Luton74

Just wondering if anyone has lived there. I was also considering Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle. Thanks

Genesis

Yes I did 2000-2005. I enjoyed the change from living in London but sooooooooo needed to get out in the end. We lived in 2 areas NN1 and NN3, both close to the centre..one right in it and the other a couple of miles out. I am sorry but I would not recommend it.

Its gotten worse apparently since I left as I know people who have just left as things are not what they used to be and appear to be getting even worse. I was a copper in Northampton and let me tell you it is a violent place..especially the town centre at weekends. Scarey. Lots of prostitution close to the centre and quite a big drug problem. We finally lived in NN1 . The yobs element there was what finally drove us away. I would not return to NN ever. IMO there are so many other greater places to live in the UK. Give it a wide birth.

I reckon Leeds would be your choice..Newcastle 2nd. I would choose Leeds.

Luton74

Thanks for the insight.

Sally Redux

My brother lives there and he likes it, has never had any trouble.

Genesis

Horses for courses. I am sure many people are content there. My 2nd wife thinks I am wonderful. My 1st wife alas did not and found she needed a toyboy rather than me. Point is one man's meat is another's poison. Just like NZ suits me yet others would rather have hot pokers inserted, nay rammed where the sun don't shine rather than return to this backward little rock.

Having said all that..Leeds or Northampton..its an obvious choice to me. NN is the most landlocked county there is in the UK, secondly there are way less beautiful places on the doorstep of NN..now Leeds..just look at the natural beauty within merely miles of that place.

janeyk

Nonsence we lived from 1997 to 2003 in NN7 a small village (Kislingbury) 2 miles from Sixfields where there is the local football ground restaurants, bowling gyms etc etc, we were also 2 mins from A5 or M1 for commute, fantastic pubs,the canal, walks etc to go into London for a theatre trip was a short drive to Milton Keynes and a fast train straight to Euston and return after the show. The countryside around Northampton is beautiful on your downstep is the Chilterns, Cotswolds, The Peaks, Oxford, Cambridge need I say more The weather is warmer than Yorkshire!

However it does depend big time upon your life style

there is still lots of sports and other activities we could do the South Coast in 2 hours down the A34 tried and tested to visit family and beaches etc in Sussex

Genesis

No its not nonsense. You lived in a village OUTSIDE Northampton. I said I lived in inner city Northampton. I am sure living in a village is fantastic...that is not living in Northampton central which is what I was on about and is what the OP asked, the question was 'what is Northampton like'..not one of the villages.

Sally Redux

Northampton doesn't do a lot for me but it seems all right and I just remember him specifically saying he had not come across any trouble personally, apropos some other 'broken Britain'-type news item. The fairly central position in the country is a plus point for him.

Luton74

I was considering it because i read somewhere that the cost of living was low, since i am a single lad that will be on a tight budget, just like how i am living in Sierra Vista, AZ, which is a rather expensive place(retirement/military town).

djsimsuk

I currently live in Daventry ( NN11 ) and I'm trying to move to be with my fiancee in Sierra Vista AZ lol what are the chances

Northampton is ok, weather isn't so great compared to SV however the cost of living here is expensive you might find somewhere cheaper but again if you are on a tight budget shop around first.

Lothianlad

Two of my best friends, a recently married couple, live in a village between Daventry and Banbury with an NN11 postcode....a very picturesque little village with most of the old houses built of this typical reddish brown stonework of the area, and a very old church built of the same kind of material, and also the two pubs which look really nice from the outside.

Northampton itself is about 8 to 10 miles away of something like that and to me it looks like a sprawling mass of housing and trading estate developments spreading way out into the countryside....Northampton is a very sprawling urban area. It has a decent theatre the Derngate, and an old Guildhall and a large market square but I have seen some drunks in the street having a set to with police officers on one occasion but nothing else like that have I seen like that but I've never seen it at night. It does have a lot of litter I noticed but so do many places in the UK...it's a national curse...just ask the American writer Bill Bryson who now lives in England....he despairs of British litter problems and anti social behaviour.

The people in this village are quite mixed...the younger people are generally pleasant and friendly but I found many of the older people a bit snobbish and think they live in a "posh" area, which it may well be as it is very much a politically Conservative stronghold, as will be seen in the coming General Election on 6 May.

Northamptonshire does have some pretty little villages but scenically it's a wee bit dull, neither hilly nor dead flat in most parts...quite boring in my opinion....just fields and farmyards with a few woodlands here and there.

Oundle is full of posh public shoolboys, Corby is an industrial "new town" full of my own countrymen and both Kettering and Wellingborough don't look as if they have much going for them, but there is a premier motor cycle circuit at Silverstone and a prominent race course at Towcester.

Northampton is close to major motorways such as the M1, with easy access to both London and the South and in the other direction to the rest of the midlands, including Birmingham, and on to the north, and has fast direct rail links to London, a journey of about 70 minutes I believe but I may be wrong there.

Luton74

Coming to Sierra Vista huh, i was surprised when i came here, there are a LOT of Brits that live here, several Scots as well. One owns a bicycle shop called M&M cycling, cool bloke by the way. Tucson has quite a few Britons too, because of the air force base i guess. Sierra Vista is just too hot more my liking. I currently live with my mum but have lived around the states(California, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico, Missouri, South Carolina). I am finally on my way back to the U.K. for good his time though, had enough with the states. Thanks you again for the insight offered from members about this place. Maybe up north it is.

PoppetUK

We are heading back to Northampton this year. I hope one day to live perhaps on the outskirts in one of the villages.

Auld Yin

there are a LOT of Brits that live here, several Scots as well.

Scots are Brits also. At least they were the last time I checked.

Luton74

Well, when i talked to some of them they did not say they were British the said they were Scottish. I know what you mean Scotland is part of the U.K. and they are British Citizens. What i really meant was Loads of people from England that live in this town, as well as quite a few from Scotland, a met one couple from Wales and some Aussies and loads of German women(because of the army base).