Best place to live and work in the UK

Hi,

As my husband and I are considering a move back to the UK (long story I'm afraid), I would like to get some input from anyone willing to give their opinion on where you think is the best place to live and work in England. (Work can be commutable distance from the place you live)

We are open to most of the UK (except Norwich as that is the only location that doesn't have work for my hubby). We, at this point are particularly interested in York to live and Leeds to work. Some very helpful members have given their opinions privately on these two cities, anymore would also be welcome.

Things we are looking for:

1. Possibility of recreational activities on the weekends such as countryside nearby to walk, golf courses, etc.
2. Clean town with nice bars, restaurants, shops
3. Cost of housing that is not astronomical in price (when we lived in England last year, we lived in Berkshire where the housing was phenominally priced, thus we are now looking at the north as well)
4. Commutable distance to a fairly good sized city for accessibility to jobs
5. This one is not imperative, but it would be nice to live somewhere where the people are nice

Any feedback would be much appreciated. Thank you all so much.

Jenny

Oh, and sorry all, just noticed that my title says, "Best place to live and work in the UK", but I meant only England.

Thank you,

I will leave the advice to those nearer to the two areas that you mentioned.  That and I am in the US so am not too up on where the best place is to live.

I just got a chuckle from the fact that you are living in "redneck hell."  ROFL.

Welcome to the site!

I think there are probably many, many towns that would suit your needs, but I'll stick with what I know.

Shrewsbury is where my S/O lives and where I've spent a good deal of time visiting.  It's in the west-midlands and is the capital of the county Shropshire which nearly borders Wales.  It's about 50 mins. by train (or 30 mins. by car) from Birmingham.  The town of Shrewsbury itself has a population of around 80,000 spread over 2 miles or so.  There are quite a few walking paths in and throughout the town and an indoor swimming pool in the town's college.  

The town centre is remarkably clean and very lively.  Most of the high-street shops can be found there as well as numerous privately owned shops, pubs, clubs, and restaurants.  The town itself dates back to the 10th century and is home to a number of original tudor buildings.  (it always catches me up to see a Marks & Spencer 15 yards away from a 14th century castle)  

The housing costs can run a bit on the steep side but nowhere near as unreasonable as London or the southeast.  To get an idea of the cost of property, have a look here:  http://property.blackcountry.com/Property/ss_property/ss_search.php

And.. the people there tend to be very welcoming, as long as you put in the effort as well (at least the ones I've met anyway).  I haven't encountered any real problems with residents there.  Have even made a few friends.

I'm sure you have many places in mind and I don't know if you'd be interested in that area, but it's worth a look.  I have a website up with a few pictures I've taken if you want to have a look.  http://www.angelfire.com/ultra/shrewsbury

another good site for town pictures is:
http://www.shoppingshropshire.com/pictures/shrewsbury/page1/

Hope this has helped in some way.  Any questions.. feel free to ask, I'll do my best to answer.

Jenny--
We have just moved down from Gloucestershire.  Housing prices are more expensive but the payoffs are really worth it.  Like Shrewsbury, it is about an hour from Birmingham, 40 minutes from Cardiff, 20 minutes from Bristol and you can still get to London and back in a day (2hours each way).  There are two main cities--Gloucester and Cheltenham.  Cheltenham is lovely, but housing is pricey.  Gloucester is a bit run down but is undergoing a major redevelopment and would be a great place to invest.  If you are an avid ecologist--Stroud would be the place to be as they have a Green Party town council and are known for vibrant activism.  

The area is the cotswolds and simply lovely with loads to do without having to go to one of the major cities.  Rail links are decent and people are quite nice.

Good Luck!!

Kathryn

Thank you so much Vnice, Terinth, and Katgold.

I am making a list of places to check out. As Terith points out, there are many places that would probably suit our needs, it's just a matter of checking them out. We are starting a list of places and going from there. It's so nice to come to a forum such as this one to gain opinions. I think that things were so rushed the last time I moved to England, that neither my husband nor I realised the kind of effort that needed to be put into finding the right place for us. For one, being new to England, I did not know what to look for and did not know what was important. In my husband's case, it was the first time he had moved away from his home city of Bristol. We let the best job offer dictate where we lived, not really understanding that although the pay was terrific, there really weren't very many opps for me and the houses were just too expensive--it just did not matter that he was paid better there because any extra would have been soaked up by a heavy mortgage.

We are really hoping to make the best educated decision this time around and find the place that is right for us both.

Gaining opinions from others helps us to see possibilities

Tenrith, your photos are gorgeous. I heard a long time ago that Shrewsbury is nice. We have added it to our list.

Kat, I've been to Cheltenham and thought it was gorgeous. I went there to a business that supposedly finds people jobs in the sales field called Metamorphose. Turned out to be a crock, but the city was beautiful. It's on the list as well.

Again, thank you all for your input and I look forward to hearing about more places.

Jenny

  Well having lived in a lot of places in the UK i think an ideal place would be Taunton in somerset.   Its only a 2 hour commute by train to London about 45 mins to Bristol and the same to Exeter.    You have a wealth of historic places nearby and plenty of places to visit with the advantage of being only 30 mins from the north coast - Minehead and about the same to the south coast - Lyme Regis.    The housing there is reasonable and as for shops and resteraunts there are enough to keep any woman satisfied.   The only Walmarts is close as well in Bristol.

Jenny-
Waterg is right Taunton is lovely--in fact I am a huge fan of the South West.

Just wondering where you lived in Berks.  The reason I ask is that we are moving out that way in the next month.  We had to move back from the cotswolds to the Big Smoke and I don't like living in this huge city, so we are moving out, probably to Windsor.  Just wondering where you were and other than financial if there are any reasons you didn't like it.

Thanks
Kat

Thank you waterg. My husband says that an incredible job opp exists there for him but we were wondering what kind of opps would be there for me. I know that we cannot have it all over there, but I cannot see myself commuting more than 30 mins. each way. Out of curiousity, are there any companies based there? Any info would be appreciated as we both know Somerset to be beautiful.

Kat, we lived in Wokingham, not too far from Windsor. No, other than house prices, I enjoyed it there. At first, I confused the normal symptoms of culture shock and moving to a new country sans friends as hating the area. After adjusting, I liked it a lot. Berkshire itself is beautiful and Wokingham has a direct train link to Waterloo that takes about 47 minutes.

Funny you should mention Windsor. My husband and I were talking about the possibility of him returning to his former job. When discussing places to possibly live, I said Windsor. We enjoyed going to Windsor Great Park this past summer and laying on a blanket watching all of the planes on their way into Heathrow. I also liked the tourist atmosphere as well as the Starbucks, Pizza Hut, etc. that were there to cater to tourists (shallow I know, but hey, I am American after all). Lots of tourists= a busy place. A great place for the American relies to come and visit though. Good luck on your move out of the Great Smoke. I know this country girl couldn't handle it there--heck, I felt overwhelmed by the amount of people shopping in the Camberly Tesco on a Saturday, nevermind the amount of people walking around Oxford Street on a Saturday  

We live in Wiltshire and you described a lot of what we have here...just as Somerset and Gloucester provide, but with both, since the county is between the two.  

Wiltshire has some of the Cotswolds in it. Plus it has an incredible greeness, being very much farming. However, since where we live is not the tourist area, but having it all around us, we have the benefits of being close to it without the higher cost. (However, I think people are finding this out and our little simple town has jumped to number 34 in the list of rapidly rising house prices in the nation. Still very affordable, but growing by leaps and bounds.)

We're not job-related commutable to London five-days-a-week, because at peek times the cost may be prohibitive on a daily basis, but the fast train takes only takes 1.5 hours and rates can be had at off peek for a day in the city if you want to catch a show. Much closer are Bath, Bristol, Salisbury.

I don't know that I would suggest our town to live in, because I think it's rather bizarre that I love it so much. Maybe because on the outside it looks rather blue-collarish. And it does have a surprising amount of light industry and, yes, technical-related as well. What I love about it is something you can't see unless you scratch the surface. I have never been made to feel so welcome in a new place. They've accepted me as one of their own. Walking down the street, there's usually someone to say hello to or wave at across the road.

There is one down side here in this little town. The pubs have a reputation. There are some really nice ones, but there are also some to stay clear of, especially on a Thursday night. You can tell this spot is pretty social, though. For a place of 18,000 residents it supports 17 restaurants/takeaways.

I live in Taunton. I love it. Here is a link to find out what companies are here - and other helpful info.

http://www.tauntondeane.gov.uk/TDBCSites/ECDEV/business_directory.asp?action=list&desc=&name=&address=&postcode=&town=&telephone=&contact=&Class=none&empband=All+Ranges&Sector=none&x=22&y=8