by Leaving Londoners has long accepted the Cotswolds as their home house in the country and rated them for its undeniable beauty and the chance, hobnob with people like us in Soho Farmhouse or Daylesford Organic.
What you do not know is that there is an alternative that is cheaper, closer, more authentic and just as beautiful – and without danger that Jeremy Clarkson will come across Jeremy Clarkson in the local garage.
The national landscape of Dedham Vale – formerly known as an area with excellent natural beauty, just like the Cotswolds – extends over the river gate over Essex and Suffolk.
His 34 square miles covers a beautiful group of arable land and old forests, and although the rolling curves of the Cotswolds are missing, it has some absolutely beautiful villages that have inspired artists for generations, especially the local young John Constable, who immortalized his scenes during his career.
“Many people who leave London do not want to go west to see how beautiful it is northeast of London and how good the train connections from Manningree or Colchester are,” said the Paddy Pritchard Gordon purchase agent. “It’s a bit forgotten.”
It is also affordable according to Cotswold’s standards. According to studies by real estate agents, an average home in Manningree, the only city with a train station, sells £ 379,600.
For something more sent, you pay an average of £ 550,000 in the well -resorted villages of East Bergholt and Dedham. Houses in Charlbury, a key town in the North Cotswolds, act an average of 613,160 GBP.
The prices for Charlbury also have to struggle with the current climate of high interest rates, with prices sunk by 2.2 percent last year. The prices in Manningree also decreased by 1.6 percent compared to the previous year, but East Bergholt and Dedham rose by 7.8 percent.
The Dedham Vale Towns have seen growth of 14 percent for over five years, while Charlbury recorded growth of 19 percent, which mainly earned space for space during the highlight of the post -pandemical race.
Abby Clayton and Andrew Mackenzie discovered the valley by chance. The couple lived with her daughter Daisy, now five, in Uppminster, Ost -London, and worked as a wedding caterer.
A work contact that operates a Tipee company has contacted in 2020 to say that she had acquired some land in East Bergholt and planned to build a barn complex in daylesford style and would like to set up a farm shop and a café? “My first question was:” Where is East Bergholt? “said Abby, 42.
Despite his unknownness, when she and Andrew, 46, looked at the site, they were immediately beaten. “The further we drove down the A12, the more relaxed we felt,” said Abby. “It was breathtaking and it was quiet. We just knew it.”
Fields Farm Shop and Restaurant (Fieldskitchen.co.uk) opened its doors and mixture of local products and Posh Cooked Breakfasts and Comfort Food Favorites (Fischfinger -Sandwiches on sourdough) in October 2021.
In 2022, the family sold their house with three bedrooms in Upminster and moved to a Victorian house in the nearby village of Holbrook, where they bought a Victorian cottage with a two hectare garden that they have with Daisy and the four teenagers – between them – from previous relationships.
Abby’s three horses live in a rented field next to the cottage. “We live the country of the country,” she said.
If the family does not work or take care of the horses, the family likes to go paddle on the river straps or took long walks. “It never feels boring,” said Abby. “There are some nice restaurants and we all found invitingly.”
A more established Dedham Vale transplant is Zoe Bates. She spent almost a decade in a colchester before her husband Graham stumbled across manningree and fell in love with the tiny, historical city on the river.
His two sons from an earlier relationship had just gone at home so that the couple was free to a quieter place, and nine years ago they exchanged their modern semi against a house with three bedrooms in Manningree.
The 52 -year -old Zoey, a silversmith that was shot on the upholsterer, has a studio in the garden and opened her own shop in the High Street, Bates Polsty and Interiors (Batesupholstery.com), which added the already impressive selection of independent shops in the city.
The 53 -year -old Graham works in the maintenance of real estate so that he can live where he likes.
For Zoey, ManningTree ticks in every box. It has good train services – trains in the Liverpool Street take from 59 minutes and a strong community that organizes everything from art traces to pride events every year.
Although the city is small, it has a large selection of shops, cafés, pubs and restaurants, especially the Mexican -inspired Maiz, which attracts guests from all over esseex.
The local bookstore organizes regular reading and beverage evenings and invites the locals to come in and drink a glass of wine and at the same time get into a good book.
“In the first few weeks in which we are here, we found more friends with our neighbors than in nine years in colchesters – everyone is overwhelming,” says Zoey. “It feels pretty festive with its tiny little beach.”
The city’s sandy beach created by humans is located next to the stour of the river, and the Stour Sailing Club offers holes, rowing and kayaking. There is also a wild swimming group, the Manningree meaner.
Back in dry land there are also many dog hiking opportunities for the two Staffordshire terriers from Zoey, Earnie and Cookie, which the river banks or the local forest land can explore to their heart’s content.
Sharnie Rogers, head of the eastern region at Strutt & Parker Estate Agents, said that the buyers at the borders of Essex and Suffolk have an impression of Bukolian bliss with a realistic path into the city.
Most buyers tend to either search in or near the villages of Dedham and East Bergholt or in and around Manningree.
Dedham with its Art & Craft Center and the boathouse, where you can set a rowboat and meander along the Stour and East Bergholt, are the exciting option with larger houses and higher prices.
Manningtree is a former buyer friendliness, which may explain why his prices were flat this year, while East Bergholt and Manningree attract second steppers with equity, often in London or Cambridge.
Incoming buyers appreciate the Dedham Vale for his access to the Suffolk coast, it is pretty as a Picture Postcard properties and its independent atmosphere.
“There are really no chains,” says Rogers. “What they have are boutique shops and cafes, and they thrive all year round. I think a reason is that they don’t get too many second home buyers in the area -they are families who want to live here and send their children to school here.”
