Beccarose

I know I've asked this before and I know others have asked it as well, and everyone is probably getting sick of these questions and sick of replying to them. Sorry.

I don't even know where to begin in trying to figure out where to begin searching for places to live in England.

If we were there it would be one thing, we could easily look for ourselves, but that's not realistic. Sure we can move again after moving there, but how do we even figure out where to initially move to?

I know no one can tell us precisely where we should move to, it's all so subjective, but if I could just get a list of ideas to start with that would be so wonderful.

Our criteria are: Size of town/city- not too big, not too small. London is not an option for sure.
Expenses matter- we're hoping to spend no more than £1,300 on rent. Cost of living is important.
Schools are very important, we have a 15 year old, an 11 year old and a 9 year old (as well as a 19 year old but I don't know if he will be coming with us). We can not afford independent schooling.
Jobs matter. My husband is a graphic designer and he will need to find work.
I would like to work as well, but have yet to figure out what on earth I want to be doing.
Crime- low crime is of course better.
Weather- well, I know England is not that big and weather will be pretty similar wherever you are but the better the weather would be a plus.
Opportunities- my kids play soccer and want to continue. They really want a school that offers swimming, but I don't know how common that is in England. They all want to be involved extracurricular activities, so having opportunities around us matter. I guess that's kind of where the size of the town comes into the picture.
Easy access to healthcare matters. As it currently stands we have crappy healthcare where we are unless we are willing to drive quite a distance or have a long ferry line wait and a ferry ride and then cope with nasty traffic.

I've been leaning toward somewhere in the south, but I don't really know. I love the beach and would like it to be within an hour or less. But I don't really see us living right on the coast.

I'm sorry this is so long and jumbled.

Bermudashorts

I really did try but I sort of struggled to narrow that down much beyond not London to be honest. It seriously could be so many other places in the UK.

Maybe it would make sense to do some job related research and see if that narrows it down or rules places out.

Sally Redux

We lived in Solihull before moving here and it's an area which tends to be overlooked but has a lot going for it:

Close to Birmingham for work prospects

Reasonably good town in itself with good shops, access to healthcare, good schools, has a leisure centre with a pool, quite pretty.

Weather can be a bit damp but not as cold as up north.

Worth a look.

SanDiegogirl

Guildford, Surrey or towns around there.

Lovely countryside, some great schools, easy(ish) access to London, better weather than up North, healthcare is about the same no matter where you live in the UK.

OR

Norfolk .... again lovely countryside, towns and villages.

feelbritish

I would firstly find that job for your husband and then start from there! It is like what comes first chicken or egg?

trottytrue

I printed a map of the UK and all its counties then I filled in the areas I did not want to live in and also those I know we could not afford to live in, now I am doing research on the rest of them. We are lucky that we can move anywhere as my husband is retired but some areas I liked are not appropriate when you are older and cannot manage the hills or steep streets so I cross those out. I also need a good hospital so I have researched those. Getting down to maybe a dozen counties. If I find a village I like I take a look at the Church magazine and see whats going on and find a local newspaper.

feelbritish

looking back on some of your posts you also acknowledge that work will play an important factor. At least you realise this. One positive is that when you find the job your husband wants, you can then draw a circle around the area and then draw up your wish list and go from there! You may have to stay in temporary accommodation while you search. Do you have family in some places where you can base yourselves while you search?

RJB123

We are going through much the same exercise as yourselves. If it wasn't for the distance from my wife's family who live up in the NW we pretty certainly would have settled on somewhere close to Exeter. It ticked near enough all of the other boxes for us and might just do so for you.

daisycutter

Hi ,we head back in October and looked at Stirling,Chester,Evesham,Keynsham,Hexham,Glouceste r and Cheltenham ... all good towns,nice countryside,had offers of places at good schools including grammars in all of them and good rowing for my kids ... all appear all over the place but think i can recommend them all,visited most in June ... all have pretty good road and rail and some near airports ... all medium size and good house prices .... good luck.

chris955

To be honest we were going to live in Somerset but because of a quirk of fate we ended up in Herefordshire and absolutely love it. No motorways in the whole county but easy to get to one, much less traffic, our kids school is great and has less than half the number of students as their Aussie school. The people are really friendly. No negatives at all. There seems to be quite a bit of work around.

MagsB

I personally love the South East. Have lived in Kent and we were very happy. Beautiful countryside, close to London and the sea, reasonable sized towns. Canterbury is gorgeous and there are a couple of good grammar schools. Of course it all comes down to work in the end. Our plan is to head to the outskirts of London to start off with, try to at least get some freelance work going and then make our way south from there. I wouldn't want to live in London for more than a year or two.

Almo

It is a toughie, we went through the same thing and have considered almost everywhere, but eventually have settled on either Manchester or Leeds. We are renting a holiday cottage between the two and will take it from there once we're on the ground. Both of us are applying for jobs from overseas although think it's unlikely we'll get one. If a job did come up before we go back (at Christmas) in Chester, Liverpool or York we'd happily go there. We don't have kids to consider so are more flexible I guess.

I think the idea of printing out a map and shading areas you can't/don't want to consider is a great start. I would also consider the following to see if it helps eliminate anywhere:

1. How many bedrooms do you want? I'm assuming 5, which might make parts of the southeast tough.

2. How far would your husband be prepared to commute and how would he want to do it (train/car/bike)?

3. Do you have family you want to be within a certain distance/time of (or outside a certain distance/time!)?

4. What do you like to do in your free time? An outdoors lifestyle or a more urban one would affect where you live.

5. Do you need to be near an airport?

Our criteria were not too near family, not London (although we waivered on that one), a city with some history, other big towns/cities nearby to visit, good transport links for visiting the family we don't want to live near and in the end house prices played a considerable role. We also felt that if possible we would like to live somewhere new, rather than somewhere either of us had previously lived.

I've edited to add that our criteria could still have lead to a number of locations other than the one we've settled on, but we had to choose somewhere!

Davelynd7

Hi there, yes were in same boat, going back to UK from Aus after 5yrs here, and just cant decide 'where'. Our situation's different in that were in early 50s no kids, dont need to be in commuter belts, dont want south (sorry!) but dont want back where we left from either! Prices of uk homes seem to have fallen but still expensive for what you get vs. Aus Qld prices. Kind of thinking of Perthshire Scotland, or Shropshire/Staffs areas oh dear decisions decisions... Nice to know others in (or have been in) same dilemmas! Like the idea of a map and blocking out areas you dont want, kind of narrows the focus well... So, off to print a map heehee!!

Bevm

A lot of the things you want are available in all areas if you can draw a big enough circle. As people say, the job availability is key.

If your husband can't find a job, or a place with a lot of his sort of work, then I'd look at starting out within commuting distance of the major cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Newcastle. Generally speaking weather is worse north. The south west is warmer when the Gulf Stream is working as it should, and generally the south east gets the most sunshine.

Overall, anywhere out side of the Home Counties is cheaper, often much, much cheaper.

Happy hunting,

Bev

Beccarose

Thank you all so much for the replies!! I really appreciate them and will be researching all suggested areas closely.
Chris955, I really liked what you said about Herefordshire, sounds pretty ideal.
Bevm, what do you call the home counties? I know there's some debate on what exactly the home counties are and I was wondering which ones you were thinking of?
Feelbritish, you're exactly right, we definitely have to consider jobs before choosing a place, but even just narrowing down enough to consider places for jobs is tough. I mean yes jobs are very important, but I wouldn't want to end up somewhere with great job prospects but truly awful schools or high crime. Drawing a circle around where my husband ends up working is a good thought.
Trottytrue, I really like your idea of printing a map and filling in the areas we don't want to consider! Great plan!
Daisycutter- can I ask where you decided on?
Almo, thanks for the idea of a holiday cottage, we may just need to do something like that too. As for the list of questions, we pretty much have those included in our list- it's just a matter of figuring out where best suits us and our needs.