Southwold is considerably more expensive than Frinton.

No doubt a lovely part of the world but also with little choice of houses I think we’ll stick to being inside the gates at Frinton where there is plenty for us to do

[ghost83]

I quite like the east coast, and whilst not directly at the seaside I quite like Hornsea and I like Bridlington as a seaside so wouldn’t mind living near but not in!

[Louis Balfour]

Does anyone here think that retiring somewhere pleasant, but to which they have no connection, will prove ultimately unfulfilling?

I am considering returning to my place of birth, once my children have left home. There are plenty of other places that I really like and where I could go, but I feel a draw from the place where I was born.

[Riley Blue]

Louis Balfour said:

Does anyone here think that retiring somewhere pleasant, but to which they have no connection, will prove ultimately unfulfilling?

I am considering returning to my place of birth, once my children have left home. There are plenty of other places that I really like and where I could go, but I feel a draw from the place where I was born.

Four years ago, after she retired, my sister moved from Fleet to Trowbridge, a town she had no previous connection with but it ticked most of the boxes on her 'must have' list. She and her husband have never been happier, in fact she's a changed, very happy, person. They've joined local clubs, guilds, societies and bands (she's an accomplished seamstress, he plays bass guitar and chess at a high level).

Moving to unknown places was always part of our lives, I had 17 'homes' before I eventually left home; three within 10 miles of each other with a different school each time, one for just a month. Perhaps moving to the unknown is easier when you're young but even today, at 71, it wouldn't particularly bother me; I last did it 15years ago.

[Louis Balfour]

Riley Blue said:

Louis Balfour said:

Does anyone here think that retiring somewhere pleasant, but to which they have no connection, will prove ultimately unfulfilling?

I am considering returning to my place of birth, once my children have left home. There are plenty of other places that I really like and where I could go, but I feel a draw from the place where I was born.

Four years ago, after she retired, my sister moved from Fleet to Trowbridge, a town she had no previous connection with but it ticked most of the boxes on her 'must have' list. She and her husband have never been happier, in fact she's a changed, very happy, person. They've joined local clubs, guilds, societies and bands (she's an accomplished seamstress, he plays bass guitar and chess at a high level).

Moving to unknown places was always part of our lives, I had 17 'homes' before I eventually left home; three within 10 miles of each other with a different school each time, one for just a month. Perhaps moving to the unknown is easier when you're young but even today, at 71, it wouldn't particularly bother me; I last did it 15years ago.

Four years might be too early to make a judgement?

[loafer123]

Louis Balfour said:

Riley Blue said:

Louis Balfour said:

Does anyone here think that retiring somewhere pleasant, but to which they have no connection, will prove ultimately unfulfilling?

I am considering returning to my place of birth, once my children have left home. There are plenty of other places that I really like and where I could go, but I feel a draw from the place where I was born.

Four years ago, after she retired, my sister moved from Fleet to Trowbridge, a town she had no previous connection with but it ticked most of the boxes on her 'must have' list. She and her husband have never been happier, in fact she's a changed, very happy, person. They've joined local clubs, guilds, societies and bands (she's an accomplished seamstress, he plays bass guitar and chess at a high level).

Moving to unknown places was always part of our lives, I had 17 'homes' before I eventually left home; three within 10 miles of each other with a different school each time, one for just a month. Perhaps moving to the unknown is easier when you're young but even today, at 71, it wouldn't particularly bother me; I last did it 15years ago.

Four years might be too early to make a judgement?

Generally, those who throw themselves into local life are accepted more quickly by existing residents, and have more fulfilling lives by having a wide friendship/acquaintance group.

That being said, it is alot easier in a reasonably large place like Trowbridge or Tunbridge Wells than it is in a small Devon village, because of the wider variety of people and groups to engage with.

[RichB]

Louis Balfour said:

Does anyone here think that retiring somewhere pleasant, but to which they have no connection, will prove ultimately unfulfilling?

I am considering returning to my place of birth, once my children have left home. There are plenty of other places that I really like and where I could go, but I feel a draw from the place where I was born.

Guess it depends on where you were born. I grew up in Ealing, brother still lives there. I wouldn't go back even if you paid me!

[Louis Balfour]

loafer123 said:

Louis Balfour said:

Riley Blue said:

Louis Balfour said:

Does anyone here think that retiring somewhere pleasant, but to which they have no connection, will prove ultimately unfulfilling?

I am considering returning to my place of birth, once my children have left home. There are plenty of other places that I really like and where I could go, but I feel a draw from the place where I was born.

Four years ago, after she retired, my sister moved from Fleet to Trowbridge, a town she had no previous connection with but it ticked most of the boxes on her 'must have' list. She and her husband have never been happier, in fact she's a changed, very happy, person. They've joined local clubs, guilds, societies and bands (she's an accomplished seamstress, he plays bass guitar and chess at a high level).

Moving to unknown places was always part of our lives, I had 17 'homes' before I eventually left home; three within 10 miles of each other with a different school each time, one for just a month. Perhaps moving to the unknown is easier when you're young but even today, at 71, it wouldn't particularly bother me; I last did it 15years ago.

Four years might be too early to make a judgement?

Generally, those who throw themselves into local life are accepted more quickly by existing residents, and have more fulfilling lives by having a wide friendship/acquaintance group.

That being said, it is alot easier in a reasonably large place like Trowbridge or Tunbridge Wells than it is in a small Devon village, because of the wider variety of people and groups to engage with.

I would broadly agree with that.

We live in a small village. It works up to a point. But when there are inter-familial feuds dating back to the English civil war it's easy to form relationships with the "wrong" people.

Also, and I suspect this is a village thing, it seems that the locals don't have a good word to say about anyone. Which is probably why the "blow ins" like us eventually start keeping themselves to themselves.

As you say, in a bigger town, you have more choice as to who you interact with, and it is not possible for everyone to know everyone else's business.

[monkfish1]

Louis Balfour said:

Does anyone here think that retiring somewhere pleasant, but to which they have no connection, will prove ultimately unfulfilling?

I am considering returning to my place of birth, once my children have left home. There are plenty of other places that I really like and where I could go, but I feel a draw from the place where I was born.

Hmmm. No. Its what you make it.

Its simply too busy here now. Its patently obvious, that whilst where i am is a small pleasant village, its very near lots of "busyness". And both the very nearby towns will, inevitably merge with us it to create one massive urban sprawl with everything that goes with that. Ive NO desire to live like that as i get (even) older.

If i knew nothing would change, i could be persuaded to stay, but looking at the change over the last 20 years, thats simply unrealistic.

So moving is the only option. Thats aside from the fiscal benefits.

Given i was brouught up near wembley, as another poster said, nothing, nothing at all, could ever persuade me to go back there. The slide from London surburbia to hell hole is astounding.

[ElectricSoup]

Louis Balfour said:

Does anyone here think that retiring somewhere pleasant, but to which they have no connection, will prove ultimately unfulfilling?

I am considering returning to my place of birth, once my children have left home. There are plenty of other places that I really like and where I could go, but I feel a draw from the place where I was born.

Try being born on the outskirts of Slough.

[Blib]

ElectricSoup said:

Try being born on the outskirts of Slough.

"Come, friendly bombs....."

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!
Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,
Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week a half a crown
For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars
In various bogus-Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.

[Riley Blue]

'Death in Leamington' is far better.

[ARHarh]

9 years ago I moved to somewhere I had no connection with apart from holidays in the area twice before. The wife was bought up near Alfreton, Notts, I was brought up in Farnborough, and then lived in Fleet. We moved to the North Wales border, not intending to retire when we moved but we were both between jobs and decided to make the move we had always wanted to make. Years later and after working up here for a few years I decided to retire, she only works 3 days a week. We have a much nicer life now than we did down south. There is no resentment from the locals, in fact they are very nice people. We don't get that involved in local clubs or activities as we are not that sort of people.

[ElectricSoup]

They should have renamed Slough when it got targeted for industrial and residential development after the war. Call it something like Castleview or Thamesmeadow or something, wouldn't be half as unpopular now. I reckon it's a fairly decent place to live in parts - but not on my list for a retirement home. I grew up on the other side of the river in Windsor, but both sides of my family were blow-ins so I have no real roots there, and everyone's either left or is in the cemetery now. Got a handful of old friends in the area, but not sufficient to drag me back there. Where you're born is an accident for many of us, it doesn't mean you have deep or lasting ties to the area, so it's often a meaningless measure of where you might be happy retiring.

Edited by ElectricSoup on Thursday 29th July 11:35

[Louis Balfour]

ElectricSoup said:

Try being born on the outskirts of Slough.

If I am reborn I'll give it a try.

[ElectricSoup]

Louis Balfour said:

ElectricSoup said:

Try being born on the outskirts of Slough.

If I am reborn I'll give it a try.

It wasn't a recommendation.