Why we live where we do

We were talking about all the times we have moved and lived in different areas of England which got me thinking what makes us move and what we like about where we live.

We originally lived in the South West but we moved about a couple of hours away to Portsmouth area because of work commitments, moving 4 times but had tiny gardens and found we were looking for something larger.  We then decided to move to East Anglia which is a dry County and quite a good growing climate and we bought a cottage with the garden we were looking for.  We loved it and worked our socks off getting the garden how we wanted and grew lots of veg stuff and joy of joy it already had 2 good greenhouses.  

However itchy feet got us again and we moved to the North East.  Although the garden was on the small side we did manage to buy extra land from local farmer and started again in landscaping the garden.  Trouble was we found it was so cold and the growing season was too short so we had a rethink and decided to split our time between Spain and UK which was great while it lasted but by April/May it was far too hot!

So we moved back to South West England and love it, we grow lots of veg and fruits, on the whole the climate is good and mild winters.  This is now home and I can't see us wanting to move again.

So come on guys lets hear your story.

Apart from 2 years as a £10 Pom in Australia, I've always lived in the City of my birth, Cardiff. My childhood home didn't have a garden, just a small backyard, but my grandfather had an allotment alongside the railway line and I spent a lot of time there, "helping" him.
After marriage, we moved house 3 times, always within about a mile of the previous house, always to a home with a larger garden and bigger garage. They were our priorities.
I played with a second home in West Wales for a few years but my heart is in Cardiff. I've lived in this house for 40 years and don't think I'll be moving soon. Too many new plans to dream up.

Apart from  2 years as a £10 Pom in Australia, I've always lived in the City of my birth, Cardiff. My childhood home didn't have a garden, just a small backyard, but my grandfather had an allotment alongside the railway line and I spent a lot of time there, "helping" him.
After marriage, we moved house 3 times, always within about a mile of the previous house, always to a home with a larger garden and bigger garage. They were our priorities.
I played with a second home in West Wales for a few years but my heart is in Cardiff. I've lived in this house for 40 years and don't think I'll be moving soon. Too many new plans to dream up.

In a way it must be nice to live in a house for so long.  The times we say where has that gone, what happened to that.  Everytime we moved we'd have a massive clearout often getting rid of things we now regret.

Starting life in the midlands, we moved to north Wales because my grandparents wanted to retire by the sea. After that I moved to Southport, Colchester, Somerset all because of work(zoo keeper). Moved about 8 times while in Somerset due to life being messy. Then moved to mull after several holidays here. Best thing we ever did. It’s not all been easy but amazing things have happened and I love it here. This is forever.

Apart from  2 years as a £10 Pom in Australia, I've always lived in the City of my birth, Cardiff. My childhood home didn't have a garden, just a small backyard, but my grandfather had an allotment alongside the railway line and I spent a lot of time there, "helping" him.
After marriage, we moved house 3 times, always within about a mile of the previous house, always to a home with a larger garden and bigger garage. They were our priorities.
I played with a second home in West Wales for a few years but my heart is in Cardiff. I've lived in this house for 40 years and don't think I'll be moving soon. Too many new plans to dream up.

In a way it must be nice to live in a house for so long.  The times we say where has that gone, what happened to that.  Everytime we moved we'd have a massive clearout often getting rid of things we now regret.

I just move the clutter with me. Still trying to get rid of stuff.

Apart from  2 years as a £10 Pom in Australia, I've always lived in the City of my birth, Cardiff. My childhood home didn't have a garden, just a small backyard, but my grandfather had an allotment alongside the railway line and I spent a lot of time there, "helping" him.
After marriage, we moved house 3 times, always within about a mile of the previous house, always to a home with a larger garden and bigger garage. They were our priorities.
I played with a second home in West Wales for a few years but my heart is in Cardiff. I've lived in this house for 40 years and don't think I'll be moving soon. Too many new plans to dream up.

In a way it must be nice to live in a house for so long.  The times we say where has that gone, what happened to that.  Everytime we moved we'd have a massive clearout often getting rid of things we now regret.

I just move the clutter with me. Still trying to get rid of stuff.

I started off in the Midlands, living in Kidderminster as a child, then the family moved to New Zealand for dad's work as a consultant engineer. After 4 years there another move to Taiwan, again for dad's work then after a few years on to Thailand. The family wanted a base in England so chose Salisbury as being halfway between my brother at uni in Southampton and aging grandparents in Swindon and there I've stayed. P and I met here and have both always worked in this area. We have only moved once and that was only to quarter of a mile down the road for a house with a lovely view and a bigger garden where we've been since 1985. I couldn't face a move these days, there's too much accumulated junk.

I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Sweden and moved into town as an eager 17 year old to a flat. I moved flats a few times, with a short stint in Stockholm in between, then moved to the UK in 1998. I lived in Birmingham for a little while, then moved to Leicester for work, then moved on to Manchester, then Grimsby, then Sheffield (as I was still working in Manchester and my fella in Grimsby, so we were sharing the drive). We then bought a house in Grimsby and settled there. A few years later I split from him and bought my own house, not too far away (but nothing is too far away in Grimsby) and stayed there for fifteen years. I would've stayed there forever if it had a bigger garden. Nearly two years ago now, my new fella and I bought a house in Barnetby, North Lincolnshire, and we love it here, but I may have an opportunity to buy my mum's farm, so I might go full circle and go back to the farm I grew up on in the middle of nowhere.

Growing veg wise that would give me 70 odd acres to play with but a much shorter growing window.

So interesting to hear everyone's stories. And so varied!

I was born in Sheffield and raised in a village on the outskirts in the house my parents still live in (they even have the same neighbours who were there when they moved in).

I headed down south (Oxford) for university and spent three years between there and home. Moved home briefly afterwards while I tried to work out what I was going to do next. Ended up moving to Liverpool to take a healthcare assistant at one of the hospitals in the city. After that, it was back to Sheffield to study Medicine. I moved back in with my parents for the first year, then to a studenty suburb with a friend and her husband for two years. They then moved to another city so I went back to my parents' house but was on placement a lot so would stay in hospital accommodation most of the time.

I moved out to a terraced house in a nearby suburb for three years after I graduated. After that, I had to move out of the city for my next job and headed to north Derbyshire. It was only supposed to be a year, but I stepped off the training path for a while so it actually became home for four years. That was where I got into gardening properly. Only in containers though as my landlord was a professional gardener at a stately home and I didn't want to mess anything up!

After that, back into training which means moving posts every year. Spent a year in a terrace in Grimsby with my gardening endeavours there supported by Sarriss who brought me much-needed compost. I then struggled to move back to South Yorkshire during early Covid and ended up in hospital accommodation for almost two years while trying to buy a house. I missed my garden though, and ended up buying lots of houseplants and growing herbs and micro tomatoes (thanks to TMTT!) on every available windowsill.

Eventually bought my house and have been there 17 months, though I'm having to rent rooms elsewhere in the region at times for work. The house is a bit of a disaster (no bed, still using my vendor's left-behind furniture, barely-functional kitchen, etc) but I'm making decent progress on the garden at least! It's not the forever house and the garden is smaller than I'd ideally like so I'll eventually sell and move closer to the hospital where I end up as a consultant (around 15 months left of my training, but I won't move right away). That means I'm not just deciding which hospital I want to work in but also where I want to live, potentially for the next few decades of my life. Big decision!

I grew up in the welsh valleys, in a little estate a stones throw away from a small mining village. A tight community where everyone knows who you are and bringing over some spare mushrooms, apple pie or a pheasant is the norm and having a chat to everyone you pass in the street the done thing.
I couldnt wait to escape not realising how lucky I was to grow up in such a lovely place.
I moved to Manchester to go to college. Absolutely loved the buzz there and shared several houses with my friends. Textile/ fashion/graphic designers. Rented places that were walking distance into town, also student areas around fallowfield and Salford quays just as it started to get swanky. Lots of students worked in the Odeon but I loved pulling a pint of Bodies!
I eventually got a job in Sale as a kidswear designer and moved back to Fallowfield with a group of designers that all worked in the same place and stayed there for nearly 3 years.
One Christmas I went home and on Christmas eve went out to the local pub on top of a mountain. I drove up and on the way up we came across two lads walking and my Mam offered them a lift. I ended up marrying one of them and as he hated our 6 month stint of living in land locked Macclesfield we went to fuerteventura for 3 months to learn to windsurf .
When we got back I had missed the working life and I moved to London. OH came with me and we rented in Brixton with some friends, then Wembley and then bought a flat in Maida Vale.
After a few years I got pregnant with twins. When they were born I did freelance with the odd day in the office but as they started to grow moving was a must.
We looked in London and actually put on offer on a house but at the last minute decided it was no place for bringing up kids.
OH still needed work ( London or Bristol) - so we looked along the M4 corridor, I knew Bath well and we eventually found somewhere 10miles out that was close to a train station and also the M4.
We have been here 25 years, its not friendly like wales or Manchester but I love the house and garden. It has been a family home.
My boys have finally put an offer on a house of their own. To get onto the property ladder they will buy together OMG! Anyway, it may be the nudge we need to move. OH wants to live by the sea, the house is to big for us on our own. I will miss the garden. The decision hasnt been made yet, maybe we stay for a few more years but it's definitely something we need to consider.
Thats it - my life story