feelbritish

Where in North Norfolk would you head for?

rugbymatt

I'm already there....


Holt is lovely, pricey but lovely, some really nice specialist and boutique shops and a really nice feel, nice pubs and eateries, further North you have places like Sherringham, Wells, Blakeney and Cley, lovely and very desirable but almost ghost towns in the winter. North Walsham is a dive, as is Cromer and while the landscape around these areas is lovely, finding a place to live is hard and work is even harder to find.... Norfolk is not flush with jobs!
The previous endorsements for Reepham are valid, its a lovely little town but thats all it is, a little town... a couple of months ago thieves stole a JCB forwarder and drove it through the HSBC bank and took the cashpoint.... its about 14 mtrs from there to the Police station.... We went there a week ago or so on market day and the shops ALL shut at 1 and opened at 2.30... if thats what you are looking for, Reepham is your "town"... that said, if you have kids its the place to be, it has an excellent school, really quite well respected and they seem to have endless funds for development!
I know I have sort of come south a bit but the cold, hard facts are that the closer to Norwich you are the easier your life will be, I hate having to do it but about 40% of my work is in or around Norwich and its easier to do the nearer you are, road building kinda stopped in Norfolk in about the 70's!
If I had my choice to live anywhere I'd live where I do, I'm very near Holt, just down the road from Fakenham (All the tales you may have heard about Fakenham are true, its a no frills, high octane Pikie town, when the races are on you lock your car and pretend you have no money!) and less than 25 mins from Norwich.....
The Broads are nice but the summer "crowds" will drive you absolutely mad, Aylsham is beautiful but it is suffering from poor road networks although there is talk of the main North Norfolk road running up the A140, that would be nice as the Holt road we are on is not capable of dealing with the traffic it has already.
Its all depends on what part of Norfolk you know, where you have friends and where you know, Norfolk is colloquial, more so than almost anywhere else I know, it revels, no rejoices in the fact it has stood alone since the Romans failed to control it properly and thats shows in the attitudes of the locals... to people from Norwich North Norfolk is seen as backward, to the guys I shoot with down in Breckland we are Bumpkins but to usBumpkins everyone else are dicks who don't understand how Norfolk ticks....

CEM

So true!! We were there just after the 'ram raid' on the bank too.
It's a shame about the roads in North Norfolk (or most of Norfolk really), they can't cope very well with the hoards of tourists in the summer. We always say a Norfolk mile is much longer than a mile anywhere else!
You live in a beautiful part of the county, but I agree with you about getting to Norwich. Our kids were at school in Norwich, so that's where we lived, but lots of people take their kids in every day from some far flung places. My middle daughter has a friend who goes from King's Lynn every day!! I couldn't do that.
Your story re the locals reminded me of someone my oh met in the mid 90's. An old boy from Old Buckenham, who was telling him about how the place was changing. One of the local farmers had died and the farm had been sold 'to a foreigner'. My oh asked where this foreigner was coming from. 'From Norwich. I wonder if they'll manage to settle here'!
It's very true re jobs too. Quite a few of our friends have to work out of the county now, but stay living there because their kids are at an age which is difficult to move them. Some only have to go as far as Cambridge, but others are in London, Edinburgh, Wales, Manchester, Poland and, until last year, my oh was in Melbourne. We moved north as a family for work, but isn't an option for many of our friends.
We will go back once my oh retires and our youngest finishes school though because, although we only moved there as adults, it is home and a lovely place to live.

Angliandreamer

It's great to hear the reality of living out in the sticks of Norfolk and Suffolk. I know that the grind of living in what other people view as paradise is often tempered by crime,commuting to work and just living remotely.
I love to hear about the goings on in little towns in Suffolk and Norfolk as it brings me down off the cloud my mind is in and makes me look at these great areas from a different perspective.
I live in the middle of Nowhere. Central Italy. Very very pretty but empty except for farms and steep muddy hills. It is very much a farming community and very conservative italian. Stuck in there ways except for the odd few who dream of learing English and getting out.
The people are very nice and friendly but I know that we will never really fit in and will always be called ' stranieri' no matter how long we live here for. And this also applies to the children of 'stranieri'. They are tarred with the same brush at school.
But this could also be the same for a townie living in parts of East Anglia .
So for me living in the middle of nowhere is something that does not bother me.There can't be anywhere more remote in Norfolk nor Suffolk than here .
Anyway there is so many more recreational activities out there than here. If you ask me.....but I'm biased and not the best person to ask as I just long for Anglian living.

J.JsOH

re: North Norfolk coast and Wells Next the Sea. It is on a lovely part of the coast and is very popular with visitors all year round.
I was speaking recently with an incomer to Wells that had a B&B there for a few years. Told me an anecdote that (some) Wells natives don't travel far, one had said went to Norwich once and didn't like it so never been anywhere since.
The same B&B owner , having previously lived in Norwich after Wells moved to Lynn for feeling that Lynn is not so far removed and remote from the centre of England as is Norwich.

Yesterday in a friendly (not all are friendly, same as everywhere) West Norfolk pub we surveyed how many of the dozen people in the bar were Norfolk born, answer was None. Most were from London, some from up North, working class too, not posh weekenders, and having come here most had stayed for many years.

Re my previous comment on Bungay, there was good bus service to Norwich.

Norwich is congested with traffic at peak times (as are most towns) but well served by Park & Ride.

Burnham Thorpe, a lovely small Nth Norfolk village and desirable like Holt, is totally congested at weekends with visitors cars parked and choking the small streets (Stephen Fry lives somewhere thereabouts).

Pubs that were our favourites 20 yrs ago have gone too posh and we have had to seek out others from a diminishing selection not full of Sunday Supplement diners. Not that I want spit and sawdust, but just good beer and traditional food at a good price.

I don't either know exactly what I feel is wrong with Lynn. Despite a modernized shopping centre and good historical stuff the town just feels rough. Yet I know there is culture and art and history societies and such but there is a rough element to the in-the-street population, something that makes the place not pleasing to visit.

Angliandreamer

I'd like to take on life in North Norfolk but the prices are a bit high for what you get. Although the area is fantastic and I can see why the roads are blocked with tourists.
I'd be one of those tourists as I'd need to win the lottery to live in Holt and Wells. So just a visitor to that lovely Coast until then .
I was also told a story about a farmer who lived his whole life in Hunstanton and had never really visited the beach or sea. He could see it from his fields and was happy, so he thought what is the point of going. I believe he never even left the village. I was told this story from a chap who lived in Fakenham.I like to think this story is true .

West Norfolk and the fens does not appeal to me. Nice but just not for me. I wouldn't ever say not to live there as it does have an air all of its own. And if you're in that sort of mood it looks great. But just to visit not to stay.
I like a nice friendly pub too and get the wind up when one walks in on a Locals pub....... Although if they are 'local' and not the fleeting types you can get on all right in the end.

Yes it's a good thing about the Park and Ride. I've seen the large car parks on the South of the city.

I'm more looking at mid East Suffolk now. The prices seem better and you get a bit more for your money. But that could change by the time we are able to move. But I'm still not crossing off Norfolk yet.

kins

I've spent a lot of time in the Bury St Edmunds area - my daughter was born in the hospital there too. Good country pubs, lots of antiques and stately homes, lovely dog walking, nice old villages. A bit rubbish for commuting though.

I find the Suffolk coast a bit of a letdown - have always wanted to visit the Norfolk beaches.

Angliandreamer

I love the aroma of from the Green King IPA or maybe it's the sugar factory .

Spent most of my time around Rougham,Great Ashfield,Rattlesden and Mildenhall. The area around Bury is very nice. The town centre I like too.
Hopefully there are good schools etc.

Thanks.

Angliandreamer

Does anybody know anything about Thetford,Suffolk. Is it a nice town or not ? Thanks and very grateful so far regarding all comments.
Cheers.

rugbymatt

Its a crap hole! Sorry to say it but I absolutely hate the place and all the friends I know who live there or have lived there say the same thing.

CEM

Agree!

Angliandreamer

Oh.... Thanks. Just have to keep looking.

kins

I always assumed it was Green King! We were on a beach here in Maine this summer and I noticed we were the only people with a Green King IPA beach umbrella :-D

johnh009

Thetford is a place where the families from the East London slums were housed when they were demolished many years ago and it is not a very nice town. What they forgot was where were all the young kids at the time going to work when they became teenagers so you have high youth unemployment there now. Bernard Matthews (turkey processing) has/had a place close by. I think it is closed now.

Avoid Great Yarmouth like the plague also.

Angliandreamer

That's a shame as I always thought Thetford was a nice town. Must be something to do with it having a link to 'Dads Army' .

I read a bit about Thetford on a site called 'Chavtowns'.
I'm not sure about this website nor the people that post, as it seems like some of their posts are rather negative in general. If fact about any town you choose to find and read about.
Even Bury St Edmunds gets a kicking. But to it's defence it also has people sticking up for it too. I like Bury, but like any town it too must have a dark side .

Thanks. The search continues .