Carpentry in the North Pennines?

[Lockwood]

My wife and I are considering a move to the North Pennines, and I'm trying to figure out whether it's feasible or not.

We live in Oxford, and I design, make and fit bespoke MDF/plywood fitted furniture, such as cupboards, wardrobes, bookcases, understairs pull-outs, floating shelves etc..

I currently charge £42/hr, and I was wondering if anybody here knows what the typical hourly rate for a carpenter with 15 years experience would be up in the North Pennines, as well as what the general availability of work is like.

Any other thoughts/suggestions that spring to your minds would also be much appreciated, I'm trying to interrogate the whole question of relocation pretty thoroughly before uprooting my family!

 

[Jameshow]

You'll need to focus on N Leeds, harrogate Ikley or second home owners actually in the dales.
Otherwise you're looking at half you hourly price.

 

[Wilson joinery]

My only thoughts are that the north Pennines are fairly remote (as you probably already know!) so maybe small villages and plenty of farms so probably not many opportunities for work in those areas so the only thing I’d say is you’d probably have to be prepared to travel a little further than normal to do customer visits/quotes and travel to jobs. Probably not a biggie but something to add into the melting pot of all the other suggestions I’m sure you’ll get. I’m not sure about £42/hr, it maybe sounds slightly high but depends on if moving north means your overheads will be a bit less.

 

[Jacob]

The North Pennines are not that far from London and most things not that different. They may be a long drive from London but not from York, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and other busy and civilised places. Property prices much lower than darn sarf!
Perfectly feasible, not like moving to Vanuatu! You wouldn't be the first southerner to make the move and they have heard of mdf oop narth!
In fact I don't know why more people don't do it, everything seems fairly cr ap south of Leicester and gets worse the further you go!

 

[Jester129]

You need to include Leicester as being cr ap nowadays!

 

[SammyQ]

I currently charge £42/hr, and I was wondering if anybody here knows what the typical hourly rate for a carpenter with 15 years experience would be up in the North Pennines, as well as what the general availability of work is like.

Depends on how far North you consider the Pennines to be.

My sister lives in Pontefract. Visiting her over the years, I'd say the Leeds/Wakefield area, with its high popoulation density (and satelite commuter towns like Barnsley, huddersfield and Bradford) would be fairly certain to give you that rate. Sheffield and Manchester are within grasp as well perhaps?

Going North-west, the Blackpool-Preston 'line' demarks a change in population. It's sparse, further North here, compared to Oxfordshire and - excepting the Lakes - is probably not a good target area. Citizens of these areas please feel free to correct me and augment my knowledge of the area.

The North-East Coast: Darlington-Durham, Middlesborough, up through Sunderland, to "NeuKassel" (as pronounced) have dense populations and some distinctly Yuppy areas, and then the well-heeled dormitory towns of Crammlington, Morpeth (£'s) and Alnwick constitute what some call "The Sunset Strip". (Thank you, RogerS). For all you young folks, it means an area rich in retirees, kids grown up, money released selling a family home to gain a bungalow or small cottage.

HTH and no-one is offended by sweeping generalisms.

 

[Jameshow]

Depends on how far North you consider the Pennines to be.

My sister lives in Pontefract. Visiting her over the years, I'd say the Leeds/Wakefield area, with its high popoulation density (and satelite commuter towns like Barnsley, huddersfield and Bradford) would be fairly certain to give you that rate. Sheffield and Manchester are within grasp as well perhaps?

Going North-west, the Blackpool-Preston 'line' demarks a change in population. It's sparse, further North here, compared to Oxfordshire and - excepting the Lakes - is probably not a good target area. Citizens of these areas please feel free to correct me and augment my knowledge of the area.

The North-East Coast: Darlington-Durham, Middlesborough, up through Sunderland, to "NeuKassel" (as pronounced) have dense populations and some distinctly Yuppy areas, and then the well-heeled dormitory towns of Crammlington, Morpeth (£'s) and Alnwick constitute what some call "The Sunset Strip". (Thank you, RogerS). For all you young folks, it means an area rich in retirees, kids grown up, money released selling a family home to gain a bungalow or small cottage.

HTH and no-one is offended by sweeping generalisms.

Ponte and wakey yes

Bradford and uddersfield, no....

Richmond and and stockley have lots of money too.

 

[Keith Cocker]

The North Pennines are not that far from London and most things not that different. They may be a long drive from London but not from York, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and other busy and civilised places. Property prices much lower than darn sarf!
Perfectly feasible, not like moving to Vanuatu! You wouldn't be the first southerner to make the move and they have heard of mdf oop narth!
In fact I don't know why more people don't do it, everything seems fairly cr ap south of Leicester and gets worse the further you go!

Quiet Jacob!!! We don’t want all them southrons up here! A lot of them are Tories you know!!!

 

[Lockwood]

My thought was somewhere in the vicinity of Barnard Castle, which I'm conscious would be getting close to as rural as it gets (which is really what I'm after...).

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, it's all good food for thought!

 

[Spectric]

The North Pennines are not that far from London

About 280 miles ! There will be a lot of competition before you get to somewhere like Alston. Very rural but not to far from Newcastle and the likes of Ikea, also a lot of people are on much lower incomes and having furniture made at £42 hour is probably not high on their wish list. Saying that there are some woodworking enterprises but do not know how they actually keep going.

My thought was somewhere in the vicinity of Barnard Castle

A nice market town, but being destroyed by over development and you have nothing to the west until Penrith, 40 miles away on a road that often gets shut in winter. You may have Richmond nearby but the major towns are Darlington and Bishop Auckland with Middlesborough / Billingham a little further out and lets not forget Hartlepool a little further up the coast. Although Durham has some great landscapes in Weardale and Teesdale and some nice places to visit like Stanhope it is no longer the land of the prince bishops but dotted with old pit villages and I doubt they would say they have seen any so called levelling up!

The way to look at it is you put up with the south and make your money, then retire or semi retire up north for a more peaceful and less stressful life in older age and here you could make a living.

 

[RogerS]

My wife and I are considering a move to the North Pennines,.....

Is your wife a keen gardener ?

 

[Lockwood]

I think she'd like to be!

Why do you ask?

Thanks for all the info on here, my boys are nine and three, and their friendships and schooling are a big consideration for me. We've got a good option coming up for my nine year-old's secondary education, which I'd be loathe to leave behind, and this plays a big factor in my thoughts. It might well be that working hard here in Oxford for the next ten to fifteen years (I'm thirty five now) and then moving North could be the sensible thing to do, once the boys are off at Uni / doing an apprenticeship / doing whatever. This way I'd hopefully have a bit more in the way of savings/pension to not need to make as much money and do as Spectric says...

The downside of course being that I've been in Oxford for fifteen years, and have a really good circle of friends (which is also the case for my wife and the boys), and leaving it another ten/fifteen years will just make leaving even harder and leave us less time to establish ourselves in a new community!

Any more thoughts are welcome, and I'm particularly wondering about the dynamics of moving from a fairly cosmopolitan, international place like Oxford (I'm half English and half Faroese, my wife is American), and moving to a rural place in the North of England. I have family in Edinburgh (two sisters with their husbands, and probably nieces and nephews to come) but otherwise no ties to the area.

 

[Jacob]

I think she'd like to be!

Why do you ask?

Thanks for all the info on here, my boys are nine and three, and their friendships and schooling are a big consideration for me. We've got a good option coming up for my nine year-old's secondary education, which I'd be loathe to leave behind, and this plays a big factor in my thoughts. It might well be that working hard here in Oxford for the next ten to fifteen years (I'm thirty five now) and then moving North could be the sensible thing to do, once the boys are off at Uni / doing an apprenticeship / doing whatever. This way I'd hopefully have a bit more in the way of savings/pension to not need to make as much money and do as Spectric says...

The downside of course being that I've been in Oxford for fifteen years, and have a really good circle of friends (which is also the case for my wife and the boys), and leaving it another ten/fifteen years will just make leaving even harder and leave us less time to establish ourselves in a new community!

Any more thoughts are welcome, and I'm particularly wondering about the dynamics of moving from a fairly cosmopolitan, international place like Oxford (I'm half English and half Faroese, my wife is American), and moving to a rural place in the North of England. I have family in Edinburgh (two sisters with their husbands, and probably nieces and nephews to come) but otherwise no ties to the area.

I've moved, family and all, several times. Derby - Nottingham - Cornwall - Wales - Derbyshire (with several little local moves thrown in).
Always been a constructive experience and soon pick up a new network of friends and other connections.
You soon start feeling at home.
Hard work but nothing to worry about at all - the top priority being the actual accommodation you end up with, which is where you probably spend most of your time.
I wouldn't worry at all about moving anywhere in British Isles or Europe (or anywhere?), as long as a few details are OK.

 

[RogerS]

I think she'd like to be!

Why do you ask?

Thanks for all the info on here, my boys are nine and three, and their friendships and schooling are a big consideration for me. We've got a good option coming up for my nine year-old's secondary education, which I'd be loathe to leave behind, and this plays a big factor in my thoughts. It might well be that working hard here in Oxford for the next ten to fifteen years (I'm thirty five now) and then moving North could be the sensible thing to do, once the boys are off at Uni / doing an apprenticeship / doing whatever. This way I'd hopefully have a bit more in the way of savings/pension to not need to make as much money and do as Spectric says...

The downside of course being that I've been in Oxford for fifteen years, and have a really good circle of friends (which is also the case for my wife and the boys), and leaving it another ten/fifteen years will just make leaving even harder and leave us less time to establish ourselves in a new community!

Any more thoughts are welcome, and I'm particularly wondering about the dynamics of moving from a fairly cosmopolitan, international place like Oxford (I'm half English and half Faroese, my wife is American), and moving to a rural place in the North of England. I have family in Edinburgh (two sisters with their husbands, and probably nieces and nephews to come) but otherwise no ties to the area.

PM sent

 

[SammyQ]

My thought was somewhere in the vicinity of Barnard Castle, which I'm conscious would be getting close to as rural as it gets (which is really what I'm after...).

A close buddy was V.P. at the prestigious school there. A good area for your intended income, but I would debate with you that it is "as rural as it gets". Try further North. Rothbury - ancestral seat of Alexander Armstrong's family - is still within 'touching distance' of the Newcastle/Sunderland conglomeration and is at least free of the Cummings family...

 

[Jameshow]

With your American wife you could go for harrogate and menwith hill nearby there are a good number of "American farmers" nearby..

 

[Spectric]

It might well be that working hard here in Oxford for the next ten to fifteen years (I'm thirty five now) and then moving North could be the sensible thing to do

The trouble with rural areas is that although they might be picturesque and peaceful it comes at a price, wages are often lower and they lack many local amenities so you have to either travel or order more stuff online. If you can find a decent job in the north east then there are some nice areas in Northumberland but it is a lifestyle adjustment which I think is easier as you get within sight of retirement because you can end up just wanting to escape the ratrace. The problem now is that they are over developing so many areas with housing estates that they are just destroying what used to be really nice places and being in rural areas the roads and infrastructure are just not coping, along with services like sewage which is being discharged into rivers as the treatment plants are at there limits. Even the lake district national park is suffering from excessive building and what makes it worse they are allowing buildings that are just horrendous modern glass monstrosities that stand out like sore thumbs, one of the reasons Windermere is becoming a giant septic tank.

 

[Windows]

One thing to be aware of is that you could regularly see temperatures lower by anywhere from 2 C to 7 C depending on exactly where you pick in the North Pennines compared to Oxford (elevation is key). Educate yourself on the climate (both temperature and rain) before making your decision - the rain comes in from the West.

 

[Jameshow]

One thing to be aware of is that you could regularly see temperatures lower by anywhere from 2 C to 7 C depending on exactly where you pick in the North Pennines compared to Oxford (elevation is key). Educate yourself on the climate (both temperature and rain) before making your decision - the rain comes in from the West.

Agreed the west is very much drier ime than the west face of the Pennines.

Even places like Skipton get more rain than expected as the hills funnel it up the colne valley.

 

[Rajiv]

You need to include Leicester as being cr ap nowadays!

Got to agree with that. I’m looking to move to Wales or the Highlands from here.