It’s wet, it’s dreary; summer is but a distant memory and the Budget held some expensive surprises. Little wonder that so many of us toy with the idea of what some call a ‘lifestyle makeover’.
In other words, moving somewhere healthy, close to nature, with a friendly community, where the pace of life is more civilised.
But where to find such a place? One of England and Wales’s 13 national parks could be the answer.
We’ve spoken to estate agents and property experts to bring you the best towns and villages to live in within a national park.
BRECON BEACONS (BANNAU BRYCHEINIOG), WALES
What’s the attraction?
The 520-square-mile national park on the Welsh border is a wonderful expanse of wild countryside, yet it’s within a morning’s drive from London and the suburban South East.
I don’t mean pretty, peaceful poets and nature lovers’ countryside. No, the Beacons are dramatic, dangerous and moody. The SAS train here.
A quarter of a million of the cagouled classes pass through its visitor centres every year, attracted by caving, canoeing, hang-gliding and climbing. The rest are here for the festivals. Hay-on-Wye for literature; Brecon for jazz; Abergavenny for food and the Green Man for music.
But buyer beware – the peaks of Pen y Fan and the Black Mountains – so drop dead gorgeous in the summer sun – are covered by cloud for months on end during the long winters.
Where to buy: Crickhowell
You may be able to find more house for your money in villages such as Talgarth or Talybont in the heart of the hills, but if you want amenities and fine architecture look in Crickhowell.
With its pastel-coloured Georgian houses, 18th-century bridge over the River Usk and stubby little main street lined with independent shops, this is easily the most attractive town in the Beacons.
It has an Ealing comedy charm, with its excellent butcher Cashells, imposing hotel The Bear, bread from Askew’s Bakery and Webbs, a kind of miniature department store. The book shop Book-ish – opened by an incomer, Emma Corfield-Walters – is an absolute treat. You can browse the shelves before going through to the coffee house at the rear.
If you have children, the local comprehensive school – Crickhowell High – is one of the best in Wales.
Getting about: Crickhowell is in the foothills of the Beacons. It is three hours and 15 minutes from London by car and three and a half hours by train. It’s a one hour and 45 minute drive to Birmingham.
Property: The average cost of a semi-detached house is £341,000.
On the market: No 7 Bridge Street is a two-bedroom terraced cottage for sale with Clee Tompkinson and Francis for £245,000.
THE BROADS, NORFOLK
What’s the attraction?
The heyday of the Broads – a 125-mile network of navigable waterways in Norfolk left by medieval peat excavations – was the 1970s when there were about 2,600 motor cruisers to hire.
Holiday-makers flying off to the sun did a lot to shrink visitor numbers and now there are only about a third of that number of craft. Some believe that has benefited the region.
Without the crowds you get a sense of the Broads’ dozy charm. The feeling you get from moving so slowly through the landscape, taking hours to go just a couple of miles, inspires a sense of calm you will find nowhere else. There are lots of places for stopovers, too.
Reepham, with its Flemish influenced marketplace is the start of Marriott’s Way, a 21-mile track now used by walkers and cyclists. Aylsham is a charming market town close to the Jacobean Blickling Hall and it is also the terminus for the Bure Valley Railway that runs to Wroxham.
Where to buy: Norwich
As a city, Norwich has a lot going for it – proximity to the North Norfolk coast, the Broads on its doorstep, its splendid parks and lively restaurant scene and, above all, its walkability.
With its two universities, the city has an arty vibe that is attracting incomers, Some 92 per cent come from the east of England, while 43 per cent are first time buyers. The NR1 and NR4 postcodes on the north side of the city are favourites with young people, while the leafy streets of the Golden Triangle in the south-west suburbs are favourites with wealthier sorts.
Although it’s comparatively quiet, as cities go, it is by no means a commercial mausoleum. Norwich market is a hive of small street food vendors, Jarrolds in Gentleman’s Walk is a brilliant 250-year-old family run department store with a stylish food hall, and the Victorian Royal Arcade has some great indie stores.
The schools – state and private – are a big draw and they include Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form which is rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
Getting about: The train to London takes one hour and 50 minutes, while the 120-mile road trip will take around two and a half hours.
Property: The majority of sales are terraced properties going for an average of £260,000. Semi-detached homes go for £285,000. Expect to pay over £500,000 for a three-bedroom house in the Golden Triangle.
On the market: Claxton Bird is selling a three-bedroom semi in Whitehall Road for £500,000.
SOUTH DOWNS NATIONAL PARKS
What’s the attraction?
Stretching from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne in East Sussex, this is the newest of the UK’s national parks, having come into being in March 2010.
This is brilliant walking country, made all the easier by its 2,000 rights of way, trails and paths. In fact, if you want to discover the whole length of the park, then you can commit to the full hundred miles of the South Downs Way National Trail which runs from west to east.
One of the most stunning aspects of the South Downs is its spectacular stretch of coastline from Beachy Head, past the Seven Sisters cliffs to the grasslands of Cuckmere Haven.
There is a ‘work in progress’ feeling in this national park. Rewilding is going on at a furious pace – already 50,000 trees have been planted and 100 hectares of land given over to wildflowers. Innumerable hedges have been planted, ponds restored and rare habitats such as chalk grassland and lowland heath have been improved. It is paying off – young kestrels have been spotted nesting in the park.
Where to buy: Petworth
Just as the South Downs National Park has a widely diverse landscape, so do its towns vary enormously in terms of social vibe, from the gentility of Winchester to the off-beat boho charm of Lewes where they burn effigies of Donald Trump on Guy Fawkes night.
For a good, solid English country town you could hardly do better than Petworth in Chichester. Just 50 miles outside London, this town now vies with the Cotswolds as a favourite weekend bolt hole for the wealthier business folk in the capital. ‘It has everything they need,’ says Jennie Hancock of Property Acquisitions. ‘From antique shops and galleries to a warm community with a thriving cricket team.’
Some of Petworth’s popularity is down to Nicola Jones, an entrepreneur who started with a cheese room and artisan bakery and has now added a cafe, pub and homeware shop to her portfolio of interests.
Not surprisingly, Petworth is pricey. Hancock recommends the smaller period properties near the town centre as good value. Properties in the outer villages often sell for astronomical sums.
Getting about: Petworth is only 20 minutes from the coast. It is a one hour and 40 minute drive from London.
Property: The average price of a house in Petworth last year was £757,000 and detached homes sold for over a million pounds. A terraced property costs £476,000.
On the market: Barrington and Company is selling a three-bedroom terraced cottage on Angel Street for £435,000.
THE LAKE DISTRICT
What’s the attraction?
Of course, the main attraction of the Lakes is to experience Wordsworth’s ‘still, sad music of humanity’. With all that placid water and heathery wilderness stitched together with dry-stone walls, you’d need a heart of stone not to be moved by it.
Yet it’s more than that. ‘It’s an absolutely lovely community of people with smashing pubs,’ says Olivia Ackroyd, who has lived in Brownrigg House, Matterdale – currently for sale for £1,400,000 – for nearly fifty years.
With 16 beautiful lakes and the top ten highest mountains in England, this is serious walkers’ territory. You’ll need to be properly equipped – not just with hiking boots, base layers and waterproofs but with OS maps and access to a detailed weather forecast.
This really is thrill-seeker central. For mountain bikers, there’s a mix of trails in two of its Forestry England plantations. Or perhaps you prefer the Go Ape high-rope courses.
Where to buy: Keswick
The lovely market town of Keswick makes an ideal base in The Lakes. Situated on the edge of Derwentwater, it is surrounded by mountains and there is lots going on there, from Camra award-winning pubs to nights out at The Theatre by the Lake. It offers good retail therapy, with lots of interesting independent boutiques taking their place next to the big high-street names.
There’s also a popular, twice-weekly market in the pedestrianised area around the Moot Hall between February and December.
It’s the great outdoors, however, that is the main attraction – and you don’t have to be super-fit to enjoy it in Keswick. Easy mountains like Latrigg and Catbells are nearby and there are flat walks around Derwentwater.
Alternatively you may prefer to take the Keswick Launch and sail serenely across the lake, stopping at several sites along the way.
Getting about: It takes one hour and 50 minutes to get from nearby Penrith to Manchester by train and is a two-hour drive.
Property: Prices in Keswick were up 9 per cent on the previous year. The majority of sales were flats, going for £231,000 on average. A detached house will set you back an average of £561,000.
On the market: Hackney & Leigh is selling a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Keswick for £530,000.
THE PEMBROKESHIRE COAST NATIONAL PARK, WALES
What’s the attraction?
Talk to anyone who has visited Pembrokeshire and it won’t be long before they refer to the national park as the ‘new Cornwall’. They have a point – Pembrokeshire Coast NP has the wild, untamed beauty of the South West, yet it hasn’t sold its soul to gastro pubs.
It is heaven for outdoorsy types. Quite apart from the glorious coastal path with its beaches and views of dolphins and whales, there is sailing, fishing, riding, hill climbing in the Preseli Mountains and great surfing at Whitesands Bay.
The housing stock is diverse, ranging from bungalows to farmhouses and grand Georgian residences. They are good value, too. The average house in Pembrokeshire cost £253,000 last year compared to £373,000 in North Cornwall.
However, Carol Peett of West Wales Property Finders offers a warning: ‘The beauty of the national park is preserved by the stringent planning restrictions. It’s worth consulting the planning department if you are buying a property that you hope to extend.’
Where to buy: Narbeth
If you are moving to the Pembrokeshire coast full-time you may find some villages too remote, particularly in winter. Better to settle a couple of miles inland in the buzzy little town of Narbeth.
The town has good sports facilities, a butchers, bakers and greengrocers, all in a picture postcard setting with a strong community feel. They gather together in the swimming pool they saved from closure and Hwb, the food hall and tap room converted from a derelict school. Don’t ignore Ultracomida, a wine bar hidden behind a deli that has a noisy, Spanish vibe.
There is a thriving arts scene – The Queens Hall attracts performers of the calibre of Rhod Gilbert – and it’s a good place to bring up children. It is worth noting, however, that Narbeth Community Primary (rated good by Estyn, the Welsh Ofsted) is bilingual and two nearby secondaries are both Welsh speaking. All this and not a mention of the Grove at Narbeth, the local hotel that makes the travel reviewers come over all faint.
Getting about: Trains get you to Carmarthen in half an hour and to Swansea in one hour and 15 minutes. London Paddington is another 2 hours 45 minutes down the line. It’s just over a two-hour drive to the Severn Bridge, depending on traffic near Newport.
Property: The average price of a house sold in Narbeth last year was £234,000. A detached home cost on average £308,000 and a terraced property £175,000.
On the market: West Wales Properties is selling a five-bedroom semi-detached house on Moorfield Road, close to the town centre, for £490,000.
SNOWDONIA, NORTH WALES
What’s the attraction?
Snowdonia is not an environment for softies. It is bare, threatening, dark and dangerous, beloved by proper mountaineers more than walkers. Nowhere else in Britain did the Industrial Revolution so ruthlessly carve up the landscape. Green mountains were hollowed out to leave bare stones, all to provide slate for the construction of homes – including Buckingham Palace.
Today, this is a Unesco World Heritage Site, putting it alongside the Taj Mahal and the Grand Canyon. Allow yourself to absorb its peculiar beauty and you will see why. Welsh slate is technicolour: in Dinorwic the rock is lilac, over the hill in Penrhyn it is heather red. Under mountain streams it takes on the charcoal shades of clouds. In some quarries it is green, sage and bronze. Yet there’s no disguising the fact that this is an industrial graveyard. 17,000 miners worked here in 1898; only 200 do so today.
It is a great place to climb. Purists love it and although there are adventure activities such as Zip World Conwy for the tourists nowadays, it is not a place everyone will enjoy.
Where to buy: Barmouth
You may need an antidote to the bleak beauty of Snowdonia’s peaks and that should be Barmouth. This town has the look of a Dali depiction of a seaside town with every possible attraction heaped haphazardly, one on top of the other.
Rows of granite houses cluster around a small harbour and sprawl up the hills; there is a colourful fairground, miles of sandy beaches and in the Mawddach estuary porpoises and dolphins play.
The shopping centre is on the up, with winery Wild Wines and microbrewery Myrddins doing their best to educate the public on the joys of a tipple. There are several good restaurants – it even has Foxglove, a vegan joint that offers five-course, ethically produced meals for £55.
The schools have had their problems over the years, though they are said to be improving with Ysgol Y Traeth primary rated ‘good’ by Estyn. Yet the drop-dead gorgeous views are Barmouth’s main attraction. Buy one of the townhouses on Porkington Terrace and you can admire them to your heart’s content.
Getting about: By train there are two-hourly services to Pwlleli and Birmingham. By car it’s 40 minutes to Porthmadog and one hour and 20 minutes to Bangor.
Property: The majority of sales last year were terraced properties selling for on average £174,000. Flats sold for £128,000 and detached homes £744,000.
On the market: Yopa is selling a large house on Porkington Terrace for £750,000.
DARTMOOR, DEVON
What’s the attraction?
Dartmoor National Park covers 368 square miles of which 90 per cent is farmland, much of it wild pasture. Most of the 33,000 residents live in five towns – Tavistock, Ashburton, Okehampton, Chagford and Moretonhampsead – meaning the vast bulk of the moor is empty.
There is a weird, prehistoric pulse to ‘the Moor’ that is beguiling. The remains of the vast, dense woodland that sprang up following the Ice Age are preserved in the form of peat, which covers most of the high moor – creating the notorious Dartmoor bogs. The granite of its tors is molten rock, cooled 280million years ago. People arrived here relatively late – 12,000 years ago.
Scale Hamel Down and the Bronze Age settlement of Grimspound can be seen below – a collection of ruined huts, usually shrouded in mist. But here’s the thing: why on earth did ancient man choose to live in such a bleak, forbidding environment?
That is the question that draws hikers and campers to Dartmoor time and gain. It is a place that connects us somehow to our prehistoric past.
Where to buy: Chagford
Chagford’s warm community seems to contrast with the chill of Dartmoor itself. This is a great little town – arty, welcoming and immensely attractive. One of its main attractions is its outdoor swimming pool, fed by the crystal-clear waters of the River Teign and, typical of Chagford, warmed by solar power. For Chagford residents are very big on renewable energy and all things green.
In the 1890s it was one of the first places to have electric street lighting, powered by surplus hydro-electricity from textile mills. Last year campaigners secured plastic-free status for the town; there is a recycling charity called Proper Job here as well as a community farm and veg-box scheme.
There is lots going on here in the arts, including occasional book, film and music festivals and there are artists and galleries seemingly everywhere. The shopping is fine for a town of its size, with some good pubs, a proper greengrocer, newsagents, chemist and wine shop. There are clubs for football, tennis and cricket and the local primary school has been rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.
All in all, this is a cosy, safe environment in which to bring up children. Just don’t let them wander too far across the moor.
Getting about: It’s a forty-minute drive to Exeter from where trains to London Paddington have a journey time of 2hours 10 minutes.
Property: The average price of a house sold in Chagford last year was £557,000, the majority being detached properties.
On the market: Stags is selling Lamb Park, a four-bedroom detached bungalow in Chagford for £525,000.
THE YORKSHIRE DALES
What’s the attraction?
People who live in towns and cities never tire of the Yorkshire Dales. ‘They come for the more leisurely pace of life around here,’ says estate agent Patrick McCutcheon of Dacre, Son and Hartley. ‘Some 18 per cent of our buyers come from London and the South East, and during Covid it was 24 per cent.’
The beautiful scenery is a main attraction. The setting of rolling green valleys, punctuated by limestone cliffs, viaducts and dry-stone walls is so appealing that properties in the area are usually priced 30 per cent above those in the rest of Yorkshire. The region to the south and east of the Dales, accessible from Leeds and Bradford, is particularly popular.
The north and western Dales, which extend into Cumbria, are wild country where, in winter, you should take care you have enough food for a siege because you are likely to be snowed in.
The pubs and eateries are a joy, the schools are excellent and getting there by train is relatively painless. Little wonder that so many southerners want to buy into the area.
Where to buy: Skipton
The Dales is a favourite with the active retired (best not to call it pensioners’ paradise) but the market town of Skipton has an altogether more youthful vibe. Busy bars and restaurants line the main street, it has lots of sports clubs and independent gyms and it’s big on artsy events too.
Comedy, plays and gigs are performed at the Mart Theatre based, would you believe, in a working cattle auction ring. The annual summer Sheep Day is a highlight in the calendar (though the sheep may think otherwise) but if your tastes veer from livestock appreciation to the more luxurious aspects of life, you’ll find a spa and infinity pool at the Coniston Hotel Country Estate.
Skipton is great if shopping is your thing. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays everything centres around the outdoor market in the middle of town.
The standard of schools is high – Skipton itself has five primaries judged ‘good’ by Ofsted and the single-sex selective secondaries are a major draw.
Getting about: Skipton’s accessibility attracts many of the incomers. Trains to Leeds take 40 minutes, from where the journey to London King’s Cross takes two hours and fifteen minutes. Leeds Bradford airport is a 40-minute drive.
Property: The average property sold last year cost £262,000. Terraced properties are priced around £200,000.
On the market: Dacre, Son and Hartley is selling a four-bedroom detached house in Spencer Close for £460,000.
THE PEAK DISTRICT
What’s the attraction?
Situated mostly in Derbyshire, The Peak District has a variety of landscapes, each impressive in its own way. To the centre and south of the region in the White Peak, there are rolling hills and deep, wooden dales; to the east, west and north in the Dark Peak it’s altogether wilder with upland moors and peat bogs.
The buildings are Instagram-ready: elegant Georgian homes line the towns and villages where stone cottages cluster around duck ponds and greens, while Victorian mills and mines are reminders of the area’s industrial heritage.
Then there is Chatsworth House, one of Britain’s finest stately homes, surrounded by magnificent gardens and parkland. Approached from the south, it is one of the best views in the Peak District.
There is lots here for outdoorsy types. Rock climbers attempt Stanage Edge and the Roaches, while paragliders do their thing in the skies. It is superb cycling country – The Tour de France has passed through in the past.
The downside of all this is that the Peak District can get ‘touristy’. Try visiting market towns around the edges of the national park such as Ashbourne, Wirksworth, Leek and Holmfirth. In the quieter dales such as Wolfscote, Lathkill or the Manifold Valley you may find the peace you were looking for.
Where to buy: Buxton
Known as ‘the Bath of the Midlands’, Buxton stands out in the Peak District, not just because at 1,032ft above sea level it has the highest market place in England.
It has all the elegance you associate with a spa town and it offers lots of cultural activities. The Buxton International Festival is a highlight with opera, music and literary events. It is a good place for shopping, with a Waitrose, Aldi and Sainsbury’s, as well as the more individual stores.
The traditional homeware shop and cafe, Hargreaves of Buxton, has been selling kitchenware and tablecloths since 1865, while some of the cutest shops are in the Crescent. This area, too, is full of good restaurants and bars.
Some of the schools are ‘outstanding’, notably Buxton Primary. At secondary level Buxton Community School has been judged ‘good’ by Ofsted.
Some of the big houses sell for ‘silly money’ nowadays but towards Buxton Country Park you will find sizeable Edwardian houses on popular roads such as Cavendish Avenue for around £500,000.
Getting about: Trains to Manchester Piccadilly take an hour. It takes about the same time to drive there and to Sheffield.
Property: The average price of a house last year was £264,000. Detached homes sold for £421,000. Wright Marshall is selling a three-bedroom period semi-detached property on Manchester Road for £395,000.
NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS
What’s the attraction?
According to estate agent Peter Illingworth, now is a good time to buy in the North Yorkshire Moors. ‘Nobody knows exactly what the government has in mind concerning capital gains tax on second homes so people are reluctant to buy property,’ he says. ‘Consequently, there are lots of homes on the market.’
Many people came on holidays as children and are returning to live here now, either as retirees or to work from home. The crime rate is low and the quality of life is good.
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is a favourite with visitors, as are Castle Howard, Rievaulx Abbey and Helmsley Castle. There are cycle trails at Sutton Bank and Dalby Forest.
‘The area is very popular but it never seems over-crowded,’ says Illingworth. ‘Villages such as Sinnington, Cropton and Levisham are great places to live.’
Where to buy: Scarborough
If it’s the coast that interests you in the North Yorkshire Moors then you are in luck. The national park has a mixture of fishing ports and bucket and spade resorts beneath its towering cliffs.
Perhaps the most impressive is Scarborough, a town built on several levels, sliced in two by high ground on which is perched a crumbling 12th-century castle. From the castle ruins, today you can look down on a keep and broken walls, reminders of the day during the First World War when a German battleship shelled the castle, killing 19 people.
It is a town full of charming oddities. There is a gigantic central hotel built in the shape of a V (for Queen Victoria); in Peasholm Park. Twice a week, Naval Battles are staged on the lake and 20ft-long replica dreadnoughts bomb each other while the crowds cheer. It has its fun fair and arcades but education and culture are taken seriously in Scarborough.
Most of the schools are judged ‘good’ by Ofsted. The Rotunda, with its dinosaur footprints and ancient skeletons, is thought to be Britain’s first purpose-built museum while The Stephen Joseph Theatre, where playwright Alan Ayckbourn still occasionally directs his own work, in a beautiful theatre-in-the-round.
Getting about: East Coast trains operate a half-hourly service between London King’s Cross and York, from where First TransPennine Express connects hourly to Scarborough.
Property: Scarborough has a flourishing Airbnb sector. The average price of a house sold in the town last year was £201,000. Terraced properties averaged £155,000.
On the market: CPH is selling a three-bedroom Grade II listed Georgian townhouse for £220,000.
EXMOOR, DEVON
What’s the attraction?
Since being established as a national park in 1954 Exmoor has seldom hits the headlines, which is the way the locals like it.
‘We watch the hordes slogging down the M5 to Cornwall every Friday and Saturday… and breathe a sigh of relief we aren’t so overrun here,’ says Libby Warden, a psychotherapist who moved to Exmoor from Cornwall fifteen years ago. ‘Yet the scenery is spectacular, with beautiful rivers and expanses of moor, while the coast is rugged and dramatic.’
There is an abundance of wildlife in Exmoor and the locals love all the country sports. The iconic rare-breed Exmoor ponies, Britain’s oldest breed, make the region special. Exmoor is also home to the largest red deer herd in England.
This is an area to which people move to create a home, not to invest, and when they do move they often stay. The rock and blues singer Elkie Brooks and her family have lived here for decades.
‘People move here for the lifestyle and to be close to nature,’ says estate agent Richard Webber of Greenslade Taylor Hunt. ‘We have lots of weekend commuters and retirees who like the fact that this being a national park, nobody can build near to them.’
Where to buy: Porlock
Porlock is a coastal village of two halves. Perched high above the sea is Porlock itself, an ancient huddle of thatched cottages, flanked on three sides by moorland. It winds down a steep hill to the ocean and Porlock Weir where the harbour has been a fishing port for a thousand years.
Today it has the UK’s only community-led oyster farm. It is a busy little village, with a traditional butcher, independent pharmacy, proper post office and an oldschool hardware store as well as several cafes. The pubs are good, traditional ale houses with few gastro pretensions. The Ship Inn has a sprawling pub garden; The Royal Oak is basic but welcoming. Locanda on the Weir is a boutique hotel that attracts glowing reviews in the travel and style sections of the press.
Greencombe Gardens – a woodland garden full of rare and wonderful plants – is one attraction. However, all eyes turn to the sea pretty soon in Porlock. The long, shingle-curved bay of Bossington Beach sits like a necklace between the Bristol Channel and farmland. It is best viewed from Selworthy Beacon, 308m above the waves.
Getting about: None of Exmoor’s main towns have a rail station. It is best to drive – along the M4 and M5 from London, a journey of about four hours.
Property: The average price of a terraced house last year was £254,000. Detached homes sold for £447,000.
On the market: Webber’s Property Services is selling a 17th-century, Grade II listed four-bedroom thatched cottage in the High Street for £435,000.
THE NEW FOREST
What’s the attraction?
A national park since 2005, the New Forest is one of England’s oldest managed landscapes and one of its smallest national parks. The ancient tradition of communing has been practiced here since medieval times, giving the locals the right to graze their ponies, pigs and cattle on the open land. This has given the New Forest its distinctive, wild aura.
Confusingly, despite its title, woodland only makes up about a half of the New Forest’s 218 square miles, the rest is heath, moor, marsh land, pasture and coast. It is home to a range of wildlife: rare butterflies, heathland birds, five species of deer and the famous little ponies. Hiking, biking and horse riding are popular, using a network of 140 miles of trails that wind through the park. As it’s fairly flat it is accessible for the less fit.
Beaulieu attracts thousands of visitors, mainly to its National Motor Museum. Buckler’s Hard was a centre for ship building, providing several of the fleet for the Battle of Trafalgar. More recently the area has developed a reputation for fine dining. Angela Hartnell creates Italian-style dishes at Lime Wood. The chefs at The Pig harvest fruit and veg from their own kitchen garden and Le Blaireu brings a taste of France to Brockenhurst.
Where to buy: Lymington
The Solent gives Lymington its identity. This is a town for ‘boaties’ of all sorts, from dinghy sailors to millionaires on their gin palaces. Stores such as Crew and Quba line the high street. Ben Ainslea lives locally. Yet there’s lots for landlubbers, too.
There is a busy market in the high street every Saturday as well as a community centre, cinema and a seawater lido that is Britain’s oldest. Lymington is very popular with nautical types moving out of London. They look to buy ‘south of the High Street’ where the most expensive properties are found.
Incomers with children are in luck – there is an outstanding infants’ school and good junior and secondary schools. The superb sixth form at Brockenhurst College is five miles away.
The locals are keen to maintain Lymington’s reputation for exclusivity: they staged a year-long campaign to prevent Wetherspoon’s opening a pub here. To the consternation of some, the pub – the Six Bells – opened in the end. Yet life goes on.
Getting about: It is an hour and a half by train via Brockenhurst to London Waterloo. Southampton is a 40-minute drive away and there’s a car ferry to the Isle of Wight.
Property: The average price of a house sold last year was £586,000 and most of them were detached homes costing on average £864,000. Flats cost around £250,000. Mitchells is selling a four-bedroom detached house in Paddock Gardens for £599,950.
NORTHUMBERLAND NATIONAL PARK
What’s the attraction?
Situated to the west of the county of Northumberland, sandwiched between Scotland to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hadrian’s Wall to the south and Cumbria to the west, the national park is 405 square miles of wilderness. What the Roman legions made of it we can but guess.
It is a landscape of high hills, dales and rivers and it is a firm favourite with walkers and cyclists. More recently it has also proved popular with the ‘dark sky’ aficionados. Within the national park the population is only 2,000 and it is officially England’s most tranquil location.
The most dramatic part of the park lies to the north – the High Hills Country. Kielder Water, the largest forest in England, has an enormous reservoir which is a haven for red squirrels, deer and rare birds. The most striking feature, however, is Hadrian’s Wall, among the most impressive Roman remains in Britain.
Where to buy: Alnwick
Alnwick’s location makes it the best place to live in the Northumberland National Park. It’s just a few miles drive to the picturesque villages of the coast – Beadnell, Craster and Embleton Bay – and if you need a regular fix of wilderness then the national park is close by.
The town itself is best known for the castle, the setting for scenes in the first Harry Potter film. With plenty of shops and a weekly Saturday market, a Thursday market during the summer months and an annual food festival, shopping here is an interesting and civilised experience. There is a deli selling slices of Darling Blue cheese; in Barter Books in the old railway station, customers can sample the stock while relaxing in leather armchairs; and an ice cream parlour sells 12 varieties made from Jersey cows grazing in Stocksfield, near Newcastle.
The schools have been rated from ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. With good eateries and pubs, it is the ideal place to take stock before returning to the ghosts of the Roman legions in the wilderness.
Getting about: Alnworth station is four miles away, from where trains to Newcastle take 30 minutes. Edinburgh is about an hour’s drive away.
Property: The average price of a house sold last year was £261,000. Terraced homes cost around £215,000, semi-detached £230,000 and detached £420,000.
On the market: Sanderson Young is selling a four-bedroom Grade II listed townhouse near the centre of Alnwick for £425,000.
