Scarborough - any thoughts as a place to live after retiring.

FX_Munkee

rlw said:

FX_Munkee said:

I grew up not far from Wike, Bardsey, East Keswick (in Alwoodley/Shadwell). I'd personally be recommending villages so you can probably ignore me. Harrogate isn't as nice as a lot of people imagine, I went to school there. It's still has a market town mentality (ring of out lying villages). Scarbororough is nice to visit in a "faded glory" sort of way, wouldn't want to live there though.
York sounds like it would suit you well.

The thing about the villages - and I would happily live in East Keswick or Bardsey is, ultimately, we're going to be trapped there.  Once you can't drive, you are reliant upon public transport which means buses so, ie.  you are fucked.

If it was just a question of sitting in the garden and going to the shop every day, fine, but the future holds shit like hospital appointments where, tbh, you want a good one close by. 

Harrogate, as you say, is a bit slow although there are some lovely houses there and the Royal Hall is great - saw Wally there a couple of times recently and back when I were a lad.

FWIW my parents (77 & 78) still live in Allwoodley and use the busses to get to Harrogate and Leeds all the time. They also have cars but the busses are much more convenient for those journies.

chillidoggy

rlw said:

chillidoggy said:

rlw said:

chillidoggy said:

Margate. Cheap as chips, and the train service is good. And, the weather is decent.

There are one or two downsides, me living here being one.

Bits are really nice, I know.  Others, not so much but it remains on the radar, along with its mates, Ramsgate and Broadstairs but, again, apart from going to London, what is there to do after you've been to the Turner and Dreamland?

The Old Town in Margate is really nice now, plenty of bars, nicky-nacky shops and the like. Beaches are good, too. Thing is, if you're looking for a place which has something to do all the time, why bother leaving London in the first place? Whatever you do it'll be a compromise, or trade-off.

Crunchman mentioned Folkestone earlier. That's my birthplace, and I lived there until I was 16. Me old mum still lives there, albeit not in the town centre. It was a lot posher back in the day, but as he says, it's come up a lot in the world of late, and is also well worth a visit.

We need to leave London to realise some of the capital tied up in the house, the theory being that we spend about 60% on the new house and live on the rest for a few years.  Drawing down a certain amount each year, plus our pensions, ought to give us a reasonable lifestyle.  

Sounds like a plan to me. And the house prices outside London should enable you to do that.

jonnyburgo

I've got friends in Crayke which isn't to far from York. Lovely lutttle place as is Easingwolde just next door. Only trouble is the people are snooty as fuck and the kids are all bored shitless druggies.

rlw

jonnyburgo said:

I've got friends in Crayke which isn't to far from York. Lovely lutttle place as is Easingwolde just next door. Only trouble is the people are snooty as fuck and the kids are all bored shitless druggies.

Great advert for the area :-)

Snap

Saltburn on Sea? You've got hospitals nearby, or is it too cloose to Middbro for comfort???

Or further north still, coast north of Newcastle is IMO the best in the country, and depending on where you go, you aren't far from all the resources of Newcastle (v good hospitals)

Tynemouth is supposed to be nice I think

Budgie

rlw said:

Budgie said:

Buxton? Close to Manchester and Sheffield so tons to do. etc. Can get a bit nippy in the Winter though. 

Wrong side of the Pennines lad.

I would have to disagree

Snap

Budgie said:

rlw said:

Budgie said:

Buxton? Close to Manchester and Sheffield so tons to do. etc. Can get a bit nippy in the Winter though. 

Wrong side of the Pennines lad.

I would have to disagree

I have a foot in both camps, being a Lancy lad, but having emigrated to Yorkshire 20 odd years ago. I prefer the weather here, but the people are warmer and funnier on the West (IMO)

When I moved here in '93, I had to go through customs at the border at Saddleworth. They put you through it at immigration, yorkshireising you. They sew up your pockets, shorten your arms and remove your sense of humour......wheyhey!

rlw

Snap said:

I have a foot in both camps, being a Lancy lad, but having emigrated to Yorkshire 20 odd years ago. I prefer the weather here, but the people are warmer and funnier on the West (IMO)

When I moved here in '93, I had to go through customs at the border at Saddleworth. They put you through it at immigration, yorkshireising you. They sew up your pockets, shorten your arms and remove your sense of humour......wheyhey!

You can take the man out of Lancashire.....

57Deluxe

apparently is good for Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme...

ESBlonde

A curve ball, Kings Lynn on the Norfolk Coast. Rail/Hospital/Coast. Or Hunstanton just up the coast with excellent bus connections. Sensible prices and a bit warmer than Yorkshire, although I took my my first visit ever toYork this monh and liked the people and vibe. I walked to two free gigs in the town centre on a wednesday night (one an open mic) so can see the appeal.

Dominic

rlw said:

slacker said:

Bournemouth?

Apparently you go to Eastbourne to die.  I believe that Bournemouth is the next stop, :-)

Not at all .......Bournemouth is quite lively .....there's a lot of money in Bournemouth so there is a decent array of quality restaurants etc ...........I would only want to be South Coast ; North is pretty but weather is everything to me
Lymington on edge of New Forest ? close to Winchester and Southampton and Bournemouth .

Snap

rlw said:

Snap said:

I have a foot in both camps, being a Lancy lad, but having emigrated to Yorkshire 20 odd years ago. I prefer the weather here, but the people are warmer and funnier on the West (IMO)

When I moved here in '93, I had to go through customs at the border at Saddleworth. They put you through it at immigration, yorkshireising you. They sew up your pockets, shorten your arms and remove your sense of humour......wheyhey!

You can take the man out of Lancashire.....

aye, that's reet.

My family are from the Ribble Valley, which as you will know borders the Dales on one side, the Lakes on the other, wonderful parts of the world all of them.

My great grandad used to proudly (and disruptively) claim to be a Yorkshireman, born in a border village called Rimington, which depending how the wind blows flits between both counties (so it seems). All good craic.

Thing is, all these places are bloody great. I love the north of England, the people, the landscape, even the weather. Hard to beat. The sense of humour is great too.

We were walking in the RIbble Valley a while ago, hot sunny day, and passed a barn that was full of cowshite and silage. Proper gagging stench, so bad it made you laugh. The chap walks out of the barn, says casually in the broadest East Lancs brogue : "aye, that's a bit ripe innit..." Perfect.

TheBigDipper

rlw said:
<snip>

The thing about the villages - and I would happily live in East Keswick or Bardsey is, ultimately, we're going to be trapped there.  Once you can't drive, you are reliant upon public transport which means buses so, ie.  you are fucked.

If it was just a question of sitting in the garden and going to the shop every day, fine, but the future holds shit like hospital appointments where, tbh, you want a good one close by. 

Harrogate, as you say, is a bit slow although there are some lovely houses there and the Royal Hall is great - saw Wally there a couple of times recently and back when I were a lad.

It can be fine to stop driving if you put the money it cost you back into taxis. We live a mile outside Christchurch and walk into town, but our elderly neighbour stopped driving 3 years ago and has an account with a local taxi firm. She gets a discount and spends far less on taxis than she did on running a car. Just a thought. 

ICBM

If you're going to move to York, check for the possibility of flooding. My sister lived there about twenty years ago, and although she was OK there was one time it was a bit too close for comfort.

My parents live in Worcester - which comes with similar reservations over a smaller part of the city - but is a pretty decent place to retire to. Direct rail links to London and Birmingham, not massively expensive, fair range of shopping, not too much of a dump. They came from Nottingham originally and thought about retiring back there, but then thought better of it when they started looking more seriously...

rlw

ICBM said:

If you're going to move to York, check for the possibility of flooding. My sister lived there about twenty years ago, and although she was OK there was one time it was a bit too close for comfort.

My parents live in Worcester - which comes with similar reservations over a smaller part of the city - but is a pretty decent place to retire to. Direct rail links to London and Birmingham, not massively expensive, fair range of shopping, not too much of a dump. They came from Nottingham originally and thought about retiring back there, but then thought better of it when they started looking more seriously...

My eldest cousin had a dead fancy waterside apartment which flooded and there was a photo of him being rescued by boat in the Evening Post.  He kept a copy of the photo in a nice frame on his sideboard and wondered why he didn't get any offers when it was for sale.  The estate agent suggested putting the picture elsewhere..............

ICBM

Having done a few insurance valuations - almost all write-offs - on guitars and amps with flood damage, it's absolutely the first thing I would check for when thinking about buying a house. I wouldn't ever buy a place where there was even the smallest possibility of it flooding. It ruins everything completely - you'll never get the smell out.

BigMonka

The areas in York which flood are really well known/defined, and a lot of money has gone in to additional flood defences in the last few years.
However, we had major floods just after Christmas 2015 where a whole new area of town flooded, so there's always a danger if you're anywhere near water. (For those interested it was the Foss that flooded as the pumps broke which normally empty the Foss in to the Ouse. They broke because the water-tight pump house which had been there for decades turned out to no longer be water-tight, so the pumps flooded!)

rlw

I was there in 2015 and the floods were quite impressive.  We will be looking at properties above the high water mark....