Being British: Garden Gate, Number Eight

[Horsesbella219]

OR somewhere in rural essex, maybe? Thats where i live, and my dad commutes. It takes about 40 minutes or so. Try somewhere like Rayleigh (Not so rural, i guesss, but still) or Rawreth, perhaps. And for Essex, you probably would be able to have the dad working in a factory too...theres a big Ford place down here, and lots of other stuff too.

Or how about Norfolk? I believe it's about an hour and a half....

Edit: I should probably add here that these times are to commute to London

[apollo13]

Suffolk is right between Essex and Norfolk (but don't use Norfolk - us Suffolk lot are deadly enemeys with them. I was annoyed enough at the breif mention of them Norfolk folk in HBP) and rural Essex might be a good one to use, although it is not quite as rural as Suffolk. Parts of it are rural, yes, but Suffolk is rural all the way through. Plus, her Dad doesn't have to work in factoire, he could work at the famous Felixstow docks! Largest docks in Europe!

~Evie

[Gorgeous_Ginny]

Hi, everyone. I was wondering what part of Britain my character should be from. I want her to have gronw up in the countryside, but with a town close enough for her parents to commute. Her father preferably works in a factory and her mother is a phsychologist, but that's not set in stone and the countryside home is more important. Is there such a place?

Well if you wanted to use some where up north I would say she could live some where called Frosterly, its a small village just outside the city of Durham, perfect for her mother, as it is home to many offices for occupations such as phychologists, solicitors, and private doctors.

As for her father working in a factory there is a massive Nissan plant, as its called, in Sunderland which is a twenty minute drive down the motorway (A19), from Durham and Frosterly is another fifteen to twenty minutes drive from Durham so all round his journey would take about half an hour, if he was a normal paced driver.

If you want to do scenes of the story with her parents going to and/or from work I would also include rush hour, which makes many people annoyed and can delay a journey for around ten minutes to an hour or even more sometimes. This would normally happen on the A19, the motor way I mentioned earlier.

My reasoning for giving you this option is because this area is on the Pennines a.k.a the back bone of England, in a very traditional part of England Counrtyside. Also the books are mainly set in the South (no offence to Southerners) so if you would like it for your character to have some difference to themselves then I would suggest setting it in an area like this.

If you would like any more help please PM, I am willing to help as much as you want with anything you want.

After saying that I forgot to say I hope I was of some help to you, LilyLunaPotter.

[Pinkcess of the Abyss]

If you want somewhere really countrysidy you could try a town or village in the Lake District, or even in Wales. There is a place in the Lake District called Keswick, and there is a pencil factory there....

England very small, really, most places are near enough to a town or city that it is just an hour to two hours drive away.

It depends how rich you want your family to be. If they live around London, in that sort of countryside the houses are really expensive. It tends to be a little cheaper further North, away from those southeners.

Where I live, for instance, it is a small village, next to a town. We have countryside behind us and around us, but the village has build and spread through it. So there are farms, but housing estates aroung them. We are an hour from Manchester, and half an hour from other large towns. So you can have countryside, without actually being in the country.

[apollo13]

England is certainly small - you are never more than 150 miles from the sea.

I think, however, the the Lake District would be pretty expensive. I mean, if her Dad's only a factory worker (btw, there aren't stock loads of factories in England - we get most of our stuff from China) then it might be difficult, although, I suppose if her mum's a physcologist...

**shrugs**

~Evie

[Pinkcess of the Abyss]

I wouldn't say that the Lake District is that expensive...

I was looking at two bedroom houses, terrice houses, and they are all around £100,000- £130,000, which is pretty average now-a-days. And I know you "could" before the banks went yay on the interest rates and the no on the borrowing, borrow like, £90,000 without a disposit on a wage of around £17-18,000 a year, or less.

I like the Lake District... So pretty.... Stunning place, honestly. Not that down South isn't nice too...

A good idea would be to set your character in somewhere you've already heard about. Like, have you read, or watched Pride and Prejudice? That is set in the Peak District, Derbyshire. South West England, near Yorkshire I belive, which is also really nice country. Note: I've just been told that I was incorrect; Derbyshire is not South West; it is the Midlands. I'm not unsure if the midlands has a compass label... But they do have quite cute accents.

[apollo13]

House prices are extremely low at the moment due to the credit crunch, so I wouldn't go with what you see nowadays.

What time period is this fic set at? Different areas were affordable at different times.

~Evie

[Sirius Girl 08]

How about Scotland? I live near Aberdeen - about a 45minute to 1 hour commute to the city and out here in the countryside there are lots of hills and fields and woods etc. Though we don't have so many factories but there is the fishing industry. That is going through a tough period at the moment but town like Fraserburgh, Peterhead and then Aberdeen still have a lot of fishing stuff going on (including fish processing factories). Although either Fraserburgh or Peterhead has a huge drug problem unfortunately - but I can't remember which one it is...I want to say Fraserburgh...but don't quote me on that.

We also have quite a few call centres up here too (or at least we did) as well as like computer chip factories too. These tend to be in the middle part of Scotland - Lanarkshire and Stirling area. There use to be a lot of factories and ship building in Glasgow if your fic is set back in time and there is some nice countryside around there like up round Loch Lomond for example.

I don't know - that's some other suggestions for you.

Ruth

[Shev]

House prices are extremely low at the moment due to the credit crunch, so I wouldn't go with what you see nowadays.

What time period is this fic set at? Different areas were affordable at different times.

~Evie

House prices are not extremely low at the moment. Due to the credit issues they are not rising with inflation - this means money may be lost in the long term and it's harder to make money on a previous investment, but it does not mean houses have suddenly become significantly cheaper. It's still much cheaper to buy a house in North America that in the UK, given similar sizes.

In fact, since banks are not willing to lend money when they aren't sure they will get it back, it's much harder to buy a house now than a few months previously. This is where the credit issues hit - people buying beyond their means.

[SiriuslyMental]

It's not any cheaper to buy a house in North America, really. Unless you want to live in the back woods somewhere.

Many decent four bedroom houses range from $400,000 to $8-900,000.