In April 2016 Dan, my now husband, and I moved to Northamptonshire to set up a more permanent home. Prior to that I had lived in Newmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Islington, Harlow and St Albans – all within three years. We had moved around and lived in so many temporary places due to my university stint that when Dan got a new job in Northampton, it was time for us to try something new.
Since then, we’ve even brought our own home in Northamptonshire but we no longer live in Northampton town. Moving to Northamptonshire was a big bold move. Our family are all in Suffolk and within 20 minutes of each other give or take, I knew no one here and the midlands – well that felt FAR away.
So why was moving here the best thing we’ve done, surely it’s just like moving anywhere?
A whole new perspective
When Dan got his job in Northampton, we were still living in St Albans because that was close for London for me at uni and was ‘only’ an hour on the M1 everyday for him. I don’t know how he managed that journey everyday but it was for a ‘short’ time of 9 months. Once I had graduated it was time to assess where we’d go next. Dan had done so much commuting for me, it was time I made the move.
Both of us knew no one in Northampton, he had his new work mates but besides that, it was a whole new place to explore. I remember the day Dan had the job interview, I came along for the ride and I went shopping in the town. I walked up to the Guildhall (which is a big building in the town) and thought, WOW, Northampton is impressive.
Ok so that probably is the only big impressive building in town now I live here, but first impressions wowed me. It made me realise that the world is smaller than you think and places really aren’t that far. You can sit in traffic longer in small towns than it takes to get from one place to another sometimes.
New opportunities
Ok so as many of you know my first job out of university in Northampton didn’t exactly work out – but it gave me the chance to make friends, get to know the area and industries and start somewhere. I was determined to work two years there (because that’s what we all say is good for our CV’s don’t we.) My blog took off massively once I was in Northampton as it felt like I had a more permanent location and there are more opportunities here than before. The London blogging community is HUGE so I didn’t get chance to get involved in that so to be a Northamptonshire blogger now makes me feel like I’ve got an actual hobby and defined location for the first time in a few years.
Naturally, I have found the best opportunity in my role at Northampton Life which as the name suggests, I wouldn’t have found without moving here. I also couldn’t of found myself in this career position elsewhere which has been one of the best things about living here. I feel that although I’m not a ‘Northampton-er’ by origin, I feel much more at home here now due to connecting with local people and businesses through my job.
Food and Drink!
There is SO much good food and drink in the county. I actually can’t think of anywhere I’ve lived where the produce and restaurants are so vast. Northamptonshire has countless gin options, baked goods, sweet treats, savoury options and the numerous food festivals are testament to that.
Some of my favourite places we’ve been to (in no order) are Whittlebury Hall’s Murray’s restaurant which is our most impressive date night spot. June Plum is a Caribbean restaurant in Wellingborough that does the best jerk chicken around. Dapper Sandwich is our go to at work for a naughty lunch and I also was very impressed with Magee Street for an even bigger treat.
There’s loads more, but that’s a whole new blog post in itself. As I mentioned, the food festivals are a wonderful way to see what’s in the county and I love visiting the options such as Towcester Food Fest, Althorp and my local farmers market.
It’s become a place we call home
A lot of our old friends live in completely opposite directions so moving somewhere new was always going to be about us sticking together. However, we’ve both set up home in our cosy town, we’ve both done things that put ourselves out there a bit more and both of our work lives have created new relationships.
My job often takes me places where we can try new things, meet new people and network and it’s so good that Northamptonshire has this buzz about it.
Sure it’s got it’s bad points – but doesn’t everywhere? When I moved out of London, literally the day of, there was a stabbing on my road. I haven’t had that here thankfully but the council is bankrupt. You can’t win everything and our little space in Northamptonshire is getting a lot bigger.
Some days we talk about where we’d go next, naturally our family are in Newmarket and Bury but we just can’t see ourselves moving on anytime soon. Have you ever thought about a complete relocation?