splendid isolation and
clubbable community — quite
literally: there are eight
bridges across the River
Wansbeck in the centre alone.
It is also one of the few
stop-offs for the new Lumo
cut-price London-Edinburgh
train service (King’s Cross
from £24.90 for single
advance ticket), taking you
from the station to the capital
from 3 hours and 11 minutes.
Where some towns are
struggling to keep one
department store going,
Morpeth is still blessed with
two: Sandersons, selling
Barbour, Benefit and Le
Creuset, and Rutherford & Co.
The wealth of options extends
to the great outdoors. There’s
a rugby club, numerous
football teams, a golf course, a
new leisure centre-cum-
library (set to open next year),
and a huge children’s park
with paddling pool and river
walks. Older children are
well looked after at co-ed
The King Edward VI School,
fourth in Parent Power’s list of
top ten state schools in the
Northeast.
Volunteers have also been
helping to organise the
inaugural Morpeth Book
Festival this weekend, when
writers will join Ann Cleeves,
creator of ITV’s Ve ra, filmed
locally. Karen Bower, 64, a
director of the Greater
Morpeth Development Trust,
has lived in Morpeth for 20
years and loves the genuine
spirit. “Volunteering is a
strong feature, supporting a
range of activities such as the
community cinema, the
annual Party in the Park, and
library home-visiting.”
The high street, which still
offers free town-centre
parking, has taken a bit of a
battering over the past few
years. Highlights still include a
JoJo Maman Bébé, a Hobbs, a
Marks & Spencer, and a
smattering of independents,
including two wool shops.
Morpeth Farmers’ Market is
held on the first Saturday of
every month. Teenagers
pester for a lift to
Cramlington, which has
Manor Walks shopping
centre. Morrison and Lidl are
the big supermarkets.
Best place to live if...
You want to be part of a
community that cares, with
cut-price trains to the capital.
Best address Anything with a
bucolic air, such as The Dell
and Tranwell Woods.
£264,000TYNEMOUTH, TYNE & WEAR G
Tynemouth blows other
Newcastle suburbs out of the
water with its eight beaches
and dog-friendly coastal walks
stretching for miles towards St
Mary’s Lighthouse, north of
Whitley Bay. The invigorating
scenery is boosted by a
bohemian vibe and a laid-back
lifestyle, epitomised by Riley’s
Fish Shack, a beach restaurant
where some locals gather
(other locals grumble about
the crowds) for monkfish
kebabs and local brews, or
yoga classes on the sand. In its
Victorian heyday, Tynemouth
was a booming holiday resort,
but it’s more elegant than the
usual kiss-me-quick towns,
dotted with Georgian
townhouses, old-fashioned
street lamps and the romantic
ruins of Tynemouth Priory
and Castle. Tynemouth isn’t
just beautiful, it’s useful too:
it’s well-connected, with
regular (every 10 to 15 minutes
weekdays) Metro trains to
Newcastle city centre.
It’s the beaches that give it
the edge over other smart
addresses in the Tyne Valley
such as Corbridge. At the Blue
Flag-winning Longsands,
surfers take to the waves
year-round and the elite take
part in the annual Tynemouth
Open Surf Contest. Kayakers,
canoeists, kite-flyers and
swimmers are also welcome.
Tynemouth’s triumph
comes at a cost — residents’
parking permits (annual price,
£25) are prized almost as
highly as the English Heritage
ruins. It’s brought a pleasingly
regenerative ripple effect to
surrounding areas, such as
Whitley Bay, North Shields
and Cullercoats, and there
is a jaunty self-confidence in
the (sea) air.
Jo Burch, 44, who has two
children, has lived in
Tynemouth all her life. Burch,
the co-owner of Hide Tide
restaurant in nearby
Cullercoats, says the area has
become, “quite cosmopolitan.
There’s definitely a pull
with people wanting to
retire here or seeking beach
life. My husband, Nathan, has
surfed for over 30 years and
he can’t imagine living
anywhere else.”
Best place to live if... You
want nowhere beach-ier
peachier — to live and work.
Best address Percy Gardens
encircling horseshoe-shaped
King Edward’s Bay beach.
£285,500KAZIM YILDIRIMLI/GETTY IMAGES; JOHN DAVIDSON; PETER J HARCHERR; LEONID ANDRONOV/ALAMYLeeds, bringing new
employment possibilities to
the 37,000 students at the
four universities, along with
blue-chip and financial
companies such as Deloitte,
KPMG, Capita and HSBC.
Although Leeds is a
compact city centre, it’s now
brimming with choice —
student digs, flats in period
conversions, and build-to-rent
schemes, such as Headline, on
the site of the Yorkshire Post’s
1970s building on Wellington
Street, where monthly rentals
for a one-bedder start at £925.
The city also has a robust
retail offering including the
only branch of John Lewis in
Yorkshire. The Corn Exchange
is home to independent
retailers, and Kirkgate Market,
in its original Victorian
building, sells fruit, veg, meat,
fish and deli products.
The area does still bear the
legacy of shoddy schemes,
many of which shot up before
the 2008 recession.
Meanwhile, the inner ring
road (A64/A58), yet another
stark reminder of brutalist
postwar urban planning,
forms a thundering northern
frontier between the citycentre, the University of Leeds
and Little London, a sprawling
1950s/1960s housing estate.
Best place to live if... You
want swanky switched-on
city centre living.
Best address The Quays
on Concordia Street.
£166,500MORPETH,
NORTHUMBERLAND FThis is a hearty town in the
heart of Northumberland.
Morpeth neatly bridges the
gap between convenience and
country living, betweenApril 10, 2022 19