London leavers: 'we swapped a Victorian terrace in south London for a £1.3m house in West Yorkshire'

Homes & Property | Where to live

London leavers: 'we swapped a Victorian terrace in south London for a £1.3m house in West Yorkshire'

Commuting to London in the dark is a drawback, but this family loves their rural community and living in a picturesque landscape

At 5.30am every Wednesday Dan Cullen-Shute is aboard his electric Brompton bike, pedalling from home to the station.

A year on since he moved from London to Yorkshire, he hasn’t yet learnt to love this early morning ritual.

But his new home, community and proximity to some of the most beautiful countryside Britain has to offer more than compensates for that early alarm.

“It has been bloody wonderful,” he says.

Before the pandemic Cullen-Shute, 43, and his wife, Abigail, also 43, were living in Loughborough Junction. They shared their four-bedroom Victorian end-of-terrace with their two children, Stan, eight, and Mali, three, and the family cat, Royston.

The family of four relocated to a hamlet near Ilkley
Handout

He co-founded advertising firm Creature in 2011 and after staff worked successfully from home during lockdown, he decided to move over to a hybrid system where staff go to the office on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The rest of the week they can work from home, the office or wherever they happen to be.

This decision freed Cullen-Shute and his wife, who is about to start a new job as an operations manager, from living in London.

“I grew up in south-east Wales in a tiny village and Ab grew up in Northumberland, really in the middle of nowhere,” says Cullen-Shute.

"If we were going to move out, we wanted to move properly out — no disrespect to suburb-dwellers."

“I think we always knew that the time would come when we would move out.”

It wasn’t going out on the town in London that the couple really missed when the world shut down during the pandemic, they realised, but being able to get away for weekends in the country and by the coast.

“If we were going to move out, we wanted to move properly out — no disrespect to suburb-dwellers,” says Cullen-Shute.

They swapped a £1.3 Victorian terrace in London for a detached house that was the same price
Handout

Then, heading home after a visit to see his in-laws, the family found themselves in the Yorkshire countryside.

“It was like driving into a Turner painting. We came up to explore on a half term and fell in love with the place.”

Stan gave his approval to the idea and in 2022 the couple sold their London home for £1.3 million and traded up to a five-bedroom detached house in a hamlet near Ilkley, which also cost £1.3 million.

In January last year they completed their family with boxer dog, Beryl.

The community and countryside around them is even better than the bigger house, they said
Handout

Being in London two days a week has its perks for Cullen-Shute — he can catch up with friends, go to the pub, and eat out — but the morning cycle to the station at Ben Rhydding followed by a long train ride to King’s Cross has been tough.

Being away from the family — he stays over at a flat belonging to a friend of a friend on Wednesday nights — is also a drawback. But what he gets in return more than makes up for it.

“It wouldn’t be worth it for a bigger house alone, but there is more to it,” he says.

"The countryside is wonderful and the people are wonderful.

"You hear some horror stories, but Ab and I have put ourselves out there a bit, even though we are both naturally quite shy, and we are surrounded by smart, lovely people.

"You do lose that big city anonymity, but we really love that.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in