Lincolnshire

Stamford is lovely - or the surrounding villages which are slightly less expensive. My daughters went to school there. The George Hotel on the way into the town was a coaching inn on the road between London and Scotland and is very historic. The River Welland runs through the town and is a great place to visit for a picnic with visitors or a runaround with grandkids.
There is a strong arts scene and plenty of things to do too. Alternatively head further north to the Wolds - Louth is a lovely market town and the centre of community life in that part of the county.

Agree that Stamford is lovely, Burghleigh House too. And so close to lovely Rutland and Rutland water, and all the lovely towns of Oakham, Uppingham, Oundle, etc. And The George an absolute delight.

Most of Lincolnshire is far too flat for me, and too remote.

Digby but no buses or doctors in the village but it's beautiful. Sleaford has more to offer.

Claremont- most of Lincolnshire is far too flat for me, and too remote

I would agree with too remote; if you’re not familiar with the county Rainbow24 bear in mind there are no motorways, most of the roads are single carriageways, train links are poor and bus services slow with poor connections.
We moved to Lincolnshire @13 years ago from Surrey; in one of the fields bordering the A16 just north of Peterborough there used to be a large huge sign painted on the side of an old lorry-
‘You are now leaving the future’.
Still makes me smile, it’s very true.

*got carried away- should say large sign

The so-called 'cliff villages' along the A607 running south from Lincoln are worth a look. With many of the houses built from the oolitic limestone of the Lincolnshire Edge on which they stand, the area is sometimes called the 'Notswolds'. There is good access to GP services, and buses run to and from Lincoln every half hour during the day. And you get to see (and hear) the Red Arrows polishing their formation flying during the winter months, from their base at RAF Waddington. Direct train services from Lincoln to London.

Have a look at Ruskington - a large village and not on the main road to anywhere so fairly quiet. However, it's not far from the A15 and A16 and also has pretty good train services to Lincoln and Peterborough.

Woodhall Spa is lovely but has no railway and is fairly remote from any major connurbation. The same applies to Alford - an attractive and friiendly small town but transport links leave much to be desired.

We moved to Boston from busy Lancashire 48 years ago, because it was a nice town with a great market and lots of open countryside around it. It`s no longer any of that, the market has dwindled and loads of shops have closed down. The crime figures seem to have risen as well. You may have gathered that I`m not recommending that you move here, lol!

Lincolnshire is the second largest county in England and varies dramatically from place to place.
I assume the OP is referring to Lincoln as the City centre.
I can only suggest renting a holiday cottage for a couple of weeks and exploring the area.

Bourne is nice, Stamford is lovely and the Wold too, avoid the further up seaside areas.

Hellogirl1

We moved to Boston from busy Lancashire 48 years ago, because it was a nice town with a great market and lots of open countryside around it. It`s no longer any of that, the market has dwindled and loads of shops have closed down. The crime figures seem to have risen as well. You may have gathered that I`m not recommending that you move here, lol!

It’s such a shame as Boston was an ideal location and used to be so nice, the river and some great properties

For family reasons we visited Louth a lot some years ago and found it had everything but not easily accessible to Lincoln. If you wanted the sea Sutton seemed to be a good retirement spot
Definitely go and stay for a bit and explore

Second Bodach with the suggestion of the cliff villages. Buses every half hour to Lincoln, though the furthest villages only get one an hour. Most have local shops and Navenby has quite a range. Navenby/Wellingore have a doctor.
However, there are loads of proposed solar farms throughout Lincolnshire if this worries you.

I knew someone that moved to Lincolnshire- it was very quick and rushed because they sold their property more quickly than they anticipated.

Within months they felt trapped in a small village with few amenities and were very dependent on the car as public transport was poor, they had to drive quite long distances to get even the most basic items, though I suppose nowadays you can buy most stuff on-line.

Although they had a lovely bungalow and garden it was not quiet because at night the local boy racers would charge up and down the roads on the their quad bikes etc!

Yes, they were close to the sea but in an area liable to flooding also.

My advice is to do your homework well before making the move. Look at local amenities and transport links particularly, GPs, dentists and hospitals.

I hope your move goes well though, there are lots of lovely parts of Lincolnshire but I suspect you have to pay more for the well-served places.

Nandalot

Second Bodach with the suggestion of the cliff villages. Buses every half hour to Lincoln, though the furthest villages only get one an hour. Most have local shops and Navenby has quite a range. Navenby/Wellingore have a doctor.
However, there are loads of proposed solar farms throughout Lincolnshire if this worries you.

Don't forget burger boys pylons. Quite happy to ruin our beautiful country side, decimate our farms even more, for his net zero project, to send electricity down south to an ever over populated London making people poorer , both money wise and living wise.

Broadband is not great in many of these rural counties.

People forget that when they are looking at the cheaper property prices.

Plus being able to drive is a must in some of these little villages.

And hospitals are not on the doorstep.

As for banks and post offices….

Wondering why Lincolnshire Rainbow24?
And you want to be near Lincoln I assume?

Quite a bit of anti Lincolnshire here. I love it. The space, the skies.

My nightmare is the Lake District.

All that rain and oppressive hills.

Each to their own 😬🤣🤣

Don`t get me wrong, I still love Lincolnshire, but am so disappointed at how much Boston has gone downhill. I definitely wouldn`t return to Lancashire, or Greater Manchester as it became.

I like Stamford too but it is a bit hilly with wobbly streets which might be difficult as we all get older and less mobile. The last time we went my husband just moaned the whole time

sorry that most probably wasn't useful

JaneJudge - you are right about difficulties navigating some of the streets of Stamford. Latterly my elderly father lived there and as he became more disabled we found taking him out in his wheelchair was more difficult than we had appreciated. The town is quite hilly and some of the streets are cobbled. Also we found access to some of the quaint old shops was nigh impossible - many buildings are listed and adapting them for disabled access wasnt practical. This is probably not a major consideration for most people but I thought I would just mention it. Stamford it still a lovely town - I would love to live there!

Whilst it is good to read other peoples views of places, if you are planning to live somewhere then I think it is worth the effort of checking the area out yourself. I have moved 19 times both here and abroad and have always thought it worth the time and money. So the easiest first bit is you could ask your newsagent to get you several local lincolnshire papers of towns or cities that you are considering. They usually come out weekly or fortnightly. When you have read them for a few weeks it will give you a bit of an overview of the place as it is now.

Sometimes through change of roads or more buildings or whatever, somewhere that 5 years ago really suited someone, now might be quite different. Then think of what things you really like to do, So if you are a bridge player or belong to WI or Rotary groups or whatever, you should be able to look up the local groups and see if there is one in an area you are interested in.

Once you have some general idea then I really do advise going to stay probably b/b for a few days in each location. The person you stay with will probably be a fount of knowledge of the area, and point you in the right way as to the best areas or streets that might suit you. You could try anytime but I deliberately go in autumn/winter to see what it is like when the sun is not shining and there are no tourists about . Is there still quite a lot going on or is everywhere deserted? If you look in the summer you can see whether there are a lot of hold ups on the road etc. But my favourite thing is , I am a gardener, and it would matter to me what you could grow and the sort of soil etc. You can buy the great NGS book now and this will show you gardens open to the public for charity. So you can pick your area and have the pleasure of visiting some gardens, meeting lots of people and getting a general sense of the place. As that is my interest , it has enabled me to meet other gardeners, find out about the gardeners clubs etc and often helped me find places I might have missed.

When I have found a possible place I have also made the effort to take a picnic with me and so forth and go and sit in the area for a day. I even made a little chart of time of day and different traffic. It may seem a bit extreme, but one property we had been quite keen on turned out to be on a rat run and had a lot of traffic for much of the day. We didnt go ahead with that but found another place which we bought. You hope to be in a home for a long time and I think it is worth the effort. I spent over 20 years in my last house and only moved due to health things, so it definitely was very worth while to make that effort for me. Good luck with your search

Lathyrus3

Quite a bit of anti Lincolnshire here. I love it. The space, the skies.

My nightmare is the Lake District.

All that rain and oppressive hills.

Each to their own 😬🤣🤣

I’m not anti Lincolnshire, we’ve settled very happily BUT it’s important to be honest about the lack of services and distances to travel if you’re not in the vicinity of Lincoln.