Sold house and Moving to a new area

I would rent for 6 months and see if you like it before committing. We retired to Malvern and are absolutley delighted but not everyone shares our experience.

Hi houseforsale. You are treading the path we trod (but from West Yorkshire) in 2003 to Bedfordshire to be near DC (who subsequently both moved away!) and in June 2012 we moved to East Hampshire/West Sussex borders to be near DD. This is our last "follow me leader" move though! She is sure they are now staying put and was keen for us to move near.

Tips are to explore the area with a list of "musts haves" "would be nice to have" and "definite no-nos" Be prepared to compromise though - you can't have it all.
We decided to go for a dormer bungalow with a downstairs bedroom, currently in use as our joint study but which can easily be used as a bedroom if needs must in future. We wanted to be near other people - not isolated - and not too near DD. We are 1 mile from her and 1 mile from the sea and it is just about a perfect location.

Be prepared to join something to meet new friends and be prepared for that to take some time. You can't replace old friends overnight. Explore what's on offer with groups, sports, shops, etc. and especially local transport. DH is a cyclist and has joined a cycling club. He goes out twice a week with them on long rides, weather permitting. I have joined a local choir and the WI

See it as another chapter of life or adventure and make the actual move as trouble-free as possible by planning it well. It's a good opportunity to de-clutter prior to the move. Good luck and hope it all goes as well for you as it has for us. West Sussex is gorgeous with the sea and the South Downs and lovely towns and villages.

I have moved several times, amongst countries, but my next move will be the big one - to New Zealand. Before I burn my boats, I am going to rent a flat in Nelson for three months from next November (cleverly missing European Winter) just to confirm that it is as lovely as I have found it on my two six-week holidays to visit my daughter and her family.
Before I found this flat in the Alps, I rented in six different departments of France and I knew as soon as I saw it that I had found the right place.
Short term renting is definitely a good idea, as it allows you to see the area at different times of the day, and different days of the week.
The internet has made it so easy to look at properties and the surrounding areas.

Parts of Sussex are still very beautiful. And very historical of course. I'm sure you will enjoy it.

My paents retired to West Sussex thirty years ago. When they were deciding where in West Sussex to settle their first port of call was the local library to find out about local clubs, societies and activities. Several towns where they had found nice properties were ruled out because there was nothing going on locally that interested them.

They finally purchased a house near Arundel and within months were building up a wide social circle based on joining groups whose interests they shared. My mother lived there for neartly 20 years and my father for nearly 30 and each of them had a packed chuch for their funeral, a sign of how embedded they had become in the wider community.

Thanks so much for your comments .. We will be living with my sister in law just while find somewhere.

Libraries are a great source of info pity not many people used them now !

A pity that they are being closed down in many areas.

We are moving shortly to Hartley Wintney in Hampshire from Cheshire. We will be near our family but will be ' Billy no mates'. Does anybody live in Hartley Wintney and fancy a coffee?

We've recently moved from Kent to Devon, because we love the area, because DD is nearby, because the journey is simpler for the other DC, and because it is a planned move rather than the crisis move it might have become.

We do have a lot of contacts and friends here, but I feel that it is the best move we ever made. After years of military quarters, then living somewhere from where it was easy to commute, then a wonderfully busy first few years of retirement, the peace and pace of life is great. Mind you, leaving Devon for airports etc can be a pain which you won't experience in Sussex!

Just make absolutely sure that you really want to live there!

supermum sorry just googled HW long way from Fareham....even though its Hampshire.

Hello houseforsale I live in West Sussex, and I'm also the editor of the 2 new Gransnet Local sites down here: 1) Worthing and 2) Brighton & Hove.
I've lived in many Sussex towns and villages including Horsham, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Hassocks and Hurstpierpoint (as well as Brighton, Hove and Worthing of course ) If I can help with any information you need, just send me a message.
If you are going to be anywhere near Worthing (or Brighton) you might be interested to know that the Gransnet Local groups will be arranging meet-ups very soon, and it will be a great way to make some new friends down here. Welcome to Sunny Sussex-by-the-Sea

East and West Sussex are lovely. My husband and I lived in Horsham about 30 years ago and we enjoyed it very much and made some very nice friends. There is lovely countryside around and the coast and Devil's Dyke are about 25 mins away. Our son and his girlfriend moved to Horsham recently. Having lived in London most of his life, my son finds Sussex a bit dreary but it is a very popular, low crime, area.

As you have somewhere to stay, you will have the opportunity to have a really good look round. I've always found Sussex people friendly and I'm sure there will be clubs and classes where you can meet people.

Eloethan you may have lived in Horsham when I did! My eldest daughter was born at the then Cuckfield hospital in Sept 1980, and my middle daughter was born in the then Horsham cottage hospital in July 1983. We lived in Roffey. Horsham town centre back then had very little to offer, but as we were leaving at the end of 1983 M&S opened, and the town got a new lease of life.

NannaAnna We lived in Earlswood Close, off Comptons Lane, and then Crawley Road, Roffey from about 1976 until about 1983. My youngest son was born in Crawley Hospital (then moved to the cottage hospital in Hurst Road) in 1979. So, we must have been there at the same time.

I loved Horsham - I know it was a bit sleepy and unexciting but we had so many friends there and the countryside around was lovely. I actually think they have rather spoilt the town centre with those huge Sun Alliance buildings towering everywhere. I liked the old shops like Chart & Lawrence and an old-fashioned restaurant we used to go to - all gone now. Although I think Horsham is still nice, most of the shops are chains and all the cafes, bars and restaurants are chains. The improvements in the park are lovely though.

We moved to the outskirts of Blackburn as my husband got promotion. It was not a great success. I had a nice (but badly paid) job there and some good work colleagues, but we made no friends outside of work and the constant rain and cold weather really got me down. We moved back down to London four years later and have been here ever since.

Eloethan we lived off Lambs Farm Road - the Crawley Road end of it, on Cherry Tree Walk, which back then had nothing but farmland and fields between us and Crawley.
Funnily enough I went and had a little drive around there on Easter Sunday, as middle daughter and her family live in Crawley at the moment, and we went there for lunch. There has been so much more housing development there, but it is still a very pleasant town.