When news there was to be another national lockdown in the autumn of 2020 was announced Hannah and her mother decided that rather than staying at home in north London they would rent a chalet on Mersea Island, Essex.
They hunkered down there, with Hannah’s two daughters, Isabella, now seven, and Olivia, five.
“I loved it,” said Hannah.
“It was so quiet and peaceful, the girls loved playing on the beach even though it was quite cold and they were in coats and wellies. It felt like the kind of place I could live.”
When the restrictions were lifted the family headed back to reality, and the “tiny” two bedroom house on a busy road in Edmonton, north London, which Hannah was paying £1,500pcm to rent.
The following summer the Porter family returned to Mersea, a seven square mile island off the Essex coast which is accessed via a Roman causeway, for a holiday.
“That is when I made my decision,” said Hannah, 33. “Six weeks later we moved to Essex.”
Rather than move onto the island itself she chose to move to the newly-anointed city of Colchester, which is some nine miles inland and has a lot more amenities plus a wider choice of homes to rent.
Initially the move was hard on Hannah, who felt lonely and anxious.
“It was a big, big risk, because I literally didn’t know anyone there,” she said.
But over the months that followed Hannah settled in, making friends with her neighbours, and parents at the girls’ schools.
Colchester is an army town and many of the other mothers are parenting alone whilst their partners are deployed overseas.
“There is a great community here,” said Hannah, who works for the highways department of a London council. “It is like a big family, and so, so, welcoming.”
Hannah has acquired a best friend, who also has two children, and they pool their resources, sharing school runs and taking the children for sleepovers at alternate weekends to give each other a break from motherhood.
Financially the move has also stacked up well. Hannah and her daughters live in a three bedroom house, which costs just over £1,000pcm.
“It is a huge saving, and I have doubled the size of my house,” she said.
Afternoons and weekends are often spent on the beach, whatever the weather, or at one of Colchester’s many clubs or events.
“There is something to do every single day,” said Hannah.
In fact, there are only two things she really misses about London - its diversity, and its Uber taxis. But there are compensations.
“It used to take me 15 minutes to walk to the station, now it takes us 15 minutes in the car to get to the beach,” said Hannah.
