Sally Redux

That's just the Yorkies.

Go for Brum

robin1234

I spent a week in Ripon a couple of years ago. It's marvelous up there. I visited Beningbrough Hall (not easy to get get to with the private toll bridge etc.) Well worth visiting. I had a day in Harrogate too, what a lovely town ( if you don't mind the tourists!)

OdysseusLite

I was born & raised in an Oxford suburb; now in the U.S. Although I watch every episode of Inspector Morse to catch any fleeting glimpse of my beloved City of Dreaming Spires, I probably wouldn’t move back there. The city is now incredibly congested and expensive. All of Oxfordshire is very expensive. We will probably live in my wife’s country when we retire and only spend summers in the UK. But even if we lived there all year, we would probably rent, not buy. DMT, have you considered renting in various areas until you find a place you love? That’s what I would do. I spent time in Wales but felt a bit of an outsider there. Cornwall is lovely and there seem to be cheap rentals if you look far enough from the coast. I went to college in the Lake District and loved it up there. The people were friendly but the weather would be too cold for the B.H.

Editha

Robin, enjoy your trip to the UK.

alittlebitbrit

Can a Canuck speak up here?

How is it possible to love a place so much it feels as though your heart will burst? I am 69 years old and have lived my life in Canada. I have never felt at 'home' anywhere although there isn't a corner of my own country I haven't lived or visited. But I have found my home. I am going to spend the rest and best of my life in Minehead, Somerset because Exmoor National Park is the most beautiful place on earth!!

in my most humble opinion....

chris955

Born in Bristol but grew up and lived the majority of my life in Australia. I feel much more at home here and always felt that my time in Australia was temporary in some way. We were looking at buying in Somerset but somehow ended up in Herefordshire and love it. It is one of the most scarcely populated counties and even going into Hereford in rush hour isn't too stressful.
We still don't know exactly how we ended up here, we bought a Hereford newspaper in Gloucester, saw a house coming up for auction, put in an offer before the auction and here we are

Tr1boy

Born and bred in Somerset, left for Oz when I was 22 and returned (via living in 4 other countries) just before i was 45. Returned to Somt initially but knew we would move from the family home depending on job offers.

Moved to Godalming in Surrey, liked it a lot, good for training and generally a nice place to live. Spent most of last year travelling and cycling and surfing our way around the world after volunteering for redundancy, came back and got a job in Winchester so we moved there.

We live right in town but I don't like it much. Winchester is quite expensive and can be pretty snobby, which is weird because there's a ton of homeless people here also and the students at night can be pretty loud sometimes. I've been made redundant again so we are in a bit of limbo at the moment waiting for the next thing. I'd be happy to move to Surrey again but ideally a good role in Somt would be nice.

We would stay in this area if I got a job close but we'd move out of town and probably buy a place in Kings Worthy or similar. Overall, I preferred Godalming area though.

curleytops

That's exactly how I felt when we moved to North Yorkshire a couple of years ago, despite having only visited a few times as a kid many years before. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of job opportunities of DH there these days so it would appear that a return there is not in the cards.

Editha

It is interesting the way you can feel at home in a place that you have no connection to. I feel that way about North Staffordshire. I've only spent a little more than a decade of my life there but always feel as much at home there as I do in London, where I was born and spent more than forty years.

chris955

Yes that's true, I don't think I could have pointed to Herefordshire on a map before we bought a house here but now we feel as though we have been here forever.

SUPERCAD

born a bred in Hemel Hempstead. Returned to Bristol because our kids are there but it turns out i really like it.

robin1234

We lived in Minehead for eight years, wardens of the youth hostel in Alcombe just on the edge of Minehead. It certainly is a nice town, and right on the edge of Exmoor so some of the best acessible walking anywhere I know. I used to like walking to Porlock and back, there are countless superb footpath routes from one to the other .... You can walk on the beach from Minehead to Porlock, but only if you study the tides.

between two worlds

Grew up in Surrey til age 14 but then at 14 moved to a town in Gloucestershire, and as many family stayed here all along, this has been the home I've been coming back to all these years. Family still here, and we have owned a tiny flat here for ten years, so it was familiar and (esp as DH is USC and it's not his country) this seemed an important plus.

Now we live here but in a larger flat (take it from me, suddenly moving into a smaller place when one or both parties is retiring is not a good idea!!), can see family often, and even a few old school-friends who have stayed in the area. I ma very happy indeed to be here.

I do sometimes dream of that little cottage by the sea in Cornwall or Devon...but for now, this is the ideal place to be as we make the transition to living here...

But it helps that I have a lovely family and we all get on very well! And there is enough to do here that we should be able to create a social life beyond family too).