The wife and I, having got the marriage kerffufle out of the way, are now considering ‘lifestyle’ choices. Especially, where to live.
We live in Southampton which is a bit naff for MTBing (though nice for roadie stuff). I’m a web developer, she’s doing whatever she can at the moment but is doing an OU degree in English as her one in Yacht Manufacturing and Surveying hasn’t been that useful.
We’d like to live somewhere nice with good riding, some kayaking and a reasonable prospect of having a decent job.
Not much further north than the top of the midlands either so as to cynically take advantage of free childcare at the hopefully still distant point that we decide to sprog.
Basically, we’d like to live in the county, somewhere cheap, near a nice, biggish town with good biking and access to watersports. The moon, on a stick, with a cherry on top.
Any suggestions?

Brighton area’s nice for most of your criteria. Not cheap, though.

Problem you’ll have is that what you want is quite popular so prices go up…

Bristol?

I know a place that covers all but one of those brilliantly. Too far north though.

North of Derby, along the Derwent Valley – Belper, Matlock, Wirksworth and surrounding villages.

• Nice towns and villages – not too expensive
• Watersports – Matlock Bath, Carsington Water and surrounds, + watersports centre within reach.
• Easy to get to Derby, Notts, Chesterfield, Mansfield and plenty of industry.
• Great riding, great countryside, good road and rail links.

Never been keen on Brighton. Could have been the friend I knew who lived there and the nightmare of driving and parking there when you’ve only just passed your test though.
I am prepared to compromise, I know what I want is tricky.

I liked Nottingham.
I’ve heard Bristol is nice too – though it seems to have a very high ghost/vampire/werewolf population if the tellybox is to be believed 😉
I think Sheffield counts as ‘north’ but it’s not that far from what I think of as the midlands. Any opinions on that?

sheffield is cracking

one of the few cities you can live somewhere that you can ride from your front door and be in some of the country’s best riding in minutes

Muffin Man – Other half’s parents are in Breedon-on-the-Hill so north of Derby would be ok. I’ll look into those areas.
My folks are in Buckinghamshire but that seems expensive and not great for riding (Aston Hill aside – we used to have our post Christmas dinner family walks there so I have irrational issues with there being an MTB centre all over it). And too close to London.

It’s a tricky question – picking a spot in an area that covers most of the country.

sheffield definitely. You might need to trip to the lake district for the watersport thing though

Shrewsbury and South Shropshire. Before everyone moves there from the Cotswolds.

South Devon.

Dartmoor on the doorstep, Quantocks and exmoor an hour or so up the road.
Kayaking on the dart or in the sea.
Surfing too and

Shropshire,
Shrewsbury, telford, brum, chester easy reach for work.
Kayaking, llangollen, Bala, an hour welsh cast 1.5 hours
Biking, well once you’ve done all of shropshire theres wales.
Theres even a very big Yacht builder in Bridgnorth who’s name escapes me.

scotland? ive lived here for about 16 years and its blinding!

don’t encourage people to move to scotland, i want it pretty much empty when we get round to it

Go north Devon sucks.

Sheffield is ace. I’d move back there in a shot if my family wasn’t now so firmly rooted in Surrey.

Moved to Sheffield 15 years ago and still love it now, people v friendly and down to earth and biking speaks for itself, think it still has the largest proportion of students who settle down once they have finished their studies as they like it so much

As for watersports you could be sorted at various reservoirs or google Rother Valley

If you live South Sheffield your 20 mins from Chesterfield and about the same from the peaks for your biking etc

North Wales Conwy close to lots of great mountain biking also has good access to watersports close to Plas Menai watersports outward bound centre, alsothe Llyn Peninsula with Pwllheli and Abersoch for sailing, wake boarding you name it.

North Wales really appealed. Our honeymoon was in a tent about 1.5 miles from Coed-Y-Brenin (I know how to treat a lady ;-). Didn’t think there’d be a lot of call for computer programmers there though.
Visited Shrewsbury on the way there. It seemed very nice. Also, I really like Cadfael the detective monk on the telly and that’s set there 🙂

Didn’t think there’d be a lot of call for computer programmers there though

Telford is a big tech centre

do not, i repeat DO NOT live IN Telford though

+1 Sheffield.

Great great place.

Telford is not everyone’s cup of tea. Ye olde Shrewsbury is only 15 mins in the car to Telford and 45 minutes by train to Brum. The likes of Penmachno and the welsh mountains are within 1hr 30ish and the Shropshire Hills have great biking too. North Wales coast seems popular for boating types.

Shrewsbury and Sheffield are coming out on top at the moment. That’s good.

I’ve been to Sheffield once because a friend wanted to go to a comic shop there that did loads of manga. I remember hills trams and a slightly disappointing comic shop.

Isn’t Cotic in Sheffield? Would I be taking my Soul home?

what mrmw said 😉

I’d also recommend the area north of derby, living in belper is lovely. Quite easy to get to various cities/towns to work if you’re looking for office jobs as opposed to freelance stuff.

Downside is that you’re pretty much furthest from the sea you can be in the uk, if by water sports you mean big boats/yachts, surfing or anything like that.

Also, as a co owner of a small child myself, I’d recommend that if you’re wanting free childcare off grandparents, you move to really quite close to them – it’s going to be a lot more of a realistic expectation if they are less than half an hour away than if they’re two or three hours away, where you’re only likely to get help if they come and stay, not a solution for times when you unexpectedly need help, or for saving money on regular childcare if you have retired grand parents.

Cambridgeshire. Only 8 hours drive from Scotland!

“do not, i repeat DO NOT live IN Telford though”
Its not that bad, its just like every where else, has its good bits and has bad bits. The new bits are a bit soul less.
Everyone who comes to see me at work tells me shrewsbury is nice, Just expensive in side the bypass.
I’m 7 miles from town and ride from my back door up the hills.
Email me if you want to know owt else, or try some of the local trails.

I think your original idea of somewhere Nottingham was a good one. Pick the right spot and you have ok riding on the doorstep, great riding half an hour away, easy access to the national watersports centre, a decent city for entertainment.

One of the reasons I like where we live now is it’s reasonably future proof jobwise in that there’s plenty of cities/towns that are an easy commute – Nottingham/Derby/Sheffield/Chesterfield.

SpeshPaul – i used to live in Shrewsbury, Dorrington and Cardington. I forget how easy it was to get out and ride the hills!

forest of dean

Scamper, Minsterley for me.
Working from home today and i can see eastridge right now………….

Agree on the parental childcare = living right next to them (not literally, though Mrs North did grow up with her grandparents next-door-but-one).

The North is, on the whole, really rather nice. I’m coming to like some parts of it, though it’s taklen 15 years to have that effect.

Speshpaul – I was out Eastridge way, wednesday night!

Barcelona. Not north, either.

I reckon nr Bristol would be ideal – not too far from Soton (for free childcare if needed!), close to the Brecons for riding, close to South Wales coast (and N Devon and the nearby coast) for watersports and can be reasonably priced.

We lived in the City for several years – not recommended. Then we moved to a place nr Pill (right by the river Avon) and it was brilliant – easy M5/M4 access, cheapish and in the countryside. We rented a place on a farm for a comically low price – quiet, good for kids, nice views, etc.

With the wobbly wheelers?
was out tuesday night, which was nice.

Yep, the wobbly wheelers! Nice flowing ride – no punctures or mechanicals for a change.

Canada’s got my vote. Bit chilly in winter, but pretty good apart from that. Rock on!

Sheffield 😯

FFS someone will be recommending Manchester next!

Manchester.