5 days ago
This couple believe they've found the recipe for the perfect rural life
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Vicky and Tom Horwood arrived in Petersfield, Hampshire, to find the answer to an important question – was this somewhere they could move to?
The couple, 34 and 36, had been living in Slough, but during lockdown they decided to sell their flat and moved in with Tom's parents in Sutton, south London, while looking for a new place to live.
Their new home had to be close enough to both their parents and within commuting distance of Tom's work, near Heathrow. They wanted a reasonably sized town with a choice of pubs, a cricket club and an arts scene for Vicky – who is a sustainable jewellery maker.
But most of all, they were looking for community – a small town with a village feel.
They had visited Petersfield by chance the year before, and liked the feel of the place. 'I'd grown up on the south coast in a friendly community – you'd always say good morning to your neighbours. I missed it. I felt I was anonymous living in London,' says Vicky.
'I wanted to move to a place with a creative spirit, an interest in environmental causes, and where there'd be like-minded people… I wanted to feel part of something.'
Tom, who has played cricket since childhood, had researched Petersfield's cricket club meticulously. He'd noted that the club's match reports had a warm feel –it was volunteer-run and still provided cricket tea for home games, a tradition other clubs had scrapped. When he emailed for information, the chairman replied in 10 minutes. On the day they were visiting the village, they went to check it out in person.
'It was the middle of January but the flower beds were well-maintained and the [cricket] square had been well-cut and aired for the winter. Being on a heath, it had a rural feel about it. You could tell that it was very well looked after,' says Tom.
'One of the things that really mattered to me when considering whether to move to Petersfield was: does it have a nice, friendly-feeling cricket club? The social part of the sport is as important as the game itself.'
Like Vicky and Tom, there are buyers up and down the country looking for lively WhatsApp groups, bustling high streets, local pubs and recreational groups. Richard Speedy, who covers the South West at Strutt & Parker, estimates that around a third of his clients relocate for community.
'It's been a preference for quite some time, pandemic or no pandemic,' he says. 'But it's getting stronger and stronger.'
Retirees with new time on their hands, downsizers or people with older children are more likely to relocate for community than those with school-age children, agents agree.
In many towns and villages, the pandemic accelerated these kinds of moves, setting up local infrastructure – like WhatsApp groups, mutual aid and meet-ups – and highlighting the importance of community.
'People felt quite isolated over that period,' says Speedy. 'They want to be within walking distance of their community.'
'You feel like you're part of something'
Vicky and Tom moved to Petersfield in 2022 and have a busy social calendar. Vicky offers regular jewellery repairs at the town's eco café and attends meet-ups for Petersfield's climate action network, artist networking nights and the local embroidery club. She says that through these groups she has connected with people of different ages. Meanwhile, Tom is heavily involved with the cricket club and coaches on Friday evenings.
All of these activities were on offer where they lived before, but Vicky feels more inclined to participate in Petersfield, where events are a 10 to 15 minute walk away. 'In London, there must be similar groups, but I would never have gone to them.'
She adds: 'I feel a lot happier, and not so overwhelmed. It's a better work-life balance. It's nice to know that if you leave your house, the neighbours will be looking out.
'I wasn't lonely in London, but I didn't feel that I'd be missed if I wasn't there. Here, you feel like you're part of something.'
For Tom, the trade-off to living in Petersfield is a 100-mile round-trip commute. 'It's well worth it to be in such a beautiful place. Heading away from London in glorious countryside, I suddenly get this wonderful feeling of: I'm heading home, I can relax now.'
Vicci Johnson and her husband Robin took a similar plunge – albeit at a different stage of their lives – when they moved from Macclesfield to Steyning in 2020. They had lived in the North West, including Manchester, for almost 40 years.
'We're both newly retired, and that sense of community was something we've never really had before,' says Vicci, 62. 'I did a lot of online research trying to find places where there was a lot going on: different groups, exercise opportunities – things that made me feel that I would be part of a community.'
It was the Steyning website – advertising Pilates, yoga, walking, film, music and University of the Third Age (U3A) groups– that drew her to the West Sussex town.
When she visited in 2019, she was struck by the high street. Thanks to Steyning's bypass, it's not dissected by a busy road and it's packed with independent shops – including two grocers, coffee shops and a bookshop, which hosts regular events and is well-known for its connection with children's author (and Steyning resident) Julia Donaldson. That the town was walkable was a big plus.
Since moving there – on the first day of lockdown in 2020 – Johnson has joined a gym, walking group, local environmental organisation Greening Steyning, and started sea swimming with a group of women nearby. Robin runs the town's repair café, volunteers for Steyning Good Neighbours, and is involved with the community fridge, which prevents food going to waste.
'It's the sort of community where you can start something, and you get enough people involved. It's intellectually stimulating, but I've also got a good social network. It spreads from the grassroots,' says Vicci.
'My daughter's disappointed, because she wants us to move back to Manchester. But she can also see how happy we are here. I feel I'll be supported even if I'm 95 years old. I never wanted to grow old in Manchester. I knew I needed somewhere where I felt more held by the local community.'
For Andrew Openshaw, 56, it was also a prominent community website that put Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, on his radar.
It 'punched above its weight' with its calendar of local events, electric car hire scheme for residents and community orchard and apple press, run by the group 'Zero-Carbon Haddenham'.
Unlike Vicci and the Horwoods, he felt he was leaving a strong community in Frinton, Essex, where he had lived for four-and-a-half years. He, his wife Kate and their oldest child, were moving to Buckinghamshire for Andrew's work at a faith-based charity, and could be anywhere within the county.
When they first viewed their house, their first impression was the traffic outside. 'Some people might think it was terrible, but the reason it was rammed was because of the football pitches, which were being used for junior football. We thought it was fantastic, because it showed how many people were engaging in an activity and using the new facility.'
Andrew also scouted out the local electric car scheme and the village hall, which showed that there was more going on than he'd been able to glean online. 'There was an ethos that it was a genuine community that you could contribute to as well as taking something away from. We felt that this was a place we could be part of,' he says.
'There's even more going on when you scratch the surface.'
'[Community] is not about money at all,' says Speedy. 'There is something for everybody in every different area. You've just got to dig it out and find it. A lot of the time, it won't be on Facebook pages or noticeboards.'
Since moving in 2023, Kate has found work at the garden centre and the couple have joined a string of local societies: rotary groups, running, church, German conversation classes, golf, U3A. They have used the community apple press and volunteered at the biannual beer festivals. The village has formed a community interest company to save its local greengrocer from closure, in which the couple have invested shares. Saving the local pub, the Rose &Thistle, is next.
'When you move, it's not just 'What will this place give to me' but 'What are my opportunities to give to this place?' If you take, take, take, you're going to find yourself isolated. You don't build relationships in that way,' says Andrew.
'That's been my experience of life in general: you participate, then you receive.'
