Town Or Country?

Would you prefer rural living to city dwelling?

  • Yes

    Votes: 12 40.0%
  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Bit of both

    Votes: 8 26.7%
  • I like a small town

    Votes: 5 16.7%
  • I like a small village

    Votes: 5 16.7%

  • Total voters
    30

highlandsflyer

Retro Wizard
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After one or two remarks on a thread about relocating I wonder how many people prefer living rurally to towns or cities?

I have had a foot in both camps my whole life and have to say I can do both happily.

Ultimately the countryside wins though, if there were no choice.

The History Man":2sk0q046 said:
highlandsflyer":2sk0q046 said:
All this London sucks is all very subjective.

I love London, more than any other place on earth, and I have been to a few!

We decided a long time ago to live away and visit the city. That is the balance that works for us.

Not just London. Pretty much all cities are unpleasant what with the noise, traffic and general insularity.

When i was young London was great. Now I live somewhere we all help each other out and have a real sense of community. I knew maybe my immediate neighbour in London and that was it.

But pretty much everything on here is subjective?

Answering this post here to avoid dragging Wynne's thread off topic.

Everything is indeed subjective, but there are some useful experiences to be related.

Where our house is in London is has been part of the West Indian community for over half a century. Around half the houses on the relatively short street are owned by the same people or their descendants. Not only does everybody know each other, they share whatever skills and abilities they have with each other. People who have moved into the street have generally adopted that spirit. Our immediate neighbour across the road even has a house in St. Lucia on the same hill as us. It is a very tight knit community, but anyone willing to pitch in is welcomed warmly. We have welcomed a number of people from the street up here in Scotland for holidays, and have enjoyed stays with relatives of people from the street in all sorts of places. London is not by necessity a place of noise, traffic and general insularity at all. It changes from one area to the next. We can't walk down to Portobello Road without ending up in a dozen conversations with friends, acquaintances or such. Places are what you make them, and if you have a problem with where you live move on. You don't necessarily need to move away from a city to find what you are looking for. London has leafy suburbs with quiet streets, it has bohemian areas with lots of artists and such, it has silent cul-de-sacs next to peaceful parks. There is a saying along the lines of if you are tired of London, you are tired of life.

There are plenty of small villages or areas where people tend to keep to themselves also. There are rural places full of second homes that mean the area is half empty most of the year. Some people living out in the sticks are insular and have chosen to live there intentionally to avoid being part of a community. We have some neighbours who basically lock their gates behind them and drive to and from their jobs/shop in the supermarkets in town and never even wave when they pass on the single track.

Ultimately we choose to live rurally, but we keep a toe in the water.

We can be door to door Highlands to London in little over three hours thanks to Easyjet (other airlines are available, but they are a rip off!) so there is never any real feeling of distance, after all it can take that getting from one end of London to another!
 
I've been to London about 3 times, two for the science museum, I could not cope with that kind of busy. I lived in several places in Nottingham some a bit rough and one very quiet, my daughter when she told her teacher at secondary school that she was born in Nottingham her teacher said that's the most violent city in Europe :shock: I never witnessed much there though. I've lived in Lincoln too but have been at my most comfortable both growing up and bringing up children in small rural villages.

I don't know about social life much in either case because I've never got involved with life outside my home much, I don't mix with my neighbours or the community at all, I meet people occasionally at school plays and parent's evenings and when I collect my youngest from French, which surprised me because his out of school French teacher refused payment for his lessons for all the help I'd given her :shock: What help? I thought.

Alison
 
I think someone has the tagline "rurally close" on their signature on here. That about sums up my preference.

I LOVE living out in the countryside, but it's also nice to have a large town/city within easy reach. We currently live in Llantwit Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan. It's a lovely little town surrounded by nothing but country lanes and green fields. On the one hand, you can drive for miles along the lanes and not see a single other person, yet on the other hand, you can drive a couple of miles and jump onto the A48 and you'll be in Cardiff in 30 minutes, or Bridgend in about 10.

Our goal in the next couple of years is to move a couple of miles down the road to Cowbridge. I'd quite happily live there for the rest of my life :D
 
Small village for me. Id sooner live in a bin bag here than a penthouse in town.

Despite that its all relative. Its never that rural in southern or central England.
 
I grew up near to Caterham (of the cars fame) in Surrey, and fully endorse the "toe in-toe out" concept.

10minutes on the bike heading south and you were fully immersed in the South Downs, with rolling chalk hills, teeny flint villages and winding hedgerows and lanes.
25minutes on the train north, and it was London Bridge or Victoria, and the world was your lobster :)wink:)

Age and maturity are drawing me back to a green, rather than grey landscape
 
Grew up in Brighton, loved the hustle & bustle, I would go back if the chance came up. Lived in a small market town for years, hate it. Am now living in a small village with the A1M for company, some days you cant hear yourself think with the tyre noise. It ruins a nice quiet place.
 
Chopper1192":27nwo123 said:
Despite that its all relative. Its never that rural in southern or central England.

"Rural" isn't the same as "wilderness", you know :)
 
My situation is somewhat unique. I live in the middle of an area that has World Biosphere designation. I can be downtown (150,000) in 5ish minutes, and can be downtown Toronto (3M - largest city in Canada) in 45ish, yet this pic was taken 400 ft. from my front door. Best of both, I suppose.

944453_542666032456817_1627832340_n.jpg
 
Where my wife and I live is very much out in the sticks, small (about 6 houses and a church) Village in Lincolnshire - closest pub is 3 miles away, closest shop the same, supermarket (Tesco) is 7 miles in Horncastle...

We're a little under a mile from the main Lincoln/Skegness road (A15:cool: so it's pretty quiet.

In the week I live in a large-ish village on the outskirts of Wigan - fields are no more than 400 yards to the south of me there.

Of the two I prefer the Lancashire village if only for the convenience of shops, pub and schools within easy walking distance.
 
Elysarian":1ug1kvm9 said:
Where my wife and I live is very much out in the sticks, small (about 6 houses and a church) Village in Lincolnshire - closest pub is 3 miles away, closest shop the same, supermarket (Tesco) is 7 miles in Horncastle...

We're a little under a mile from the main Lincoln/Skegness road (A15:cool: so it's pretty quiet.

In the week I live in a large-ish village on the outskirts of Wigan - fields are no more than 400 yards to the south of me there.

Of the two I prefer the Lancashire village if only for the convenience of shops, pub and schools within easy walking distance.

I grew up just outside a village called Collingham, not too far from Lincoln, down Trent Lane, the house was one of three just by the River Trent, I used to escape from the family by walking along the Trent to a nice quiet spot to do a little fishing, ah life was good when I was on my own.

Alison
 
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