Norfolk good bad ugly

North Norfolk coast is lovely but I think housing is expensive. There are many nice villages if you don't want to be coastal. Norfolk and Suffolk are beautiful counties with coast, Broads, quiet countryside. Snape, Aldeburgh, Thorpeness all interesting places.

Of course Yorkshire is God's own county.

There’s a lot of muddling round here Felixstowe is in Suffolk gagajo and Becckes is in Suffolk ilovecheese and so is Southwold
I m a Suffolk gal but Norfolk has some lovely places too and Norwich is a ‘very fine city indeed’
Before moving have some weekends away and see what you fancy everybody will have a totally different idea to you kissingate what is posh to one, is not to another what is crappy to one is a pleasure to another Only you can decide what suits you

I preferred Suffolk because it has a good combination of towns/cities as well as countryside and coastal. Norfolk is very cut off. Lovely for trips when I go back to see family but not for me.

I love the wildness of Northumberland. Love Cambois, I plan to retire there. Very remote yet only 30 mins into Newcastle.

GagaJo

Yes Maw. I still find it so. My whole family live there. I have no desire to go back. If I moved back to East Anglia, I’d go to Suffolk.

Yes, of course, Felixstowe is Suffolk merlotgran. Used to live there. I should know that.

Already addressed the Felixtowe issue BlueBelle.

We had eight years in Norfolk, just south of King's Lynn. I had a good life there, lots of friends, good environment for the children, but the schools were poor, with low expectations of the pupils. I loved going to Norwich for shopping and browsing. In fact, we were equidistant from Norwich, Cambridge and Peterborough - plenty of choice there. I always said we were at the end of all the worst roads in the country - difficult for family and friends to visit.

Best bet is to have a holiday in Norfolk and explore! I am lucky enough to have a holiday house in Wells next the Sea, rented out as a self catering property most of the time, but would live there permanently like a shot if circumstances allowed. Mind you, compared with where I actually live in South Lincs, it’s an easy act to follow!
I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like Wells - obviously, the summer holiday season is busy, but off season, it’s wonderful! A real self-contained community with lots of great independent shops and excellent pubs and restaurants (if a bit over-priced). Property is silly money but investigate inland a couple of miles and prices are more sensible (Binham, for example).

Quite like Hunstanton, too.

There are some lovely villages around Swaffham. We lived there for two very happy years in the seventies and I was sorry to have to leave when DH's contract was up.

Moving to Cambridgeshire was a shock. Very unfriendly, boring countryside and the schools had even lower expectations than Norfolk.

We stuck it out though and we're still here

We have lived in North Norfolk since 1983. The longest I’ve lived anywhere. We are every happy here.
Geography is just geography isn’t it. If you want mountains to look at then it’s not for you but it’s certainly not flat.

There are some very posh folk that live here but there are normal folk too. We have learnt to bow when our betters go past?. Some of them can be quite nice you know!

We live a little inland, have a regular bus to Kings Lynn and Norwich and are not far from a market town. Getting to Cambridge or London on the train for the day is very easy.

The property closer to the coast is more expensive obviously but we find it easy to access from here. There are lots of beaches that are still quite quiet even in the holiday season. There is a bus service, the coast hopper that runs all along the NN coast that is excellent.

Inland, Holt is pretty and has lots of individual shops. There is a public school there that puts on Lots of events in its theatre.
Fakenham has a weekly market and a monthly farmers market. It also has a Racecourse.
The Swaffham is another pretty market town but s a bit far from the coast to go for a regular walk. I think Bernard Matthews bought his first turkeys there.
Docking is a fairly large village with quite a few amenities.

It can be a bit of a pain to leave the county, as Chardy mentioned, but that does work in our favour sometimes!
It could be why our beaches didn’t resemble Bournemouth’s recently.pp

If you do move here and play tennis send me a message!

I agree Suffolk and Norfolk inland may be better than a coastal property if you want to avoid tourists. Definitely spend some time there first and have a look around the area before making a decision. Depends on where you are moving from and what you are looking for. If currently in a City or Town think carefully about whether village life would suit your needs. As long as a village has some amenities and it is not to far from a Town then it should work. Do also look at where local hospitals are, what the bus service is like (sometimes limited in rural areas) where the nearest supermarket is, Doctor's surgery etc. If you do you homework you should be fine.Happy house hunting.

Thanks for suggestions, had a quick look on right move and properties in the Wells Holt Burnham area are out of our price range. We will keep looking but interested in anywhere Norfolk or Suffolk up to 30 mins drive to coast with a good bus service and a regular farmers market or good farm shop. We don't live in the London catchment area nor anywhere nearby therefore expensive property areas are out of the question.

Stowmarket is a nice, 'real' town, as is Haughley which is very near it. Just off the A14, within 10 minutes of Bury St Edmunds, 30 minutes from Ipswich or Newmarket and an hour from Cambridge.

I live in Stowmarket and as gagaJo says easy to access lots of other places. Town centre needs more independents but is possible to get most things. If I had limitless funds I'd move to the medieval grid in Bury st edmunds!

North Walsham. Attleborough. Stalham. Acle.

Martham. Caister. Potter Heigham.

South Norfolk. So underrated. ?

I like Beccles or possibly Halesworth, somewhere easy 20 mins drive from the coast.

We moved to Suffolk last year and love it. Bury St Edmunds is a nice little town with lots of history to it and good road links. We like Diss, and the villages between the two are lovely.
The house next to us is on the market ...

I'm flattered that anyone thinks northumberland is posh.parts of Newcastle are but in the wilds of rural northumberland the poverty out does the poshness. We have the lowest lifespan, the highest heart mortality rate. Having said that its much nicer than flat boring Norfolk and the cost of living is so much cheaper.

Ellie Griffiths' Ruth Galloway novels gives the reader of a real flavour of North Norfolk, I only discovered them after I'd been, her descriptions of the Salt Marshes, Holkham and other places resonated with me having been to those places.

I lived in Bury St Edmunds. It's massively overrated. You can't park. It's ridiculously expensive and dominated by store chains. Stowmarket is so much nicer. Also lived in Thurston for a bit. I liked that more.

Not keen on Attleborough. Wymondham is nicer. Old and New Buckingham are nice. Lovely traditional village greens.

I don't think Northumberland is posh Ethel. It's. A real, rural county, with links to its mining past. I love it and thankfully it's not spoiled by the county set you get in Norfolk. I also think Jesmond and Heaton in Newcastle are hugely overrated and very scruffy from all the students.

The fens are lovely. I'd happily live there again.

We try to manage a holiday in Norfolk every year there are so many lovely villages near the coast as well as coastal resorts such as Hunstanton and Wells. We also like Mundesley a lovely coastal village south of Cromer. We used to think of retiring there but that was before the Grandchildren came along so we stayed near them

We moved to South Norfolk , 2 1/2 years ago and wouldn’t change it for the world.

We live in a beautiful village of 2500 people and the difference between big city living and rural living is huge. We felt totally supported by our fellow villagers during the lockdown .

There are many similar villages nearby Easr Harling, Great Ellingham, Fakenham to name but a few.

Do you research and find somewhere that ticks all the boxes. We choice to live inland , 50 mins from the coast and properties are considerably cheaper with a larger plot size.

I can’t recommend it enough.

Have lived in Mid Norfolk over 12 years.
Two villages, and now Swaffham.

I believe it is an absolute necessity to drive and have transport, better if both drive.
Bus services to villages are being cut.

Swaffham is a small market town, but with regular bus links to Kings Lynn, the nearest Train station is here acessible by bus.
Norwich in other direction has a train station and coach terminal .

Villages are lovely, neither that we lived in had much in way of amenities, quite cliquey, and not much community.

Swaffham has been brilluant during the lockdown with community spirit.

down to earth- We used to live in Fransham, Swaffham was our ‘town’, easier than Dereham which is less rural.
Now we live a bit further North in a village near Fakenham.
We love it.
I think anywhere is friendly if you want it to to be. Certainly if you move to ours and want to join in you would be welcomed.

We have been visiting regularly in all seasons for over 40 years and have friends who live in Norfolk. Just like everywhere else some people will tell you it is very friendly and others that the locals keep themselves to themselves. I wonder if a rent longer than a holiday would be a good idea you really need to be there in Winter to see how you cope. East of Cromer would be cheaper but the roads are not that good.