Moving to the North
- Thread starter timmothy
- Start date
Associate
- Joined
- 11 Aug 2011
- Posts
- 682
I went to uni in Middlesbrough and still work in the town.
IMO the high street is in a death spiral, with more and more of the shops closing (although the retail park is thriving and has good shops, I prefer to drive to York).
The town really is a proper **** hole, there are a great many less well off people and it is very deprived (recently found to be the worst place in the country to live if you are a girl etc.)
I had "well off" uni friends who lived in the good areas with their parents, I remember a number of stories about burglaries, thefts and such so don't expect a divide by living in a more affluent area.
IMO the high street is in a death spiral, with more and more of the shops closing (although the retail park is thriving and has good shops, I prefer to drive to York).
The town really is a proper **** hole, there are a great many less well off people and it is very deprived (recently found to be the worst place in the country to live if you are a girl etc.)
I had "well off" uni friends who lived in the good areas with their parents, I remember a number of stories about burglaries, thefts and such so don't expect a divide by living in a more affluent area.
@timmothy did you visit Sedgefield, Bishop Middleham or Newton Aycliffe?
If you want to see more nature then head to Barnard Castle but that is quite out there.
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.
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.
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.
Even rent in Brizzle isn't cheap. Probably more than a mortgage up norf.
Last edited:
£1250 for a decent area flat in Bristol. Up north you can get a decent area detached house from what little we have seen
It'll be good when either humanity destroys itself or AI takes over. It's the only way to save the Earth really, let someone else have a go, people are ****s.
I guess the good thing about Bristol is that there will be more job opportunities. Anywhere up north with similar opportunities will probably cost similar. Manchester etc.
Last edited:
If you can find anywhere in Manchester at the moment
Despite prolific building of new apartments there is a huge shortage apparently
Totally but I'd rather be in a nice location near family than up north isolated in a village.
Remember once you've narrowed the list down to visit at different times of day. Some of these "alright" seeming places during the day change quite a bit, especially on weekends, pub kicking out time, early hours of the morning, etc.
If you're unsure on areas, the ONS recently published a deprivation map based on certain factors that they grade an area as deprived by.
www.ons.gov.uk
Household deprivation - Census Maps, ONS
Census maps is an interactive tool to explore Census 2021 data across England and Wales for different topics down to a neighbourhood level.
Best advice in the thread
Spennymoor, Newton Aycliffe and Bishop Auckland - all dumps.
But cheap housing and you can't get more friendly than people oop North.
This was 30 years ago, but keep in touch with school friends from there and on VERY rare occasions i have re-visited - and can't wait to get out
Grew up around BA, went to school in Spenny and dad lived in NA.
But cheap housing and you can't get more friendly than people oop North.
This was 30 years ago, but keep in touch with school friends from there and on VERY rare occasions i have re-visited - and can't wait to get out
Grew up around BA, went to school in Spenny and dad lived in NA.
Spennymoor, Newton Aycliffe and Bishop Auckland - all dumps.
But cheap housing and you can't get more friendly than people oop North.
This was 30 years ago, but keep in touch with school friends from there and on VERY rare occasions i have re-visited - and can't wait to get out
Grew up around BA, went to school in Spenny and dad lived in NA.
Where do you live now for reference? Where else can I actually move and have a decent work life balance with a small mortgage. It seems impossible other than choosing a small deprived town up north.