Moving to the North

timmothy

timmothy

timmothy

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I have recently arrived back to the UK from being abroad for 7 years. I don't really have many ties and neither does my partner so we can move anywhere in the UK.

I have spent thousands of hours it seems scouring Reddit, newspapers and statistics. Middlesbrough seems to have a bad reputation but we would afford to live in the best parts of the town in a detached house. Rather than say moving to Bristol where my mum lives and not even affording a flat in a good area.

Anyone from Middlesbrough have some experience with the town or tips on where to look at? Going to drive up there and spend a couple of days looking around.

We are also going to look around Durham, Morpeth, Rugby, Barnsley, Perth Scotland and Stirling Scotland.

Just want to live somewhere nice with job opportunities, nice countryside around, friendly people and cheap housing.
 
Thanks for the input so far. I don't have any career in mind and neither does my partner. Open to options as we have been doing all kinds of work. Budget is £190000 and we would want something detached. Don't mind about size or if it's a bungalow/house.

Middlesbrough just seemed good because we would be able to afford to live in Nunthorpe which seems to have a great reputation. We would like to have countryside on our doorstep and a national park within a half hour drive. I know it's a lot to ask for and it might not be possible. Will have to see.
 
We also really don't mind if it needs a lot of work. As long as we can get a mortgage on it. We have lived in temporary accommodation and a car for the past 7 years so any space will be amazing. Our dream would be if you were allowed to just buy a plot and put a caravan on it
 
moon man said:
Wow still talking, I renovated and tripled the value while you asked a computer forum .............and did nothing
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Asking for advice before taking a trip around the country looking at areas seems a shrewd idea to me. Not sure why you had to write the reapotyoi did tbh
 
Raymond Lin said:
If your minimum requirement is a detached then that really limit things, sure you can't accept a semi-detached?
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After so many aweful neighbors we really don't want a party wall with someone. Our ideal home would be a detached two bedroom place with a decent garden. Not easy to find even upping the budget to 230
 
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Raymond Lin said:
www.zoopla.co.uk

2 bed cottage for sale in Old Road, Bromyard HR7 - Zoopla

2 bed cottage for sale in Old Road, Bromyard HR7, selling for £200,000 from G Herbert Banks. See property details on Zoopla or browse all our range of properties in Old Road, Bromyard HR7.
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Actually not a bad area! If you don't mind near Wales but still in England and about 90mins from Bristol.

Spend £30k updating it, job done!

If structurally sound, the outhouse's roof might need replacing looking on Google Maps but imagine how much it'd be if it's near London.
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That does look incredible.
 
Lopéz said:
Personally I'd venture a little bit further North to Newcastle/Gateshead and the surround areas. It's a much nicer city than Middlesborough from what I've experienced.
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We were wondering that but then you don't have the national park on your doorstep. Also prices are much higher in the decent areas
 
Hodders said:
@timmothy amazed no one had asked yet...

What are your family's sports and hobbies? Do you like countryside, mountains or cities? Do you need access to a decent school etc?
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It's just me and my partner. We love mountains and countryside. Don't like cities other than for work opportunities and meeting friends. We don't need access to schools etc.

We did drive around the surrounding villages of Middlesbrough today and it's absolutely amazing. Picture postcard perfect but unfortunately our of our budget. Went into Middlesbrough and parts were horrific and others seemed nice. Very difficult to get a feeling for a place
 
Thanks again for all the reply's. It's totally overwhelming but is also giving me loads of ideas. Looking for places a bit further south on our return journey. Any thoughts on Loughborough? Seems to be some decent houses in the surrounding areas.
 
{SAS}TB said:
From stokesley originally and the majority of Boro is a hole.

You should be able to get a 2 or 3 bed detached somewhere like ingleby barwick or you want something a bit more quirky how about

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/127254788#/?channel=RES_BUY

Both IG and Yarm are a lot closer to the NY Moors and Yarm is mostly infinitely nicer than Boro
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Thanks for the tip on IG and Yarm. Checked them out today and they were lovely. Very small gardens as most seem to be newish builds but very nice area.
 
Looked at loads of places around county Durham today. All reasonably nice. Bishop Auckland was nice and reasonable price. Didn't like Consett as much as we thought we would. Durham is a lovely city and much nicer than Middlesbrough.
 
We will need to find jobs and rent for a while until we can buy something. Looking like we may rent near Middlesbrough or Durham so far and then hopefully buy something when we are in a position to do so. Looked at a semi detached for 65000 that actually looked alright. The town looked down in the dumps, bus shelters all smashed etc. Looked like a run down Cornish town where you would pay at least three times that though
 
We've just toured around as much of the north east area looking at towns to try and get an idea of what's around and what we could afford. That's why it's such a huge amount of different places.

We are open to any job types. My partner is ideally looking to work as a vetinary receptionist and I would like to work at the job centre or Citizens advice bureau of possible as that's where my experience lies. I wouldn't mind working at the University in Durham as a student advisor or finding and entry level job in IT as that's what I studied.

Spennymoor seemed decent when we visited. Had access to a small woods in the town and open countryside around. Ideally we want proper countryside with moors, national parks, ancient woodland and lakes within a short distant but we haven't been able to find that. We also want to be 30 minutes drive at most from large towns for job opportunities. Spennymoor seemed perfect as it's less than 20 minutes to Durham and can even get to Middlesbrough at a push. Also less than 30 to Darlington.

Morpeth is definitely out. The parts of town we could afford were the worst we have seen on our tour around. As bad as the bad bits of Middlesbrough. No other town had such an aweful bad bit from what we have seen on our short trip.

Further up in Northumberland just seems to far away for making friends and finding work.

The bits we could afford in Consett seemed terrible as well. Sometimes places seem bad from reading online but when we visit the feeling is actually alright and the people seem lovely. The places that we thought we would love like Morpeth aren't actually that great.

So far the friendliest place has been Ferryhill which is known as a terrible place. It was a bit run down but then I last lived in St Austell and it seems better than that. My family living in Bristol live in parts that make most of these towns look like heaven compared to them. To afford a great area in Bristol is very difficult on normal salaries so they resort to the worse areas that are actually worse than some of the middle of the ground areas up here.
 
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Ayahuasca said:
Are you talking about the avenues on the Stobhill estate by any chance?
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That was the terrible part yes. Not sure the other areas name right now but on the other side and that didn't seem great either. Stobhill was like Zombieland though. We couldn't stop laughing because every doorway had a woman with a cigarette hanging out her mouth, dressed in pyjamas and a dressing gown with a couple of kids messing about in front of her. All the gardens were trashed and loads of kids toys everywhere. Same price for one of those as a beautiful detached in a supposedly worse area elsewhere.
 
Cadder said:
@timmothy did you visit Sedgefield, Bishop Middleham or Newton Aycliffe?


I am well aware of where it is, I just don't rate it for convenience of getting places. Each to their own.


Your choice to to be near jobs/towns/people OR moors, parks, woods and lakes.
If you want to see more nature then head to Barnard Castle but that is quite out there.


Ferryhill gets a bad rep but mainly because of the station area (bottom of the hill), and Dean Bank.
There are nice areas and houses are well priced in Ferryhill. It also sits on the A167 so it is well connected for getting places.

Have you blocked private messages @timmothy ? I can't start a conversation with you through your profile.
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Thanks for all that information. I haven't blocked messages, not sure why that's happening. I have messaged about buying items recently and it seemed to work.

Bishop Auckland seemed nice but quite far from Durham and Newcastle for jobs. Sedgefield was very very nice but also way out of our budget. We liked Newton Aycliffe but apparently there is a lot of issues in the town with Anti Social behavior and there were a lot of unsavory types around unfortunately as everything else seemed great. Barnard Castle is too far in the countryside.
 
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