Funnily enough, a couple of days turned into just an afternoon in Sheffield. Neither my husband or I could get past all the smoke stacks and grime. We cancelled the interviews
, drove up to York and enjoyed an evening there. We loved it! No jobs there at the moment though. :-/
We know that we are lucky that he is in a field where we can somewhat choose location. We are grateful for that.
So, our quest began as chasing an area in England that is nice, has lower house prices than the south, and has a reasonable amount of industry (jobs). I am convinced now that it doesn't exist. The prices up north are marginally cheaper, but if it's in a nice area (York), they really aren't that much cheaper. If it's a place like Norwich that is cheaper and nice, there aren't any jobs.
West Sussex it is on Thursday. Maybe we will like that area. It is close to Gatwick which might be nice. We've decided to take the cost of housing out of the mix and just try to find an area where we will be happy--and just hope for a crash in prices and be ready to pounce if they do.