Anyone have any experience of living in Suffolk? I have an interview at a place there and they require relocation (commute from here would be 2 hours each way, and they don't want that anyway). Expensive/cheap, good areas/bad areas etc? Graduate income is only £16k a year so would I be struggling to get by unless I lived in a complete shit hole?

Oh and whats the riding like? I imagine shite as it's the Midlands.

cheers

I moved there (Ipswich) as a graduate in 1998, and left in 2005. Personally, I never really liked it much to live in, but going back now I really like it for holidays and such. Made lots of friends there, but most of them were non-locals.

I'd say it's moderately expensive to live in, depending on where you are. Lots of very nice little towns and villages. With a 16k income, you might have to be looking at renting a room unless you can find some folks to share a flat with.

Oh, and it's East Anglia, not the midlands.

Riding is actually quite good, if you can ignore the obvious lack of mountains. A fairly good bridleway network, and some good forests (tustall, rendlesham, dunwich). Also some cheeky footpaths if you don't mind being evil incarnate in the eyes of some people. Where is the job?

As an Ipswich native, I would have to agree that there are good parts and bad.

Choose wisely and your life will be paradise, choose badly (*cough* Chantry *cough*) and your life will be hell. There are always house shares and the like to be had, so you should be fine on 16k.

Is the job with BT?

Oh and whats the riding like? I imagine shite as it's the Midlands.

I take it your A' level wasn't in geography?

Close enough 😛

And no the job is with Skyline IFE, junior motion graphics designer. Any recommendations for somewhere within easy commuting distance of Stowmarket?

I live in north essex, a short bike ride away from Suffolk.

The countryside can be beautiful. The mountainbiking isn't; but country lanes road biking is nice, and there are are plenty of lovely little villages and pubs. you could park yourself out of town (did you say Ipswich, or did someone else assume?) and have a decent ride into work.

We're moving into London, though. My job's in London, hopefully the gf's will be too, shortly, all our family are west or south of London, and most of our weekends away are west or south of London. Seems that every car journey starts and finishes with an hour on the A12 and half a lap of the M25.

It's been good to live here for a bit, but I'm looking forward to being closer to the rest of the country!

If it's a job you want a lot more than the alternatives, go for it. You can figure out the rest afterwards. There's plenty to enjoy about living there if you've got the will to find it!

Moved to ipswich on work placement 14 years ago (has it really been that long!?), as with everywhere there's nice bits and bad bits. What I like about ipswich is that it offers the facilities of a a biggish town with some history to it but within 5 mins you can be in some of the nicest (albeit mountainless) countryside around.
For biking http://www.trogmtb.com 🙂

Stowmarket's not really that bad a place. Ipswich is a bit far away for daily driving and the A14 is not a friendly place for cyclists, but it is possible to do. It does mean that you would need to live on the west side of Ipswich though (Whitton), which is not that good a place.

You could try the villages north and south of Stowmarket (Coddenham's very nice) but you are likely to be paying more for a place to live, and still having to travel either to Ipswich or Stowmarket for food and a night out.

I went to Ipswich once, too frigging ages. Something to consider – a long long way from Wales, Peaks, West country etc etc.

However, if it's a good graduate job, then DO IT – a year or two at a good place sets you up really well.

Molgrips… I'm not surprised it took ages, it's on the other side of the bloody country! (Ok, so the roads are sh1t too)

They don't call it "The Sunrise County" for nothing you know…

I was starting from West London tho. Still seemed to have annoying transport links… just something to think about 🙂

However, if it's a good graduate job, then DO IT – a year or two at a good place sets you up really well.

This is what I'm thinking. It's very similar to my current salary – difference is this one would be at an established company with higher end clients, whilst mine's just a small local business thats just started up doing websites for other small businesses in the area.

I just don't want to move if it means having to live in a crap area with nothing to do. Mind you I'm only in the East Midlands now (northamptonshire) so it might be fairly similar.

I'm looking on rightmove now, most of the places to rent seem to be about £500pcm. So money would probably be really tight. Is there a website which shows how "good or bad" areas of towns+cities are in the UK? Just want to check the streets/areas these places are and see how they are.

The inlaws moved there a few years ago – pleasant enough, and some nice villages, but I wish they'd stuck to looking in Sussex, 'cos we're in Surrey 😮
Varies between flattish and slightly rolling, not much to write home about mtb-wise (locals might say different) but probably pretty good for fast road rides.

I suspect Bury St Edmunds (close to where they live) might be the more expensive end of things re living expenses, but is a pretty useful town centre, and a little busier than most round there in the evenings – tho' for a bit more evening activity Ipswich would be a better bet – I spent a summer there when doing a summer project at Martlesham (BT) and would certainly have considered living there.

One downside of that neck of the woods is that it's not always easy to find a pint of real ale other than Greede King..

Avoid Haverhill, rotten place, was originally London overspill much the same as Thetford was

Lowestoft ain't too charming either

I live in Bury St Edmunds and it is a fairly expensive part of East Anglia to live in. Saying that though, we are quite close to the coast, the forest, A14 etc. Riding isn't the highest etc but you can have good fun here and there is quite a thriving biking community.
Elmswell is only up the road along with Thurston. These are fairly good places to live, not far from Stowmarket, Bury and Ipswich and cheaper to rent or buy.
If you choose to move into Suffolk and around Bury, look me up and we can go riding.

Is there anything in the way of dirt jumping/trails or things like that? I don't mind not having any XC so much but I need to get out on the bike and have fun most evenings otherwise I can see me putting on the pounds again.

I have another interview in Cambridgeshire which is a higher salary and within commuting distance from home so that's looking a lot more appealing at the minute as I do want some disposable income!

I'm a local to the area and probably will be for a few more years yet.

If the job is in Stowmarket I'd be looking for somewhere to live fairly close to it if I could. Stowmarket is a fair commute from Ipwsich and you could find some villages with some much cheaper accomodation rather than the centre of town, you could look at Clayden, Barum, Sproughton or Gt Blakenham to name a few. If you want to live near Stowmarket look at areas like needham market or coombes (sp?). Or you could live in Stowmarket itself? Stowmarket is not the biggest town but there is a couple of night clubs and a few pubs, there is also a climbing wall inside the leisure centre if that floats your boat?

I guess by looking on rightmove you've only got street names and whereabouts on the compass the area is and it is a little difficult to deciper whether it is a 'good' area or not, especially to the untrained eye.

Yes there are some bits that are better than others but you get that in all towns and cities. FWIW I'd be avoiding west side of town if I could but even then I know more than a few people who live on that side and its no dramas, depends on what you're used to I guess?

A bit vague but if you want any further help let me have your email address and I'll be in contact.

I take exception to the 'lack of real ale' comment!! Adnams is more than plentiful around here 🙂

As for dirt jumps, there's some pretty impressive stuff (to me, at least) at Sudbourne on the edge of Tunstall Forest – known as "Sudbourne Jumps";
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic-3hxj9ciA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_mGtLNiwYs
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/ourwoods.nsf/LUWebDocsByKey/EnglandEastAngliaNoForestTunstallWoodNorthSudbourneSudbourneDirtTrack

EDIT: Although they're nothing to do with TROG, if you post on the TROG forum (I linked to it above) I'm sure someone'll be willing to show you around.

Hey I live here by choice – well choice-ish. Would rather be in Sheffield.

Stowmarket isn't too bad. Would imagine it's cheap to live there as it's not easy communitng distance from London. There's a climbing wall at the leisure centre which gets better year by year. Thetford Forest isn't far away and I would second the dirt jumps. Looks very impressive.

There's an off road group who call themselves TROG and they're pretty friendly, tho if you make any more comments about our beer or our being in the Midlands we do a nice line in serial murders….

tho if you make any more comments about our beer or our being in the Midlands we do a nice line in serial murders

😆

Well I've rang them and basically said "thanks but no thanks". Mainly because of the living costs – after bills, rent, tax, car insurance/petrol etc I don't reckon I'll have much disposable income to spend on anything else. Interview on thursday for a better paid one closer to home anyway so fingers crossed 🙂