Where to live?

[Karen2005]

My husband and I are considering moving to another part of the country to (hopefully) lead a better quality of life (we are currently in the south-east). We have a list of criteria we'd like our new area to have and was wondering if anyone could come up with some suggested towns.

Ideally a medium-sized market town (population between 10-25k)

Good local shops/supermarkets in the town

Access to open countryside (ie we would like the town to be surrounded on all sides by open countryside, rather than it be a suburb of a larger town/city)

Good public transport � ideally a train station serving the town (we don't drive) and good bus services within the town/linking other nearby towns

Access by train to a larger town/city for arts, theatre, wider variety of shops etc

Reasonable house prices (ie somewhere we could buy a three-bed family home for less than �200k)

We are considering the West country, because it isn't too far away from our families in the south east but don't necessarily want to limit our search to that area.

[spudqueen]

You could have a think about Clitheroe which is in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire. There are houses available for the right price
http://www.purplewillow.co.uk/search//1.html?m inprice=50000&maxprice=250000&bedrooms=0&shows tc=ON&orderby=price+desc&orderby=price+desc&se arch_price_on=price
http://www.eclitheroe.co.uk/clitheroe.htm
It is a beautiful location, has great shops and a railway station.

I used to live in Ivybridge, which is 10 miles outside Plymouth which may also meet your criteria
http://www.propertyfinder.com/cgi-bin/rsearch? id=ivybridge&a=qfp&cu=fn-pfc&t=res&pm=&px=2000 00&minbed=0&maxbed=&cat=&q=Search
http://www.ivybridge.gov.uk/

Though do remember that Devon and Cornwall are a long way from London. Plymouth is actually further from London than Liverpool is!

[dove]

cambridgeshire, everything would meet your criteria Karen!

[Karen2005]

Thanks for your ideas. Both Ivybridge and Clitheroe look great (especially the countryside surrounding Clitheroe). It's true about distances - you just don't realise how far Devon/Cornwall are from London!

[mandimoo]

rugby in warwickshire

[Ice.Maiden]

Depends on what work, if any, you're going to do. There are some beautiful parts of Britain, both north and south, but I really don't think you can beat rural Gloucestershire or the Derbyshire Peak District. The latter has stunning views with beautiful countryside.

[angeldraws]

You could try Lincolnshire now its had its earthquake - prices are sure to go down! Lol

[mallymooface]

Retford in Nottinghamshire - less than 2 hrs train service to London - pretty market town with lots of surrounding countryside, not far from Nottingham and York. House prices really good!! Plenty of decent-ish shops, Doncaster and Meadowhall nearby for really good shopping!!

[brionon]

The South East would suit,I think.