Shayy

1st of all.. My "search forum" isn't working, so I apologise if my question has already been asked on a particular area we're looking into.

We're looking at moving back to the UK after 4 wonderful years in France. We're in our early 30's with young child, so ideally we want to return so we can start thinking about good schools & also where he can have a settled group of friends. I'm from London but my wife is from Manchester and we both don't want to return to our former areas. She has mentioned north Yorkshire with Harrogate as the top contender, but I have never even been to North Yorkshire so I'm not sure what to expect.

We're both very sociable, so the opportunity to meet people by the way of clubs, events etc is a must. We also love our sports, restaurants, pubs, live music, walking, cycling and exploring new things. I'm hearing about Harrogate being a lovely place, but I'm a little worried about it being a little isolated from other areas. I may be wrong here, but I have no idea on the surrounding areas.

Shay

holly_1948

According to the daily Telegraph, Skipton in North Yorkshire (25 miles from Harrogate) is the eighth best place in Britain to raise a family.
Britain's top 20 places to raise a family - Telegraph

Rural North Yorkshire (in Winter) seems a bit isolated to me, I would have put Wirral or Chester high on the list. But you wanted to know specifically about Harrogate, I've only been there once and it looked one of the better places in Britain to me.

themajor

Harrogate is FANTASTIC place to live. However it is very expensive either to buy or rent. Not anywhere as expensive as the south of England.

A great place for a family to grown in,

I say go for it.

Shayy

We have roughly £375k to spend on a home, where I hope we could be fairly close to the centre..

Unfortunately, I feel Skipton may be a little too far away.. She really has her heart set on Harrogate.. Cheers for the replies

Shayy

Can anyone please tell me about the surrounding towns or villages. I've heard good things about Knaresborough

Spacecake799

Hi,
Ok so we are from Coventry, left for NZ in 2006 and decided to come home a couple of years ago. My husband would not entertain going back to Coventry so we needed somewhere else with a good secondary school. Watching location location one night they showed a house in Knaresborough which looked like a lovely area. We started some research and someone on this forum mentioned Boroughbridge. Anyhow we liked what we saw and rented our house were still in and we love it.
So to Knaresborough, a lovely place and affordable housing but personally I find it a bit quiet, it definitely would have the pubs, restaurants, walking and cycling your after.
Skipton, a lovely place but a fair drive from Harrogate and to isolated for me. Ilkleys lovely and might be worth a look.
Boroughbridge is a market town inbetween Harrogate and York. 3000 residents, a junior and high school, Morrisons, and a good selection of Independent shops and restaurants.
I work in Harrogate. Your budget will easily buy you something nice. Its a lovely place and I would definitely recommend it. Or of course theres York, a very lively place and another place I love visiting for meal, wander round the shops etc.
Were so happy we picked North Yorkshire, give it a go. Good Luck!

nun

I hear you can get a lot for your money in Middlesbrough!

Justcol

If you think Harrogate could be isolated I can't see why you'd
want to look at the surrounding villages.

North Yorkshire is a lovely place and that's quite a compliment seeing
as I'm from Lancashire.

If you get involved in the community and make friends you wont
feel isolated.
Life in a nothern town can be great, it's just a different pace of life
with a funny accent to get used to.


PS, I like wigglesworth, its a beautiful place

Shayy

Oh sorry. I didn't mean living in the surrounding areas. I just wanted to know a little about them. Such a visits and exploring etc

N1cky

Harrogate has a lovely town center, with lots of good restaurants and bars. It's a great location to get out and do plenty of walking, and some of the scenery is truly stunning, and there are some excellent country pubs around.

Walks in North Yorkshire - all free to print off or download

You're within an hours drive of both Leeds and York, which gives you plenty of access to live music and theatre.

I wouldn't class it as isolated, but it's certainly not a busy city center. I should imagine it's a wonderful place to live, if you can find work within a short commute.

nun

The rest of North Yorkshire sees Harrogate as stuck up.

N1cky

Oh well, that's a perfect reason not to move there then. That's the end of that thread

Shayy

lol.. oh well. I'll have to start looking at South Yorkshire

nun

No reason to stop, we can just slag off Harrogate.......seriously, it's a pretty town, but IMHO the houses are over priced because of it's reputation and the relative affluence of the area. It's convenient for Leeds, the Lakes, Dales and N.Yorks Moors. Personally I prefer York and the smaller towns like Ripon, Thirsk and Northallerton.......and it's true that there are fantastic deals to be had around Middlesbrough because of it's undeserved reputation as the "arm pit" of the UK.

McLeod

Harrogate is stupidly expensive, and not that nice really. (IMO)

I used to live in Skipton, very nice place, but nothing there really. Its full of old people and buses of old people that come to drink tea and then go home after a walk on the cobbles. If you live there then you may find work thin on the ground and have to commute to Leeds or Bradford or something.

The one problem with Skipton, is it is a 15 minute drive down the bypass and you are in Keighley, which is a festering hole of a place, which is full of the previously mentioned Chavs, wannabe jihadis, drunken tramps, and piles of needles in the parks - which i found on a few occasions. Even some of the locals I know say the place is "full of scum and knuckle draggers with six fingers".

Anywhere around the North York moors is very nice, where I currently live, which then puts you in easy reach of Whitby, Filey, Scarborough, and York.

Also consider Ripon, Malton, Pickering, Stockton on the Forest, Helmsley. All in easy commute of York and the seaside, all nice places - yet far enough away from Harrogate to not be as stupidly expensive.

Id recommend looking around those sorts of places on google street view too, to get a feel for the area, I do it myself around the Waikato and Canterbury in NZ.