The Hedley family were dreading the logistics of a London school run
(Picture: Handout)Kat and Mark Hedley were of the opinion that if they were going to leave London they were going to seriously leave; they were not interested in compromise or half-measures.
“I had no interest in moving out to Surrey or Hertfordshire and spending three hours a day on the train commuting back to the office,” said Kat.
The couple, both 40, had met while students at Leeds University and had always loved Yorkshire. They also both have family and friends living locally which made it their natural choice.
“Initially, after we graduated, we said we would just move down to London for a couple of years, and then move back up north,” said Kat. “But somehow, 16 years later, we were still there.”
The couple has two children, James, nine, and Mia, five. When James started approaching school age the couple realised they needed to act fast or shelve their plans for several more years. With James regularly telling them that London was too noisy, and the couple dreading the logistics of the London school run, they decided to get on with it and put their five-bedroom terrace in East Dulwich on the market.
An open day was duly held, in November 2019, and the property went under offer almost immediately. The couple decided to find a new school for the children first, and then confine their house hunt to within a 20-minute drive. This brought them to the village of Pool in Wharfdale, Yorkshire, which is on the fringes of the Yorkshire Dales, and 10 miles northwest of Leeds.
They sold their London house for £1.5m, and their new home – a modern five-bedroom detached house of around 4,500 sq ft with 2.5 acres of gardens – cost them £1m. They made the big move in July 2020.
Work wise both Kat, director of operational risk for a bank, and Mark, an editor and publisher, have been able to switch to home working. When required, a train from Leeds to London takes about two hours.
“We have a much, much smaller mortgage which has been a blessing, much less stressful,” said Kat.
“The pace of life up here is slower, we spend more time with the children, because we work from home, and we are more present in the time we are with them because we are not constantly being pulled in different directions. We love Dulwich, and we wouldn’t have lived anywhere else in London, but in a way, it did feel like it was closing in on us.”
“It is much quieter here, and the children are less anxious and stressed as a result. And although I do miss being able to walk down the street and get a great coffee, but there is a beautiful farm shop a mile away so it’s not like I have to go without.”
