Where in Midlands could i move to that is MTB friendly

I currently live in Leamington but with kids leaving home seriously thinking of moving somewhere a bit more picturesque and MTB/Hiking friendly (on my door step).

Work in Birmingham and have to commute in twice a week so would like somewhere with a direct train.

Not yet ready to retire or become a recluse so would like something with at least some sort of town.

At the moment the only place I can think of is Malvern (I also know Church Stretton etc but think they might be a bit small).

Maybe just day dreaming but interested if anyone has any suggestions?

Direct train to Brum, how about the Severn Valley, somewhere around Wyre Forest, it’s a lovely area but not too far to get into Moor Street or Snow Hill, plenty of trains from Kiddy. Bewdley is a nice town, but keep away from the riverside if buying…

Forset of Dean has a mtb centre (south Wales mtb centres only an hour or two away) and cheaper housing than many other places or north of the Forest (say Hereford) to give you access to Forest and Birmingham

Belper in Derbyshire – often wins best High Street awards!

Short branch-line train to Derby, then mainline to Birmingham.

Some nice riding north of Belper and only a short drive from more gnarly stuff in the Peak.

as a Midlander, FoD and Belper potentially both geographically stretching ‘the Midlands’ a bit!

for me it’s basically Warks, Leics, Worcs, Staffs, poss bits of Oxon, Northants, at a push.

depends really, if Midlands = Mercia then it’s wide open 🙂

(I see wikipedia includes Derbys, Heref, Shrops, Notts in the Midlands!)

Oxfordshire, Worcestershire and Northants is Southern!! 🙂

Some people’s geography is pretty **** up…..

Northern side of Derby gives easy access to the Peak , and regular trains from Derby to Birmingham.

Stafford =  Cannock Chase.

How much of a pain would a commute from somewhere like Oswestry be?

Nottingham- peaks, bestwood, calverton woods, loads of road riding

Derby- peaks

Sheffield- peaks, Wharncliffe/ grenoside

Ambergate- Ambergate

You might get a better answer with a train map. I’ve not idea what trains are like to Birmingham but know the riding round north Nottingham

Around Hednesford. 40 minutes direct train to New Street, the Chase out of your door.

Some people’s geography is pretty **** up…..

Northern side of Derby gives easy access to the Peak

ask someone from the ‘northern side of Derby’ if they are a Midlander or a Northerner…

‘Midlands Today’ seems to be a good reference point to me,

BBC News for your part of the Midlands:

Birmingham and Black Country
Coventry and Warwickshire
Gloucestershire
Hereford and Worcester
Shropshire
Stoke and Staffordshire

so FoD is ‘in’, but anyway, yes, OP, what’s Midlands to you!!?

Shrewsbury is another option?

BBC News for your part of the Midlands

You mean BBC East Midlands? That covers Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Rutland…….

I am tbe northern side of Derby. North starts at Manchester/Yorkshire.

Malvern, got the hills for hiking, biking not too bad. Handy for the FoD. Trains to Brum.

Gloucestershire is very much in the South West; both geographically and for BBC purposes (there’s an overlap with Midlands Today historically due to early transmitter strength, but Points West is the primary coverage – it very much isn’t classed by the Beeb as Midlands).
Can also confirm that the FoD is all in the South West.

p.s. I’d go for Malvern.

North starts at Manchester/Yorkshire

Watford Shirley?

For me it would be Bewdley… I live in Worcester already (on the Malvern Hills side), but I just love the Wyre Forest and Bewdley itself… But beware, it floods! Well, everywhere round here near a river floods… Be sure to move somewhere near enough, but suitably elevated up from the river is the key!

Only downside to Bewdley for you would be no train station, you’d have to go to Kidderminster 3-4 miles up the road to catch the train. To me it would be an acceptable trade off to have everything that Bewdley offers on my doorstep mind.

Lived in Leamington myself for a year back in 2005-6, have fond memories of the place, but it’s not a great location for an outdoor lifestyle for certain. Worcester is better than Leamington in terms of proximity to places to walk/hike/ride, but you’ll still be travelling to the Malverns, the Wyre Forest or the Forest of Dean to get a proper fix for any of them, though with 3 train stations all on a main line to Birmingham and now the Beryl Bike scheme (one at the end of my road!) makes it much easier for many people to actually get to and from a train station, it might be an option to consider…

Certainly though with the kids having left home, and the ability to downsize and move to a nicer area as a result, Bewdley is still very much top of my list…

Shrewsbury and Oswestry are a bit too far North in Shropshire for the best mountain biking IMO. Ludlow in South Shropshire is where it’s at in the West Midlands. Mortimer Forest and Bringewood right on your doorstep for natural riding with occasional uplift days courtesy of Ludlow based Pearce cycles, who also host a local DH race series. Hopton and Eastridge (official XC and DH trails plus loads of off piste) are nearby. As is Bucknell (DH trails) the Long Mynd, Clee hills, Wyre Forest and Wrekin.

Being half way along the Welsh border, nearly all the best Welsh riding, natural and trail centre, North, South and mid is within a 90 minute drive. As is Cannock and FoD. In my slightly biased opinion, there is no better place in England to live for a mountain biker. It’s also a lovely unspoiled market town with great pubs and restaurants surrounded by beautiful countryside including an AoONB.

Oxfordshire, Worcestershire and Northants is Southern!! 🙂

The Lickey Hills and Clent Hills are VERY much north of the M42 and within a readily cycleable commute of Birmingham town centre, let alone a train…

In fact, the Lickey Hills are classed as being in the greater Birmingham Metropolitan area!

Northants is hardly southern… A bit far east for ready access to Brum, and a move in the wrong direction for an outdoor lifestyle than the opportunities that lie west of Brum.

Hereford, the 7:11 train gets you in to New St at 8:36.

https://www.komoot.com/guide/31292/mtb-trails-in-herefordshire

Where in Midlands could i move to that is MTB friendly

Stirling?

The Lickey Hills and Clent Hills

There’s no decent riding there….or breakfast sandwiches mid ride

Stay away

^ true story^
the breakfast sandwich options are particularly awful 😉

Forget Oxfordshire, cross that right off.
(It’s bad bad not good)

Forset of Dean has a mtb centre

MTB on tap!

I live in Leamington. Could be worse.
I’d personally love to live Ludlow way, after Scotland.

I should add a caveat to my gushing endorsement of my current abode, Ludlow above. Whilst it is everything I said it is in regard to MTB, I missed  the bit about train commuting to Brum. Whilst it’s geographically close and has a train station – trains only go north or south, not east to Birmingham. It’s actually a PITA to get to Brum by train having to go via Shrewsbury which is in the wrong direction. Sorry, you’ll just have to leave this MTB idyll to us retired folk!

I agree with @mboy and others who went for the Wyre Forest. I live 20 minutes drive away from Staveley in the Lakes now but I still miss the Wyre Forest and being able to ride there whenever I want. Quick enough drive down to FOD on the m5 and a bearable commute into Birmingham twice a week. I don’t think I’d choose Bewdley directly though as it just gets too busy on a weekend/holiday time for me and as stated it floods when it gets truly wet and look at the last 12 months of rainfall! Plenty of options in the direct area though!

Wellington, Telford? You can ride to the Wrekin and Ercall easily, the train to Brum doesn’t take long and is direct, all the riding in Shropshire is a short drive away, and Wales and Cannock Chase are a little bit further.

Stourbridge is pretty decent for a Brum commute, and you have kinver,clent, baggeridge that can be turned into a nice loop.

25 minute drive to wyre forest and Shropshire and Wales not too far away.

I moved from Leamington to Lichfield – Direct train to Birmingham (it’s a stopper so takes about 40 minutes).

I can cycle to Cannock chase in about half an hour down country lanes but to be honest, I normally drive (20 minutes) because I prefer the side further away…

If you are thinking about bewdley as a base me and my wife went there last night fish and chips by the river which were splendid, however we were serenaded by a guy walking around balancing a stick on his head making train whistle noises.

Very strange!

Very strange!

Not for Bewdley

I used to live in Far Forest, near Bewdley, FF sits right on the border between the Worcestershire and Shropshire (family still live there).  The Wyre Forest being right on my doorstep. Then I moved to Shrewsbury, so now in the middle of the Wyre and Church Stretton, plenty of walking and riding.

Now I’m a bit older I would like to live in either Church Stretton or move back to Far Forest.

guy walking around balancing a stick on his head making train whistle noises.

Stick man Steve has apparently moved up (or on) from Stourport & is new to the area

I’d agree Stourbridge ‘way’ (the further west the better) is pretty damned good, though we’d love to move out to or towards Shrewsbury.

+1 Shrewsbury has to be the correct answer, doesn’t it?

Not a train expert but if I’m going for a work meeting at Cannock chase I often stay in Penkridge just to the west. It’s ten mins drive to Cannock chase and has a train station some decent pubs shops etc. seems like a nice little town and surely the rail line must connect to brum?

Another, slightly biased, vote for Shrewsbury. Beautiful town, full of independent shops, bars and cafes. Gravel routes aplenty from the doorstep. Haughmond has great riding for families/kids. Eastridge and Wrekin are 20 minutes away. Longmynd, half an hour. South Shropshire like Bringewood, Mortimer, Hopton, etc. a bit further. Loads of hiking spots and the Severn is ace for kayaking.

We moved from Buckinghamshire (where I was mostly commuting to London every day) to Herefordshire (switched commute to Birmingham) 17 years ago. I did around 3 years of the Ledbury -> New Street commute mostly riding the 6 miles from home and taking the bike on the train (which you couldn’t do on London trains)

Positives were it’s cheap. £12 return (not much more now) and trains were mostly reliable. They did get packed tho, way in from Bromsgrove and way back either at NS or University. We really wanted to move somewhere closer to Brum and spent a summer looking in and around Worcester/Pershore/Bromsgrove area. Just didn’t find anything we liked so ended up quite a lot further west than planned!

Riding here tho is fantastic, FoD and Yat I can ride to (just about), some great local woods 15 mins away, Malverns about 7  miles north. Most local roads are really quiet but in terrible condition!

Malvern is a nice town but expensive and too busy for me. I’d choose Ledbury over Ross for many reasons (other than train station).

Oswestry would be a pain in the hole as there isn’t a direct train and the little one is infrequent and small.

At the risk of offending the Ludlow cheerleaders up there they’re wrong about the comparison with Shrewsbury, whilst Ludlow has better riding from the door, Shrewsbury is nearer to Eastridge, Stiperstones, Wrekin and the Mynd, you’re also reasonably well located to get into Ceriog and Dee valleys and some of the more esoteric Shropshire sandstone riding.

It’s also not Ludlow so has culture other than the Petri dish variety and a direct rail link to Birmingham. It’s not the best but for twice a week it would be fine.