Making the move up north

Anyone done the move from down South up North?

Potentially looking for insights as we have reached a stage where enough equity to sell
up means a decent house, with no or little mortgage…
Also our local secondary school choice is in special measures… making a move quite necessary.
Any advice welcome.

The North is pretty big, which part?

You obviously have children, hence the school reference.

I moved schools as a child and my younger brothers moved twice. Not a good experience and worse for my brothers.

On the plus side I moved as a child from the East End of London to Milton Keynes as it was developing and had a great time.

I moved to Staffordshire when I was 18 and found the culture quite different. It really was like going back in time but that was in the 80’s.

I would never move back South unless it was to be near the coast. I live in a nice house that southern friends and relatives cant afford where they are so thats a real plus point.

As above my only real advice is think of the children. My wife also moved around as a child and we have said that we will not do the same to our children.

Yeah, should have been a bit more specific – Lancashire or Yorkshire, potentially around the Ilkley area. V much a blank sheet of paper though. Good point about moving kids about – I’m hoping this will be the first and last time and because they’re young won’t be too affected. Time will tell though!

Lancashire and Yorkshire are very different

One side is grey and miserable and full of unhappy and unhelpful folk

the other side is Lancashire

In reality its like two bald men arguing over a comb

Been a couple of threads on here recently about moving to the Ilkley area. Nice place, but some of the most expensive houses in England. Other places to consider would be Otley or Skipton – the latter apparently has very good schools.

Don’t move to Lancashire – its wet, windy and whingey 😉

We moved up from Reading to County Durham when our kids were born, because I wanted to bring them up in northern England.

Now we’re in Skipton, just up the road from Ilkley – couldn’t be a better spot for us, really.

My only advice would be to do your research on things like jobs and schooling well in advance, and try to get a real feel for the town or area before jumping.

East Cheshire/ High Peak is good. Peak District on your doorstep too.

“Secondary school going into special measures “
Isn’t that just an excuse to turn the school into an academy !

Thanks guys…

Martinhutch – Spooky we are based Reading, visited Skipton during half term week…

liked the place a lot, would be happy to change to that lifestyle.

i consult/contract and is flexible and with little or no mortgage i’m not tied to a single place of work
Mrs also freelance with rolling clients so equally flexible.

Just need to do the right thing for the boys etc

I’m thinking Cumbria!

Skipton has two excellent grammar schools, if that’s an option. Ilkley has a slightly different atmosphere – bit wealthier, more commuting into Leeds etc. Property prices reflect this.

Both are vastly nicer than Reading! In my opinion, of course…

My god, anything would be better than Reading – even Yorkshire..!

(I’m still amused at the idea people have that “The North” or “The South” are homogeneous places and at the same time a foreign land.)

I grew up in “The South”. I live in “The North”. They’re basically the same, but with different accents. Some places are nice, some not. Some are expensive, some not.

I’m still amused that people believe Cheshire/Yorkshire/Lancashire to be ‘North’.

Where you from Kev? Iceland? 🙂

Doing it in a couple of months, at last.

Can’t wait!

FWIW we moved from rural Oxfordshire to urban Newcastle upon Tyne when I was 15. The toughest part for us kids was the change of schools and learning the new accent. For my Dad leaving general practice and going into academia was a disaster and far more stressful than he had ever anticipated. However Newcastle is a great city and we enjoyed it, while Northumberland is a superb county.

Where do you plan to work?

i consult/contract and is flexible and with little or no mortgage i’m not tied to a single place of work
Mrs also freelance with rolling clients so equally flexible

If you are not so bothered about needing to be near work and/or commuting I’d look for somewhere cheaper than near the ‘golden triangle’ – we moved earlier in year from Buckinghamshire to the Scottish Borders.

Better riding, cheaper, very good schools (moved from private to state) and living out in the country – the kinda place where you leave the car keys in the ignition so at least you’ll be able to find them 🙂

Depends on your budget and how close to civilisation you’d like to be. If I could afford to live somewhere around Keswick I’d do that, but we’re moving to Calderdale soon – seems a good compromise of decent riding, nice scenery and nice people, but close to Leeds/Manchester for work etc.

Hi,
try looking at Bramhope,Pool,Adel area…i think you’ll like them all.Ilkely over rated in my opinion.Also great riding from the door step,including Adel woods and the infamous jumps !

When we were looking to be near Leeds we were favouring Otley and Horsforth, as others have said – Ilkley was way too pricey.

Slightly OT but the school in special measures is no bad thing. It means that get some very good teachers and a fair amount of money thrown at them to get better, most will fast beget to ‘good’ standard. You want to be more wary of the schools that float around the satisfactory level.

Ilkley’s nice but overpriced compared to neighbouring towns & villages (e.g. Otley, Baildon, Menston, Guiseley, Burley-in-Wharfedale); the river floods regularly so can add to the traffic congestion – which is dreadful at the best of times.
Train line only goes to Leeds (and beyond) or Bradford.
A good hour’s drive from the nearest motorway to head anywhere else longer distance.

on the plus side, the A65 will get you into the Dales in less than 15 minutes (Bolton Abbey) and the Lakes in about an hour. Which is just as well, because the bulk of Ilkley Moor, the “obvious” local MTB stuff, is either off limits or so boggy as to be unrideable for 48 weeks out of 52

Hiya
We did it went from the south to the north, it was a bit of a daunting task. But glad we did it.

I’m still amused that people believe Cheshire/Yorkshire/Lancashire to be ‘North’.

Still? Really??

‘ – we moved earlier in year from Buckinghamshire to the Scottish Borders

Snap! Just had had 5 years in edinburgh in the middle though. Been in the borders 7 years now and love it.

North? pffft I did do South (Yorkshire) to North (mid Highlands) 😉

Just moved from London to Ilkley, main drivers were

Get out of London so the kids don’t grow up there (they are twins @ 3)
Release equity
Move near countryside
Move near parents / family

All good so far. Have to spend a lot of time traveling to Surrey (4 hours drive), but the trade off is access to babysitting and the Dales NP every weekend.

Ilkley is nice but also an odd place, almost everyone I talk to is either old or works in London…

Depending on your exact requirements could you consider North Yorkshire? We’re in Boroughbridge, excellent school, not that far from Leeds if you really must go there, (Mrs is at the LGI), midway between York & Harrogate & pretty much midway between the Dales & The North York Moors, right on the A1M, the locals actually speak to you, & (most importantly of all) the Black Bull sells the best pint of Timothy Taylors in the land. We won’t be moving till we have to thats for sure.

I grew up in Cheshire and came down to London for uni at 18 and stayed. Moved back to Cheshire a couple of years ago because I thought I’d had enough of London.
Missed it like crazy. The culture, the air of ambition, decent summer weather, plentiful jobs, energy.
Luckily I was screwed out of my job by my boss. COuldn’t find another job in Manchester and came back to London. I don’t think I’ll leave again

We moved from Sussex to Derbyshire in 2000 – we couldn’t support a family on one wage down south, so we upped sticks when MrsMCTD found a job up here – we were lucky she is in a high demand profession and could have found a job anywhere, especially at that time, maybe harder now.

Had the option of buying an identical 3 bed semi like we had down south outright, but ended up buying a bigger family home in a decent village with a small mortgage which has 3 years left to run. Not sure what the differential would be nowadays.

Downsides – I’ve had a variety of so-so jobs and not got anywhere near the level or salary that we had down south.

Upsides – we have two great children, a great work life balance, a reasonable standard of living but by no means extravagent, made great friends.

Regrets – None, really. I’d have liked to have gone further north ideally, but we needed reasonable travel time back down to family in Sussex

Oh yes, the old “sell our house in the southeast for bucket loads and buy outright in The North(tm)”.

Which is why the locals just love evryone from the southeast….

hello mate, if you ride mountain bike yorkshire and lancashire are brill, iam from wigan lanashire , the most important thing is we drink beer not shandy if you can adopt that you will be fine , only joking, been down south quite a bit and its a no thanks from me love it up north , some foods you will have to get use to but its real food not some fancy sushi or jamie frigin oliver bullshit, chips pee wet and gravy, chips babyshead and gravy, lobbys, and as a wiganer how can you forget a pratter pie, love wigan people are nice they say good morning , people in the souf havent got the time of day for you to far up their own arses , move up here you will love it, born and bread northerner for 40 years

FWIW we moved from rural Oxfordshire to urban Newcastle upon Tyne when I was 15. The toughest part for us kids was the change of schools and learning the new accent.

I was a bit like globalti. Moved from the leafy suburbs of Wembley to the North East when I was 7.

Probably worth renting, even for a few months, no point in committing to an area before you really know it.

School-wise, again don’t expect to walk into the school of your choice and get a slot, especially the popular ones (i.e. the good ones).

So basically, do your homework. And it’s gonna be a bigger shock to your kids than you. They’re gonna be in a strange town/school with no support structure from friends, and they’re gonna stick out like a sore thumb with cockney accents. I went from a really talkative kid to just about mute but I’d lost my father at same time too (hence move back up to mothers original home town) but they’ll probably need support.

Harrogate & Knaresborough are worth ‘a gander’ to use your vernacular.

Bit closer to York while remaining sufficiently distant from Leeds. Or Richmond. Decent Schools round all those parts.

Yorkshire / Derbyshire side is an intellectual, cultural and footballing Siberia, but seems a lot better for the landscape (and riding). It’s vice verca with Lancashire / Cheshire. So comes down to what you’re looking for – easy to reside in civilisation and go to Dbyshire for the MTBing.

Derbyshire for mtb..over Yorkshire…..hahahahhh.I jest,but really ? I have a good mate that grew up on a farm in Derbyshire.
T’was great, although the caving is prob better than T’Dales.
I lived in Langcliffe for several yrs,just near settle…in my experience the Dales is better for mtb.
Higher,quieter,wilder,and better looking imo…however i also lived in Ambleside and the Lakes blows both away for mtb.
Again,Ilkley over rated,try looking at N Leeds.
Otley can be very rough at night,alot better than the early 90’s though.Its also a bit of a marmite town,you either fit in or you don’t.

Skipton: if I could move, it would be there.
Great town, good communications, fantastic for the dales.
Do it