Where is the best place to live?
The answer is - Hart.
Link to the Beeb
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16324562
Elmbridge has been toppled into second place! Oh woe! I must move.
Nowhere in Scotland, Wales or northern England came in the top 50 places.
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What would one of the country's most useless bank know about anything ?
Last edited by: R.P. on Sat 24 Dec 11 at 07:35
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The north's done a bit better in other surveys, Alnwick in Northumberland was named as the best place to live a few years ago.
Northallerton in North Yorkshire topped a survey into disposable income, plenty of people there in good jobs earning almost what they would in the South East.
Lower property prices mean lots of money left over to spend.
A walk down Northallerton High Street gives a good clue, there's plenty of expensive merchandise on offer.
Maxwells stocks Bose, Apple, and has proper hi-fi in a demonstration room.
They also sell domestic electricals, mostly the more expensive brands such Dualit, KitchenAid, etc.
Another clue is the area - which includes my caravan - is one of the safest Tory seats in the country.
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Northallerton was the first place that popped into my head. I'm convinced that the bustling town centre is partly due to the plentiful free on street parking under the disc scheme. I think Alnwick is dreadful, though the surrounding area is lovely. Who's going to stop for a paper in Alnwick when it costs 80p?
I'm trying to persuade her that Rothbury might be a good place to relocate to - one problem is that I will only going anywhere inside the M25 under duress, whereas she likes being handy for the dump they call London.
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The District of Hart is a pfd. Horrid place, far to near Aldershot.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 26 Dec 11 at 01:05
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I have just remembered the Hart area.
Fleet is on the M3 where I sometimes stop for the loo enroute from Dorset back to Elmbridge :-)
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>> I have just remembered the Hart area.
All I have to say is
"Yately"
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>> >> I have just remembered the Hart area.
>>
>> All I have to say is
>>
>> "Yately"
>>
Apart from spelling it incorrectly, what's wrong with Yateley?
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It was spelled the way it was deserved.
Soulless place, and the wrong side of the B3016 - far too close the to terrible F trio
Farnborough, Frimley and Fleet!
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Ah, sorry. Thought you were in possession of some little known fact that I wasn't aware of as a perfectly happy resident of nearly 10 years.
Of course it's not perfect, but where is? My kids breathe relatively clean air, go to decent schools, have open countryside on the doorstep to enjoy, and can walk down the street without being assaulted. I can be in London or on the South Coast in half an hour or so, if I choose. The commute to work isn't too bad.
The actual worst thing about living in Yateley is having to deal with the M3 everyday.
Most places in the South that under 50's can afford to live without large inheritances are labelled either soulless, or crime ridden hellholes, in my experience. I'm quite happy with the former, for now.
Last edited by: DP on Sat 24 Dec 11 at 12:57
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>> the street without being assaulted. I can be in London or on the South Coast
>> in half an hour or so, if I choose.
Not from Yateley you cant. Fastest train from Sandhurst takes over an hour. The fast from Farnborough main is 40 minutes, but thats a 15 minute drive in the rush hour.
Fastest bit of coast from Yateley, say Hayling island, is about 50 minutes
The countryside is good, as long as the army are not shooting at you.
Its good to stop off and have a cup of tea at the Hanger Cafe at Blackbushe tho.
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>> Its good to stop off and have a cup of tea at the Hanger Cafe
>> at Blackbushe tho.
According to a flying friend, the most "up their own 'fundament' " airfield in pretty much the whole of the UK. :-)
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Many years ago we had a very good meal at the New Inn Eversley.
I note it is going. A lovely location
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>> The District of Hart is a pfd. Horrid place, far to near Aldershot.
>>
And yet another very nice place that's not quite to your liking.
tinyurl.com/c3e938n (Link to our favourite newspaper)
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 26 Dec 11 at 01:04
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One of the nicest towns in the country in my opinion. Quite fancy moving there myself.
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>> >> The District of Hart is a pfd. Horrid place, far to near Aldershot.
>> >>
>>
>> And yet another very nice place that's not quite to your liking.
>>
>> tinyurl.com/c3e938n (Link to our favourite newspaper)
They have two heads, no wonder they live long lives.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 26 Dec 11 at 01:04
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They probably all move there when they are already 90+ - badly researched statistics=lies!? :)?
Last edited by: pmh on Sat 24 Dec 11 at 11:09
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badly researched statistics=lies!? :)?
Research from the Halifax - previously known as HBOS - a Bank so riddled with incompetence that it nearly broke the country. If they told me that the sun was out I'd have to step out to verify it.
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>> >> They have two heads, no wonder they live long lives.
You really need to get away from the Smoke for a while.
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>> >> >> They have two heads, no wonder they live long lives.
>>
>> You really need to get away from the Smoke for a while.
Indeed - but not BSE. If I need to escape to Suffolk, Southwold will do just nicely.
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>> Southwold will do just nicely.
Agreed. We spent a very enjoyable week there a couple of years ago.
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Remembering the 'what do you call a non white person' Suffolk folk are Carrot Crunchers.
Pat
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My Missus bought a dirt cheap Radley handbag in Alnwick. She loves the place now.
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Alnwick ?? Why not try Ardwick ?
Tree lined boulevards, bijou mews villas. Free off-street parking plentiful......on the pavement.
tinyurl.com/dx9wukw
Air conditions not too bad now the glue factory has closed and the trains no longer use coal power.
Better than all your pansy, girly Home County places !
Agreed, Ratto ?
Ted
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Arrrrrrrrwick, where the locals are 'ardoh than the those down the Longsight massive. To be fair the people I do know from Ardwick are nice people but it is the sort of area where you will avoid the local pubs.
There are worst parts of Manchester I suppose :).
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There are worst parts of Manchester I suppose :).
All of Manchester is worse: except the burned out bits :-)
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>> Arrrrrrrrwick, where the locals are 'ardoh than the those down the Longsight massive. .
Rats is Longsight not nice then? - My only experience of Manchester was staying in Longsight for a long weekend at a friends sisters student house. Never been back since
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Mikey...Longs*ite is the pits, worse than Salford and Liverpool rolled together.
Now the suburb of choice for the armed gangs like the Longsight crew.
A market, outdoors, specializing in tat...I bought two pairs of trousers, purelyfor garage/gardening, for £4.50...the pair ! Mmmmmm, Moss Bros, eat out thy heart !
I worked out of Longsight nick many years back and the area was a dump then. The only redeeming feature about the place is that it housed the Loco Depot of the LNWR/LMS. Still operating but no steam now, of course. It was a big Irish area in those days with lots of hard pubs and shebeens, now a huge mix of different races with the majority from the sub-continent.
Ted
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Well happy here in the 'South Midlands'. Decent cycling and walking out the front door and what's not available shopping wise in Northampton is in MK.
An hour from London or Birmingham by car or train.
And leisure wise by car the 3hr isochrone covers as far as the Dales, New Forest and Dover.
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Yeah Longsight is really note a nice place at all. Put it this way I am only 20 minutes drive from the place, yet I have done just two jobs there.
It is easy to be snobby though, renting a room in my parents house in one of the better parts of Manchester. That said I would much rather live in a rent bedroom in a nice part of the city than a house in the dives.
Put it this way I have lived here for 30 years and been the victim of crime once, when some twit smashed my Corsa's window through. The difference between the poorer and richer parts of Manchester is huge but also you tend to add a 0 onto the house prices in the better parts for an identical house.
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>> The difference between the poorer and richer parts of Manchester is huge but also you tend
>> to add a 0 onto the house prices in the better parts for an identical house.
Not 100% true, because otherwise Rattle's parents' house would be worth over a million if that was the case. Although I am referring to Longsight prices here - which he and others have knocked.
A two bed terrace in Longsight sells for maybe £60k-90k at the moment. Or rather on the market for. A two bed terrace where Rattle lives is not £600k+.
Sadly even the poor areas of Manchester are out of the reach of some.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Sat 24 Dec 11 at 23:51
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You get the idea though, a 2 bed terrace near Chorlton Green (8 minutes walk from me) will cost £270k, on the road on the back of my house they fetch around £200k but they are basic two ups two down.
My parents three bed terrace (medium sized with a small garden) is worth between £220k with the ceiling being set at £260k.
By poorest I was really meaning very poor, even worse areas than Longsight such as Little Hulton where is possible to buy a house for £25k, although its Salford so you could argue for ever if that is Manchester or not.
Longsight despite its problems is not the by a long shot the cheapest area of Manchester, but its very close to the city centre and Stockport and on the 192 bus route (the busiest in Europe) so that helps keep Longsight prices quite high.
Not sure what the most expensive house for sale where I live is, but on the Asian part of Wilbraham Road they are a few 4 bed detaches on the market for over £700k.
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Within a two mile radius of me prices range from 165k to 16.5 million.
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i think Chichester is the baest place to live.
many different beaches with 10 miles and sailing and motor boating in the harbour.
surouned by the south downs so country walks aplenty.
goodwood racing is free to wander in most sundays and the goodwood events a great if a little pricey.
house prices are high so is rental though.
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>> house prices are high so is rental though.
Not by the standards of the areas nearer to london
Look at this for £325k
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31568840.html
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That would be around £450k plus here, but then such a house would be extremely unusual, there isn't many detaches in my part of Manchester so they go for a very strong premium.
As for price range, I guess in my 2 miles they range from £80k for a 1 bed flat in an ex council area to £2m for the odd mansion in West Didsbury, though they not many of them. Most expensive property in Manchester is a 6 bedroom flat in the Beetham Tower, on the market for a shade over £3.7m. Madness.
What I find about this area is the road name seems to make a difference, just 30 seconds walk from me as a 3 bed terraced on the market for £285,000 it is identical to my parents but they would be lucky to get £200k for it in the current state. It does have a bigger garden but some people are just dreaming, nearly £300k for a terraced house with no parking I wouldn't pay anything like that.
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>> >> house prices are high so is rental though.
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>> Not by the standards of the areas nearer to london
>>
>> Look at this for £325k
>>
>> www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31568840.html
>>
the fishbourne one looks cheap for the area so will have a look in the week.
i spent 3 yrs at university in salford and an awful miserable depressing place.
i have a studuio flat in bow on the canal side in a large converted dog food factory.
one room but very big at 40x40 ft with a 23ft ceiling and a mezzanine level for the bedroom.
could easily be converted to a 3bed and all would still be doubles and en suite. i rent to some friends as i never want to live in a city again.
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The best thing about my time at Salford is I didn't have to live there :).
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You're welcome to cities. Seven years in Derby was enough for me, three renting a room in Normanton (ethnic area) and four in Alvaston in a former council house which I bought for 21K in 1999 and sold for 60K when I moved to Carmarthen in 2003.
All my mates in the Midlands told me I was daft moving out into the "wilds"; I'm half an hour's walk from the railway station with a direct service to London, across the road is the park and ride which offers a bus into town every 20 minutes for the princely sum of £1 return, and I'm a quarter of a mile away from the dual carriageway which gets me to the M4 in 20 minutes. Work for both wifey and myself is a ten minute drive.
Oh, and it's about an hour's drive to Cardiff airport.
This is Harleyman Towers, cost me 110K eight years ago; it was, however, only just habitable then.
tinyurl.com/dyp77pq
Bit of history to it, built in 1780, originally thatched, and was the ostler's house and stables for the mail coach horses. Stables are now my workshop.
I'm the first to admit that I got lucky; good neighbours on all sides are a bonus, the place will always be a work in progress but it suits me, wouldn't thank you for a modern shoebox. Guess where I think the best place in the UK is!
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>Seven years in Derby
Sounds like a George Orwell book.
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>> Sounds like a George Orwell book.
>>
Many a true word Z, specially if like me you originally hail from t'other side of the Trent. ;-)
Notts and Derby folk are like oil and water, they don't mix.... but the oil always stays on top! ;-)
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I have developed a soft spot for East Northants centering around Oundle, its not well known for much but there are some intensely pretty villages and it has a differnet feel to the rest of the county, perhaps though rather stiff house prices suggest its in demand by those in the know.
Horninghold in Leics is rather quaint, a heady mix of old cottages and vast mansions. Its also exceptionally w ell maintained and I shouldnt think they know what anti-social behaviour is out there.
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>> I have developed a soft spot for East Northants centering around Oundle, its not well
>> known for much but there are some intensely pretty villages and it has a differnet
>> feel to the rest of the county,
Like Fotheringhay. Pretty village, strange church, so much history re Queen Mary, but a dead village. Best pub food I have ever had tho.
Agree East Northants, is not well know, empty, great driving back roads, great pubs, some fabulous scenery where it butts onto Rutland, but the slowly spreading stain of Corby looms over it. Take Rockingham fabulous village, - 20 years time it will be swallowed.
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Good thing about Corby is they have plenty of internal sites to develop since it looks like a bombsite, so many new houses going up within the boundries, it doesnt seem to spread too much atm. Id not worry too much for the next few decades, nobody wants to live there anyway, its 20% cheaper with good reason.
Blatherwycke is one of my favorite villages out that way along with Apethorpe, there are many that do seem untouched by time.
Actually one of the biggest barriers to development is the ownership of the land by country estates as unlike councils, they dont have housebuilding targets and they have a strong desire to maintain the countryside. In the village my customer owns, only two houses built in the last 100 years and they are being made to fit in with the rest.
A quick mention for Ashby St Ledgers though not in the best overall position geographically is still a very sweet village and The Queen bought the manor house some years ago so that should dampen down anyone with ideas that will spoil the area.
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>> Good thing about Corby is they have plenty of internal sites to develop since it
>> looks like a bombsite, so many new houses going up within the boundries, it doesnt
>> seem to spread too much atm. Id not worry too much for the next few
>> decades, nobody wants to live there anyway, its 20% cheaper with good reason.
Not seen the plans for the area north of the A43, Weldon then? Weldon itself will be swallowed.
Agree about the estate ownership, but the estates are in danger of being bought - several approaches have been made to purchase the Deene estate.
>> Blatherwycke is one of my favorite villages out that way along with Apethorpe, there are
>> many that do seem untouched by time.
Meldrew mentioned a pub in next door Bullwick,, the Queens head. I can vouch for the standard of the food and the friendly owners. Not cheap mind, but excellent.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 26 Dec 11 at 11:11
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I treat Weldon as already gone, like the house nextdoor to the one gutted by fire :-)
I cant see it going much further than that though, they are building a fair few internally in Corby now.
Corby as a town isnt that heavily populated for its area, a quick drive through shows lots of green spaces and places ripe for redevelopment, something someone in the know told me is on the cards ( hence he is buying up property in Corby to take advantage of the long term bounce in house prices ).
Once the economy turns around, I wouldnt be suprised if Corby town centre gets redeveloped, it needs it and as its a pretty horrid place.
The great thing about most estate owners is that they are learning about diversification now as to maintain an estate you need a certain amount of land and properties for the income, ideally 5000 acres upwards so im told although twice that is more useful - selling it all off is very short term if the people who own the house rely on the estate for income.
My customer has been relentlessly buying up land for the last decade to expand rather than reduce the estate, same goes for houses. Some people consider that a bit sinister, but the stability a well run country estate can bring to residents is very worthwhile - its one of those where retired staff get a small cottage in 'retirement row', that kind of thing.
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>> A quick mention for Ashby St Ledgers though not in the best overall position geographically
>> is still a very sweet village and The Queen bought the manor house some years
>> ago so that should dampen down anyone with ideas that will spoil the area.
True but with Northampton, Daventry and Towcester all undergoing/slated for massive growth I doubt it will be immune from pressure. Locally Kislingbury and Harpole are both likely to be swallowed by Northampton very soon indeed.
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I shouldnt think they know what anti-social behaviour
>> is out there.
>>
It's only a short trip to Corby if the locals want to find out what they're missing! ;-)
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There is actually quite a lot of rural crime out that way, you have to take extreme precautions to protect your heating oil through the winter for example.
The obvious sources are the pockets of itinerant tarmac layers to be found and Corby.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 26 Dec 11 at 10:41
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I'm not sure my perfect location exists. On my wish list is...
By the sea ( brought up by the sea, still miss it. )
Near mountains with weekend skiing avaiable
Forest with mountain bike trails within easy reach
Commutable to London but not at one end of the country as I have to go to most parts of the UK from time to time
Decently served airport nearby
Accessible house prices
Equable climate
Not gonna happen is it?
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>> Not gonna happen is it?
You know you want to live in London really Humph. Not very good for sea or mountains, but there are tall buildings, a large tidal river, a couple of smelly lakes and a lot of rain-filled potholes. For forest you have the urban jungle, far more interesting really. The climate is uniformly superb all year round, almost boringly so.
Your mountain bike will feel at home there too.
:o}
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>> I'm not sure my perfect location exists. On my wish list is...
>>
>> By the sea ( brought up by the sea, still miss it. )
>> Near mountains with weekend skiing avaiable
>> Forest with mountain bike trails within easy reach
>> Commutable to London but not at one end of the country as I have to
>> go to most parts of the UK from time to time
>> Decently served airport nearby
>> Accessible house prices
>> Equable climate
>>
>> Not gonna happen is it?
No. Reykjavik comes close to some of your requirements. Actually? you need to move to Seattle, ticks everything part form the London bit.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 26 Dec 11 at 11:48
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There are Americans in Seattle though aren't there?
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Well, it might be worth a punt if there aren't too many. At least there wouldn't be so many English I suppose...
:-)
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Vancouver is better than Seattle and without the Americans
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Sounds good. Bit of a schlep to London being a current drawback but...
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Mon 26 Dec 11 at 18:28
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North Wales just about does it, although London is a bit tricky, and the climate well do you like rain?
The rest though, mountains, cheap, airport near by (well Manchester 90 minute drive up the M56), and the second tallest mountains in the UK.
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>> The rest though, mountains, cheap, airport near by (well Manchester 90 minute drive up the
>> M56), and the second tallest mountains in the UK.
>>
Agree with that, but unfortunately much of it is spoilt be being inhabited by locals who can see through a keyhole with both eyes.
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The Best place is Yorkshire there is nowhere else............................
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Anywhere where WE have chosen to live!
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I was born & bred in Bradford and you are so wrong.
Sorry.
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Humph,
How about Placerville?
Close (ish) to both stunning coastline and lake shore, although admittedly no sea views.
Very close to ski resorts, with Sierra at Tahoe a 45 minute drive.Others just over an hour...Northstar, Kirkwood, Homewood, Squaw Valley amongst others.
Lots of forest with bike trails from your doorstep almost.
Lovely climate, with guaranteed summers & proper winters.
Very reasonable house prices.
Sacramento airport is an hours drive.
Did someone mention London?
I'm sure the septics would take kindly to your trade.
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We're not trying to get rid of you or anything you understand
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>> Lovely climate, with guaranteed summers & proper winters.
That, above all else, would be nice....
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The Best Place to Live in The UK - R.P.
