I've learned a valuable lesson

Iwas brought up in and for some years after I married, in Coulsdon, Surrey. Good transport to London and the coast and the countryside..Plenty of clubs etc. Moved to a village near Basingstoke early 60s and loved it. Large garden and plenty of activities.When my husband had to take early retirement owing to ill health we had to move to a cheaper property in a Norfolk village. Hated it. So let the bungalow and travelled Europe by caravan for ten years until husband died and I had to come back after spending two years in Spain. I could not afford to move back to Hampshire or to run a car. It was not too bad while I was active but now I am more or less housebound (arthritis) I can only get out once a week shopping and don't see anyone apart from my help. Although Iam on an estate it is so quiet. Few people pass by. Go out in their cars and then shut themselves indoors.
Many years ago when I was working in London one of the employees was retiring I asked him if he was moving. He said he was retiring in Tooting. Cinemas, theatres, good transport meant he didn't need car, etc.

I don't like the house we are in, but....we have a Co-op that we can walk to, Sainsburys, doctors, dentist and so much more all a short bus ride away or even a nice stroll. Some friends were about to move to a village with almost nothing there till he was diagnosed with cancer, my goodness they were glad to be here, the hospital is a short bus ride away in the town which also has a nice shopping centre. At our age, local amenities are a must.
The friend was actually misdiagnosed, thankfully, but he still needed to go to the local hospital till they sorted him out!

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Last March we moved to a slightly smaller house with a smaller more manageable garden in a Welsh town which is little more than a village really and love it. We lived in a small, lively village in Northamptonshire for thirty years but felt it was time to move on and think about the future so we now have a shop, two pubs, one of which does good meals, a pharmacy, a cafe, a golf club which also does cheap and cheerful food, a hairdressers, a church and two halls for meetings. We've joined the drama group, walking group which walks for ninety minutes every Wednesday and ends up for coffee at the golf club, haven't repeated a walk in a year, history society, garden society, we are becoming involved in writing for the local magazine, join in with things like the Town tidy up and I belong to the WI so we have met lots of people.
I do sometimes miss my friends from before but hope more of them will visit this year and keep in touch with social media. I also go out and about with the Urban Sketchers once a month and attend a weekly Life drawing class so there is plenty to do though we are surrounded by countryside and five minutes walk take you into the fields and woods. It is very quiet, though we did hear the church bells when we first moved in, so we have the best of all worlds. The house is newer and well insulated so the fuel bills down by more than half and the house always warm and comfortable. I'm a country girl at heart ad here I can be on the hills for a walk in ten minutes or can drive to the beach in fifteen. There are theatres and cinemas in easy reach and, at the moment, public transport so I hope, when neither of us can drive or when one of us is left alone it will still be a viable and happy place to live. No, the countryside is not overrated! We were lucky though, we had a choice.

Am enjoying London even more now I'm retired. Wonderful free travel pass, free galleries and museums, lunchtime concerts and lectures, parks, markets and back alleys to exploreJust bring sandwiches for a free and exciting day out any time of
year. You don't even need to run a car. Wouldn't swop for anything!

Really interesting thread, and good to see so many names ( new ones?) not on the other threads.

As one poster said, it would be nice to have a house in town and a holiday home in the country/coast, have the best of both worlds.

My partner and I each own our own property. Mine is near the town with excellent links to London, airports and local shops in City centre.
My partner has a thatched cottage in an isolated hamlet. Not a single shop nearby. Very few footpaths so walks are risky. Cottage is dark, lights needed during daylight hours. He loves it but it's not for me. I love returning to my home and the bustle of everyday life. We share our time between the two, spending long weekends at the cottage and weekdays at the townhouse as we now call it. I can hop on the bus for a ten minute journey into City centre, pick up a free newspaper, go to library / market / hairdressers etc. Buses run every ten minutes. At the cottage they only run twice a WEEK!
I try and make the most of both worlds. For me the only thing I really enjoy about country life is seeing the wildlife, deer, hares, owls, birds and fields of free range chickens, once you've risked getting to the public footpath that is. I'm reminded I'm back in the country when I'm met with the smell of the septic tanks : (

Right at this moment our eardrums are being assaulted by the noise of our idiot neighbours, they don't speak, they shout!
There are only five of them in their garden but the noise is ridiculous, so somewhere with nothing but birdsong sounds very appealing indeed!
We spend a lot of time in Northumberland, not far from Alnwick, and if it wasn't for wanting to stay close to DS and DDiL we'd move there in a heartbeat!

I live in a quiet village of 200 dwellings with a church, a pub, a village green, a duckpond and a shop. During the week there is hardly a soul about. It's sheer bliss.

I like lively towns and it's nice to visit London but I can never wait until I shake the dust off my feet and get back to the lovely, boring, old, natural peace and quiet.

My life would drive most people mad.

I'm reminded I'm back in the country when I'm met with the smell of the septic tanks

Are you sure you don't mean cattle slurry tanks, Libbysmum?

I've never known septic tanks to smell. If they did, the neighbours would soon kick up.

I grew up in London, literally 'in the thick of it'. I love London with a passion and always think of myself as a Londoner, but for the last four years due to family circumstances have lived in a small market town in Suffolk. We have all the usual shops for everyday needs, (even a Waitrose!!) a bus station, theatre, cricket football tennis hockey and rugby clubs, a sports centre with pool, a department store no less, and a short branch line connecting with the main Liverpool Street line and I can get to London in an hour. The town has my absolutely essential criteria of pavements and a gas supply - can't live without these - and I have concluded that this is virtual perfection. Family members live a few miles away in a completely rural setting without my two criteria, or any shops within walking distance, and after two days I want to run up the wall and across the ceiling - I can sympathise entirely. Never live anywhere when you are 'mature' (ahem!) where you will need to get into a car to get a newspaper or a pint of milk. You may find sooner rather than later that you can no longer drive and then you are completely at the mercy of internet food shopping and have nowhere to go without a long wait for buses.

Rosina that sounds like us..lived in Sth London me for most of my life and DH for all his life so our move to a small town in Surrey meant careful thinking through. We had a list of 'must haves' for a new home and that included able to walk to shop/s, good transport links to London but less busy than our main road location in S London!
We have managed it! We are in an ex station masters house with trains to Waterloo (40 mins) every half hour almost in the back garden! The house is set back from the road so no car noise and I can see the Co-op from the bedroom window! In 10 minutes by foot I can be walking on the North Downs/Pilgrims Way lost in beautiful Surrey lanes. Best of both!

I also grew up in London, then into a Kent village when the children were small, made lots of friends but when DH retired we moved into a small town which suits us fine, plenty of facilities nearby only problem Londoners have now discovered us and are changing the balance of the town, however I don't think we shall move on at present.

Well here in the depths of rural France my Guardian is delivered to my iPad before most people in the UK are awake and if I run out of milk I can get some from the farm. We don't have internet shopping, but I really don't think it is difficult to make sure that you get what you need when you do the weekly shop. We have a well-stocked freezer, a bread oven, a vegetable garden and a huge larder. It really isn't difficult.

Mamie it sound idyllic and when I am on one of my walks and I see a beautiful cottage in a secluded spot I fleetingly have images of a life there but I am too programmed to rely on a corner shop! I know myself too well..and DH..who would go stir crazy if he could only see trees!

I certainly had moments of feeling like that at first, even in the first five years really, but living here has grown on me to the extent that I now twitch when I am in a town. There is something about living with the subtle changes that you see every day in the countryside and the feeling of being part of the natural order of things that becomes quite fundamental to the psyche. Every year in the garden feels like a sort of renewal (though some might say it is the triumph of hope over experience!).
Hard to explain really.

I think I would have adjustd to a more rural setting too but DH is too much of a townie. I have to make doo with weekly walks to get in touch with the natural cycle , that and my garden!

I also think that the combination of a well, bottled gas, a woodburner and a food supply in the larder and on the hoof in the surrounding fields, gives me a sense of security.

Mamie we too have wells(2), tank of gas and a wood burning stove plus a Fosse septique (but no smell!) I have cupboards full of bottled fruit from the garden and jars of jam etc and I quite like that comforting aspect of our lives - but when I get back to UK and have things like my GDG ringing me in the morning to say she has a day off as working Sat - she will be over to pick me up - I just love it - I love the fact she cares so much and today DGS cooked us lunch in the house he has just bought. It is that aspect of life that I miss so much. So enjoying where I am at the moment and I shall enjoy the peace when I return to the rural idyll in about three weeks time. .

Our riverside town for me has the best of both worlds, we can walk up to the woods and pub in 10 mins and downtown to the shops in 15 minutes. We are lucky to have good bus services to local towns.

My criteria for feeling at ease with where we are staying is if they have visible street lights. One time on a short break in Hove my DH went to the hotel bedroom window and said 'You will love this' it was a string of coloured lights advertising Zippo's Circus, I was in heaven

I will shortly be leaving the house we have been looking after and thanks to KittyLester we have had a superb day at the National Trust property Stoneywell in Leicestershire. If you are interested in Arts and Crafts you will love it.

I'm so pleased that this thread has revealed so many descriptions of our ideal an not so ideal homes. It has been a real eye opener.

I grew up in London and lived all my working life in cities. We bought our holiday house in a small Scottish coastal town with a lively literary and artistic heritage.

We imminently are moving our main home to an E Midlands village, the same size as the Scottish town! Also with a lively culture. Both places have shops, medical care and the full range of schools.

All adds up to perfection for us.

x

We house and cat sat for our son a couple of years ago. They live in a small village within walking distance of Oxford. We found we were bored after four days, two spent visiting Oxford and two visiting Abingdon in the other direction. Once you've done that, you have to go quite some distance for anything else.

We live on the Shropshire side of the West Midlands conurbation, at the heart of the national transport network yet within easy reach of some beautiful walking country. It's the best of both worlds, as we see it.

I think the quiet life would drive us both mad very quickly.

I love living in the countryside. Two red kites over our house yesterday, buzzard breeding in the field next door, woodpeckers and oyster catchers making more noise than any passing traffic. Nearest town 15 miles. But we will be making one more move in a few years and next time will NOT buy a house at the top of a hill with the village at the bottom! When we moved here the bus did come up the hill once a day but not now. It is a very steep hill and if we are unable to drive we will be unable to walk up the hill.

We have never lived in a city only on the edge of a large town or in villages. However, many people move here only to move back after a few years as they miss family and friends. Friends come to stay and say 'didn't realise how far North you were'. As you leave Perth there is a sign saying Inverness 102 miles, we think 'nearly home' visitors think 'HOW FAR?!!'

I don't miss museums, cinemas, concerts etc. These are available 45 miles away in Inverness if we really wanted to go. Having Sky and fast broadband is very good especially in the winter months.

I grew up in rural Wales and for the last 20 years I've lived in a sleepy seaside town in Yorkshire. We moved to the city a year ago and really love it; bus stop 50 yards away from our front door and easy access to the rail station, shops, theatre and restaurants. I also love the anonymity where not everyone seems to know your business!

We live in a very rural area. Small village, one pub, farms, hay-making, sheep going along the village street, two buses a week, village lunches, summer fete, Safari suppers, lovely neighbours, great community feeling and peace and quiet. Wouldn't change it for the world! Lived overseas for twenty years but this is our little piece of heaven despite slow broadband, a fifteen minute drive to the nearest town and very muddy roads in winter!