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Nice Towns

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talltim

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Stating the obvious, but most places are nicer to live in if you are rich. Many of the smaller places mentioned require you to be pretty well off to live there at all and the larger places are good if you can live in the nice parts and have the money to take advantage of the amenities.
Nottingham has been mentioned. The centre has lots going on and there are beautiful parks etc. However we lived there for a year and couldn’t wait to get away. We came back from our honeymoon to find out that someone had been stabbed and bled to death over our back fence. Had we lived in a different part, we would have had a very different experience
 
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fishquinn

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From my part of the world: on passing through Henley-in-Arden, it has struck me as a thoroughly pleasant smallish town.
It is indeed, I'm there on a fairly regular basis. A little busy with traffic (which is a downside) but pleasant none the less.
 

satisnek

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Stone, Staffordshire, is a cracking little town and well worth a visit - if you go by car or bus. You can't moor a boat there (the visitor moorings are permanently chock full) and it also has what appears to be the UK's most appallingly unreliable train service. I've never come across anywhere like it!
 

DarloRich

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lovely: a nice list of pleasingly affluent, twee, middle class towns. No one is going to suggest Middlesbrough even though it is a perfectly decent town. I have lived in some "nice" towns and found them crushingly Tory, insular, smug, conservative, closed minded and really quite bigoted.
 

Bletchleyite

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lovely: a nice list of pleasingly affluent, twee, middle class towns. No one is going to suggest Middlesbrough even though it is a perfectly decent town. I have lived in some "nice" towns and found them crushingly Tory, insular, smug, conservative, closed minded and really quite bigoted.

I suppose it depends what you mean by "nice". You do have a good point there - there are quite a lot of very scenic and pleasant small places in south Bucks which might not be the friendliest in terms of the people, whereas you often get very friendly people who live in places that don't look nice, sometimes because of a "we're in this together" type mentality - I'd imagine there's a lot of this in down-at-heel former mining towns.

For instance, I was in Hull a month or so ago - it's not a nice-looking place throughout (though some of it is quite pleasant) but the people seemed quite friendly.
 

si404

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found them crushingly Tory, insular, smug, conservative, closed minded and really quite bigoted.
could it be because you yourself are conservative (not liking the different culture, pining after the past when you lived up north), closed minded, insular, smug and bigoted towards Tories? I'm being deliberately provocative here, I know, but it does seem like you have no friendliness towards southern Tories, so its unsurprising that you don't feel friendliness back...

Certainly in my 'crushingly Tory' home town (in the area Bletchleyite views as unfriendly because people don't accost strangers and talk to them for no reason beyond 'being friendly' for appearances/cultural reasons or wanting the gossip about this outsider, and tend to formalise social time with friends to make time for it, rather than having it rushed while they are in the middle of something else like shopping - though people do stop and chat when shopping, even if it's usually just hello and maybe some quick little catch up), the smug, closed minded and bigoted people I meet are the generally ones who happen to also be passionately not Tory. Though the passionately non Tories also disproportionately occupy the other extreme (or very nice) too!
 

Tom B

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Specifically towns, as opposed to cities? (Edinburgh and Bristol are definitely very nice cities).

Sheringham
Thetford
St Albans
Peebles

But yes, all of the above are from day visiting, not having lived there.
 

Busaholic

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I think we should differentiate between towns that are nice to visit for an afternoon once in a while (or once in a lifetime) and actually living there. I'm sure I'd hate living in Henley, say, even if I could afford to.
 

Bletchleyite

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I think we should differentiate between towns that are nice to visit for an afternoon once in a while (or once in a lifetime) and actually living there. I'm sure I'd hate living in Henley, say, even if I could afford to.

I think that is much more variable and personal, though. Ormskirk, where I grew up, is nice enough, but if I ever return back north I'm unlikely to choose to live there. I'd likely choose a less nice place with more facilities.
 

Cowley

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I think we should differentiate between towns that are nice to visit for an afternoon once in a while (or once in a lifetime) and actually living there. I'm sure I'd hate living in Henley, say, even if I could afford to.
Believe it or not, I was born in the hospital at Henley... We couldn’t afford to live there though*, so we moved to Cornish Cornwall a few years later.
My Dad worked in Penzance in the 1970s (before the town was taken over by bohemian bookseller types ;)).
I’d like at this point to go all ‘Working Class’, but he was actually an estate agent for Millers... :lol:

(* There’s more to it than that of course. But it’s complicated.)
 

Butts

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Believe it or not, I was born in the hospital at Henley... We couldn’t afford to live there though*, so we moved to Cornish Cornwall a few years later.
My Dad worked in Penzance in the 1970s (before the town was taken over by bohemian bookseller types ;)).
I’d like at this point to go all ‘Working Class’, but he was actually an estate agent for Millers... :lol:

(* There’s more to it than that of course. But it’s complicated.)

When I worked in Bingo Hall Management for The Rank Organisation in the eighties we used to be love being sent down to Penzance or Camborne to do relief cover.

It was so far from the HQ in London that you always got advance warning if any "brass" were going to sully their "Churches" in the sticks - no suprise visits.

Bear in mind they'd only just got electricity and the horse and cart was still in vogue.

Young twenty something city boy with a sports car access to free alcohol in bespoke Dinner Suit the female yokels were queuing up......long before the age of female emancipation in Cornwall - those were the days !!

Wonder what happened to those two ? - probably Car Parks or Aldi/Lidl's now
 
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DarloRich

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but it does seem like you have no friendliness towards southern Tories, so its unsurprising that you don't feel friendliness back...

Southern people are not friendly. They are terrified of contact with people and they seem to be genuinely afraid of talking to people outside of an environment they control.

Certainly in my 'crushingly Tory' home town (in the area Bletchleyite views as unfriendly because people don't accost strangers and talk to them for no reason beyond 'being friendly' for appearances/cultural reasons or wanting the gossip about this outsider, and tend to formalise social time with friends to make time for it, rather than having it rushed while they are in the middle of something else like shopping - though people do stop and chat when shopping, even if it's usually just hello and maybe some quick little catch up), the smug, closed minded and bigoted people I meet are the generally ones who happen to also be passionately not Tory. Though the passionately non Tories also disproportionately occupy the other extreme (or very nice) too!

It isnt about accosting someone, and the fact you think that is what we are talking about is indicative. It is about making people feel welcome in your community.

Not one person in my street knocked round to say hello when I moved in. I went round and introduced myself to my neighbours eventually. At home someone would have popped round to say hello, check if you needed a pint of milk or some tea bags and to point out where the shop was. Here: Nothing.

That's the difference. They simply don't "get" it.
 

Bletchleyite

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Not one person in my street knocked round to say hello when I moved in. I went round and introduced myself to my neighbours eventually. At home someone would have popped round to say hello, check if you needed a pint of milk or some tea bags and to point out where the shop was. Here: Nothing.

That's the difference. They simply don't "get" it.

If they were a different race (I know they're not!) this would be tending towards racism. It's just a different culture, probably based around the fact that generally people are crammed in much more tightly together (in London certainly, where it's most pronounced - MK of course is a very low density town) and so people tend to be much more self-contained and private in their outlook in order to cope with that.

Now, I do prefer Northern friendliness myself, being from the North (albeit the correct side of the Pennines :D ), but I think it's unfair to look down upon it, it's just different. A bit like the matter-of-factness and no-mincing-of-words you get in the Netherlands, for instance. You always know where you are with a Dutchman, they must find English euphemism and waffling-round-the-point insanely frustrating, and some English people would consider them rude and arrogant. But I doubt they look down on it, they probably find it a rather charming cultural quirk.

Down South you'll go to the shop if you need milk, not your neighbour. But they also aren't going to sit there and watch as your house burns down. They aren't monsters, they're just more private. "Good fences make good neighbours"?
 
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Bletchleyite

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(Actually, they may actually be a different race to an extent - the North West is fairly heavily populated with people of Celtic and Gaelic descent, whereas down South you're more likely to find the Normans! Zut alors! :) )
 

DarloRich

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If they were a different race (I know they're not!) this would be tending towards racism.

Actually the two best families on my street are eastern European and African. Friendly, caring, keep a look out for others, help others when they can. Stop in the street and chat, say good morning etc. Worst: Southern! Would walk round you if they found you lying in the street. The only time they were interested in anything community based was over a planning application and only then because it might impact on their house value!

Down South you'll go to the shop if you need milk, not your neighbour. But they also aren't going to sit there and watch as your house burns down. They aren't monsters, they're just more private. "Good fences make good neighbours"?

It isnt about the milk or the tea bags. It is about welcoming people into your community and making them fell part of it.

(Actually, they may actually be a different race to an extent - the North West is fairly heavily populated with people of Celtic and Gaelic descent, whereas down South you're more likely to find the Normans! Zut alors! :) )

I think we are all quite mongrel!
 

Bletchleyite

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It isnt about the milk or the tea bags. It is about welcoming people into your community and making them fell part of it.

I think the community down South is more of a chosen community than a local community. By that I mean I barely know any of my neighbours (apart from that a friend's parents live opposite, a useful place for a spare key!), but my "local community" is found at the Scout Group, at the fitness club thing I go to etc. I think this is much more the norm in the packed-in South East, a distance from neighbours is generally preferred.

This doesn't mean we hate each other, refuse each others' parcels and kick the doors in every time a car is parked out of place. It just means we acknowledge each other but don't really get deeply involved in each others' lives.

As I said, it's just a cultural difference. It's not my preference, but it clearly is the preference of most Southerners.

Edit: FWIW, I think you would find the same thing in the big Northern cities like Manchester, though Sheffield is said by a friend to be more like you describe. The old mining towns have an unusually close community, which is probably driven by the fact that those "chosen communities" I refer to actually did exist within neighbourhoods - people in the same row of terraced houses would all work down the same pit, shop at the same shops and drink in the same pubs. It was just different, but that culture has probably carried on - perhaps in some ways helped by a view of "we're all in this together after we all lost our jobs in the pit".
 

d9009alycidon

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The Clyde Coast has a series of "resorts" that vary from nice to war zones

The Good ones

Largs - very nice
Troon - well, I live there - very,very nice
Prestwick - Quite nice, although on a Friday and Saturday evening it is becoming "lively" thanks to a booming nightlife.

A remarkable thing about these three are the relatively few empty shops, lot of charity shops but still something trading.

The rest, Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Irvine and Ayr are horrible places. Girvan was mentioned previously, it fits into a "not bad but a total ghost town" category, too far away form Glasgow to be a commuter or day trip town and also suffers from having far poorer train and bus services with the A77 pretty grim south of Ayr
 

DarloRich

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The old mining towns have an unusually close community, which is probably driven by the fact that those "chosen communities" I refer to actually did exist within neighbourhoods - people in the same row of terraced houses would all work down the same pit, shop at the same shops and drink in the same pubs. It was just different, but that culture has probably carried on - perhaps in some ways helped by a view of "we're all in this together after we all lost our jobs in the pit".

That is all very familiar! Very different to the south!

Largs - very nice

I know Largs well. Nardinis is a must
 

Busaholic

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When I worked in Bingo Hall Management for The Rank Organisation in the eighties we used to be love being sent down to Penzance or Camborne to do relief cover.

It was so far from the HQ in London that you always got advance warning if any "brass" were going to sully their "Churches" in the sticks - no suprise visits.

Bear in mind they'd only just got electricity and the horse and cart was still in vogue.

Young twenty something city boy with a sports car access to free alcohol in bespoke Dinner Suit the female yokels were queuing up......long before the age of female emancipation in Cornwall - those were the days !!

Wonder what happened to those two ? - probably Car Parks or Aldi/Lidl's now
Did you get a part as an extra in 'Straw Dogs'? Every local who was of age at the time of its making claimed to have been: of course, it was impossible to verify because of its 'banning', but then about twenty years ago the unexpurgated version became available on DVD and, you know what, there was only one short scene with any extras in, and I didn't recognise a single one of them! Must all have landed on the cutting room floor. lol.
 

ChiefPlanner

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The Clyde Coast has a series of "resorts" that vary from nice to war zones

The Good ones

Largs - very nice
Troon - well, I live there - very,very nice
Prestwick - Quite nice, although on a Friday and Saturday evening it is becoming "lively" thanks to a booming nightlife.

A remarkable thing about these three are the relatively few empty shops, lot of charity shops but still something trading.

The rest, Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Irvine and Ayr are horrible places. Girvan was mentioned previously, it fits into a "not bad but a total ghost town" category, too far away form Glasgow to be a commuter or day trip town and also suffers from having far poorer train and bus services with the A77 pretty grim south of Ayr

How does Stranraer fit into the classification , as an (ex) port town.?
 

Busaholic

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Believe it or not, I was born in the hospital at Henley... We couldn’t afford to live there though*, so we moved to Cornish Cornwall a few years later.
My Dad worked in Penzance in the 1970s (before the town was taken over by bohemian bookseller types ;)).
I’d like at this point to go all ‘Working Class’, but he was actually an estate agent for Millers... :lol:

(* There’s more to it than that of course. But it’s complicated.)
Millers in Causewayhead has just closed, business transferred to an associate: I think it was the last one of the original estate agents from when I moved down in 1988, or at least under its original name. Millers was a name I always respected, unlike a few others!
 

Tom B

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Perhaps veering off topic, but outwith cities there seems to be far more politics over parking spaces - often yummy mummies who think they own the highway outside their house and no other folk can park there. In cities, folk are a lot more accepting.
 

Butts

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Did you get a part as an extra in 'Straw Dogs'? Every local who was of age at the time of its making claimed to have been: of course, it was impossible to verify because of its 'banning', but then about twenty years ago the unexpurgated version became available on DVD and, you know what, there was only one short scene with any extras in, and I didn't recognise a single one of them! Must all have landed on the cutting room floor. lol.

Straw Dogs ......Dustin Hoffman and Susan George that was in the seventies not the eighties !!!

Didn't realise it was shot in Penzance ?
 

bramling

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Southern people are not friendly. They are terrified of contact with people and they seem to be genuinely afraid of talking to people outside of an environment they control.



It isnt about accosting someone, and the fact you think that is what we are talking about is indicative. It is about making people feel welcome in your community.

Not one person in my street knocked round to say hello when I moved in. I went round and introduced myself to my neighbours eventually. At home someone would have popped round to say hello, check if you needed a pint of milk or some tea bags and to point out where the shop was. Here: Nothing.

That's the difference. They simply don't "get" it.

One could quite happily turn that one on its head to say that northerners don’t “get” that sometimes it’s appropriate to respect others’ space and privacy. In my experience people down south will pull together when there’s a genuine crisis, however it won’t be done with the massive drama that would happen “up north”.

Please can I introduce another sphere to all this - the south-west - which seems to combine friendliness without the northern “in your face” mentality.
 

ChiefPlanner

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Most of the south? There were pit villages in the south with the same comradeship (but not inhabited by southerners, by and large).

You refer to the Welsh "immigrants" to the Kent Coal field ?

My two pence worth -we moved (by accident almost) to St Albans and a second move within the city brought us to a very run down detached 1930's house in a very established area. Best move ever- we were skint after moving in. I mean skint.

Mrs though it was a bad move , coming to a "posh" area - far from it , we have hordes of good contacts and excellent neighbours - we respect each other , enjoy social links, informal chats and lots of mutual help - not just for emergencies but for mundane issues. It is not like Wales - where I come from - where everyone knows everyone's business back to 2 or generations and you have to go about 30 miles to get "privacy" - a good balance really. St Albans is friendly enough , but not overpowering. A lot of people are happy to engage.
 

Busaholic

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Straw Dogs ......Dustin Hoffman and Susan George that was in the seventies not the eighties !!!

Didn't realise it was shot in Penzance ?
St Buryan, where everyone is related to each other (allegedly.)
 

Typhoon

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You refer to the Welsh "immigrants" to the Kent Coal field ?
Indeed, but from the north and the midlands as well as Wales.
My two pence worth -we moved (by accident almost) to St Albans and a second move within the city brought us to a very run down detached 1930's house in a very established area. Best move ever- we were skint after moving in. I mean skint.

Mrs though it was a bad move , coming to a "posh" area - far from it , we have hordes of good contacts and excellent neighbours - we respect each other , enjoy social links, informal chats and lots of mutual help - not just for emergencies but for mundane issues.... A lot of people are happy to engage.
Thank you for this. I was reminded that when my mother died, we were sent a very kind note from former neighbours remembering the assistance they were given when they moved in as newlyweds from others, being lent or given key items and help with such tasks as getting the washing in if it started raining. It did help that these were Victorian terraced houses, very small front gardens, chain link or low wooden fencing at the back so we saw and spoke to the neighbours. And being an industrial area, men were often workmates as well as neighbours. Where I live now three families (out of ten) have lived in the road for over 30 years, two others for approaching twenty which makes welcoming newcomers easy - no one has anything to hide. Part of this unfriendliness is, I believe, because people think they are only going to be somewhere for 10 minutes, no point in setting down roots - the pressure to move up the housing ladder.
Both of these places are saerf of the river!
 
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