Why I prefer to live in a village

In case you did not know, I just bought a house and moved from Cambridge to a village right outside called Histon.

I do not recommend people who are living here for 2-4 years buy a house as it took us 7.5 months from when we put our first offer down to moving in. I am working on a post to explain it but in short, buying a home in the UK is no where near as easy as it is in the USA.

So I have moved to a place that still allows me to cycle to work, its just another 10 minutes each way but the cycle path provides great access to work and Cambridge still. Also getting fitter just going to work! Don't get me wrong, I love Cambridge but we could not afford to buy the house that we wanted in Cambridge. Its one of the most expensive places in the country outside of London. We are close enough so we can do the things that we love to do like go to the theatre, take part in the great events that they hold and use the rail station for our times away. So I don't feel like I am abandoning Cambridge when it is still so close!

I walk Dusty in the morning, when we lived in Cambridge but it would take 20 minutes before we could get to a park where I could let him off the lead and go wild. Now it is 5 minutes and we have our route that we do before I go to work and when I get home. Also there are several paths that lead off from there so we can go for a longer one if we have the time. We live on the edge of the village but close enough to the centre to walk in.

Only 5 minutes away!

The village we have moved into is very active. It holds a half marathon, 10k, bake off and all sorts of other events that really bring the community together. My village has a post office, two banks, a farmers shop, Co-op, Tesco Express, bakery, butchers and six pubs. Everything that I need is there!

I am not a big shopper and never go window shopping as something to do so really when I go into town its for a specific reason. I would go in for seeing a film or a play or to eat so really nothing has changed!

Also I have met some of the neighbors, I think in villages people are more friendly than you might find in the cities. Also discovered that I knew some other people who lived there.We only knew our neighbors in Cambridge because Jon grew up on the street we lived on.

So I wanted to say that you can enjoy living by somewhere like Cambridge or Bury St Edmunds but get to live the good life and be in a village so that you can get the best of both worlds!

Kimx
American to Britain