How far would you consider local?

[lemonator140]

Been wondering this, I know it is highly subjective on individual and the context, some may consider it to be x amount of miles, whilst others say x amount of minutes, but I’d like to try and get a general consensus, or see what others think.

So to you, how far is “local”? This can be distance (driving or as the crow flies) or travel time. It could be completely unrelated and be a county, district or even a postal code

 

[D6130]

Living in Hebden Bridge - when I'm the UK - administratively-speaking I suppose we're looking at the Calderdale Council boundary . However we frequently visit nearby towns and villages which are in neighbouring authorities' areas, such as Rochdale, Oldham, Skipton, Keighley, Bradford, Dewsbury and Huddersfield....so, geographically-speaking, I suppose that I would go for a twenty mile radius from home.

 

[AlterEgo]

In what context? Do you mean “the local area”? I’d bind it to the next significant town, which for me in Rugby, gives a circle bounded by Coventry and Northampton.

 

[lemonator140]

Living in Hebden Bridge - when I'm the UK - administratively-speaking I suppose we're looking at the Calderdale Council boundary . However we frequently visit nearby towns and villages which are in neighbouring authorities' areas, such as Rochdale, Oldham, Skipton, Keighley, Bradford, Dewsbury and Huddersfield....so, geographically-speaking, I suppose that I would go for a twenty mile radius from home.

Interesting, I don’t have a set definition of what I class as local, it depends on my mode of transport.

I’m from Worcester which is right in the centre of the county, it’s pretty much 10-15 miles as the crow flies to the county border and less than 30 mins to reach most towns. If by foot, I’d just consider my suburb and the town centre as local. But if by car or train, I’d consider most of the county as local, Kidderminster, Malvern and Evesham are 20 minutes away, I’d consider them as local, not so much Evesham as they’ve got more Cotswold influence than the rest of the county. In a car these are all about 12/13 miles away, these are all under 20 min by train.

In what context? Do you mean “the local area”? I’d bind it to the next significant town, which for me in Rugby, gives a circle bounded by Coventry and Northampton.

Local area yes. Just interested to see/hear different viewpoints/opinions

 

[RT4038]

In what context? Do you mean “the local area”? I’d bind it to the next significant town, which for me in Rugby, gives a circle bounded by Coventry and Northampton.

and Leamington and Nuneaton. But not Leicester, which is on another planet....

 

[Sun Chariot]

So to you, how far is “local”? This can be distance (driving or as the crow flies) or travel time. It could be completely unrelated and be a county, district or even a postal code

Local time zone
Local currency
Local dialling code
Local travel

UK and Ireland = 1 local time zone but 2 local currencies.
USA = 1 local currency but 4 local time zones.
My work travel involved 1000 UK miles per week, for 4 years. "Local" work sites but definitely not all local for me.
It's very disparate

 

[BingMan]

Been wondering this, I know it is highly subjective on individual and the context, some may consider it to be x amount of miles, whilst others say x amount of minutes, but I’d like to try and get a general consensus, or see what others think.

So to you, how far is “local”? This can be distance (driving or as the crow flies) or travel time. It could be completely unrelated and be a county, district or even a postal code

As far as you can comfortably walk: two to three miles

 

[Trackman]

What happens if your local pub/shop is 8 miles away? Surely it would still be your local pub/shop.

Quick Tommy Cooper gag:
So I rang up my local swimming baths. I said, 'Is that the local swimming baths?' He said it depends on where you're calling from.

 

[yorkie]

Been wondering this, I know it is highly subjective on individual and the context, some may consider it to be x amount of miles, whilst others say x amount of minutes, but I’d like to try and get a general consensus, or see what others think.

So to you, how far is “local”? This can be distance (driving or as the crow flies) or travel time. It could be completely unrelated and be a county, district or even a postal code

I think you summed it up...

Interesting, I don’t have a set definition of what I class as local, it depends on my mode of transport...

It really depends on so many factors; context is everything. Without any context, it's difficult to know where to start!

 

[Sun Chariot]

What happens if your local pub/shop is 8 miles away? Surely it would still be your local pub/shop.

That reminds me of a conversation my wife and I had with a lady in Port Meirion. The local hospital, which had facilities she required, was 60 miles' drive each way

 

[75A]

Anywhere with a BT potscode or an 028 phone number.
In other words anywhere in Northern Ireland.
Nowhere here is more than 2 hours drive from me.

 

[Peter0124]

Probably the same city, unless its London

 

[Acey]

To me ,it depends on where I'm going,living in Bromley SE London ,anywhere S/SE is local as it's a real pain to travel North ,either the fun of the M25 or the alternative route through London ,it's not fun having London to the North !

 

[Ashley Hill]

Local to me would mean within walking distance, ie a pub or corner shop. Anything involving a car journey is not local.

 

[NorthOxonian]

For me it's largely based on my own travel patterns and where I tend to visit, as that informs my familiarity with the area. There are places two or three miles away from me that I wouldn't really see as local (I'd simply never have any reason to go there) versus places ten miles away that I do regularly go to without consciously thinking about.

Living in Tyne and Wear means the Metro certainly shapes perceptions here - I would probably think of nearly anywhere on the yellow line as being just about local, possibly excepting the stretch in South Tyneside. Yet I'd be less likely to see places like Washington or the west end of Newcastle as local, even though they're a lot closer to where I live - they just feel a lot less accessible and they aren't places I tend to end up in.

Another reasonable way to look at the question would be to turn it round - where would I be seen as local? Obviously that depends on context, but in my experience broadly Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, (most of) South Tyneside, and the extreme south of Northumberland (Cramlington yes, Blyth maybe, Ashington generally not). I think it is reasonable to argue that if a place would see me as local then I would be local in that place!

 

[SargeNpton]

When it comes to pubs, I walk past two others before I get to one one that I consider to be my local.

 

[D6130]

When it comes to pubs, I walk past two others before I get to one one that I consider to be my local.

....and I walk past five!

 

[Belperpete]

In what context? Do you mean “the local area”? I’d bind it to the next significant town, which for me in Rugby, gives a circle bounded by Coventry and Northampton.

I think you have hit the nail on the head there. People in rural areas are likely to consider a much larger area as local than those in urban areas, as they will be accustomed to travelling much greater distances to the nearest shop, pub, etc.

On the other hand, those who live in small towns can have a very limited view. When we lived in Croydon, we were quite accustomed to going to London for shopping, to the theatre, etc. When I moved to Reading and suggested to some of my new colleagues that we hop on the train to London for an evening out, they looked at me as though I had suggested popping over to Chicago for the evening!, despite London being just as accessible from Reading as Croydon. They had a much more limited view of what was "local".

 

[3141]

I live in Whitchurch, Hampshire, which is technically a town (the smallest in Hampshire) and has a population of about 7,200. "Local" to me means Whitchurch itself and the surrounding countryside for 3 -4 miles. Four miles eastwards and you've reached Overton, a large village of a bit under 5,000, which generally I don't consider "local". We have four small food stores, one of which contains the Post Office. None of them is large enough to be called a supermarket. There's a baker, a chemist and a petrol station. But there isn't a butcher, and if I was asked where there's a local butcher I would say there isn't one, but the nearest one is in Overton.

"Local walks" would be ones that I feel I can do on foot there and back, or maybe up to four miles if I can get home by bus. That runs Andover - Whitchurch - Overton - Basingstoke. It's "local" for about three miles either side of Whitchurch. Plus the remains of a previously more regular service southwards to Winchester, largely used by students. There's a genuinely "local" minibus service on three days a week operated within Whitchurch, which also runs once a week to Morrisons in Basingstoke, about eleven miles away, and allows people to spend a couple of hours there.

Administratively, we're in the District of Basingstoke and Deane, but I don't a consider Basingstoke to be a "local" large town. Andover, in Test Valley District, is only six miles away, but I'd call that the "nearest" large town rather than a local one.

Congratulations to anyone who can deduce any coherent principles from all this!

 

[52290]

I think you have hit the nail on the head there. People in rural areas are likely to consider a much larger area as local than those in urban areas, as they will be accustomed to travelling much greater distances to the nearest shop, pub, etc.

On the other hand, those who live in small towns can have a very limited view. When we lived in Croydon, we were quite accustomed to going to London for shopping, to the theatre, etc. When I moved to Reading and suggested to some of my new colleagues that we hop on the train to London for an evening out, they looked at me as though I had suggested popping over to Chicago for the evening!, despite London being just as accessible from Reading as Croydon. They had a much more limited view of what was "local".

Here in Royston Vasey "local' is a frighteningly small area.

 

[etr221]

My thinking is that I have two definitions of local:

1. Really local: where I can just 'pop out' to, that I know reasonably well, so don't need map/directions, within walking distance, so within no more than a mile or so. Perhaps my parish (in a traditional, ecclesiastical, sense - some civil parishes are now much larger), whose bounds could be beaten in half a day.
2. A wider local: that I look to for everyday needs, within half an hour to an hours journey, so readily visitable perhaps for a meal, or between meals (and coming home to eat), with a total time no more than two or three hours, and that I know to some extent, and isn't 'different'.

Both of which are difficult to pin down with any degree of exactitude, or that I would agree in detail with my neighbour, although I would expect them to have similar ideas.

 

[Springs Branch]

I once read a description of the difference between the British and Americans along the lines of . . .
“The British think that 100 miles is a long way, while the Americans think 100 years is a long time”

 

[Tetchytyke]

I live on an island which, at its biggest, is thirty miles long and ten miles wide. The whole idea of local takes a whole new meaning here. Going up to Ramsey (“all the way to Ramsey”) is a day out. It’s fifteen miles away.

 

[Statto]

It depends where one lives, i live in an urban area, so anywhere within a 15 minute walk is local to me, its different for those living in rural areas, were the the nearest Town/City could be 10 - 20 miles plus away, which would be local to them.

 

[BingMan]

I live on an island which, at its biggest, is thirty miles long and ten miles wide. The whole idea of local takes a whole new meaning here. Going up to Ramsey (“all the way to Ramsey”) is a day out. It’s fifteen miles away.

I visit family on your Island quite often and it always seems much bigger than that. Castletown to Ramsey is a full day and Point of Ayre seems impossibly remote

 

[TheSmiths82]

Probably the same city, unless its London

I would include Manchester and Birmingham in that too. There are many parts of Manchester (even within the city council area) that are so far away I have never been to and would take about 90 minutes to get there by public transport.

I would count my local are as much most of south Manchester including Stockport town centre but not anywhere past Stockport (from where I live). Stockport is 6 miles away.

 

[PeterC]

I think you have hit the nail on the head there. People in rural areas are likely to consider a much larger area as local than those in urban areas, as they will be accustomed to travelling much greater distances to the nearest shop, pub, etc.

On the other hand, those who live in small towns can have a very limited view. When we lived in Croydon, we were quite accustomed to going to London for shopping, to the theatre, etc. When I moved to Reading and suggested to some of my new colleagues that we hop on the train to London for an evening out, they looked at me as though I had suggested popping over to Chicago for the evening!, despite London being just as accessible from Reading as Croydon. They had a much more limited view of what was "local".

Reminds me of when I helped run a music club in the Home Counties. We could attract customers from 15 miles away in one direction but not from 5 in the other.

 

[Strathclyder]

It really depends on the criteria you use tbh; proxmity of surrounding towns/cities and the amenties within, the method of transport etc). Personally, I regard any major settlement within a 10-15 mile bus ride as local (Clydebank is about halfway between Dumbarton & Glasgow).

 

[nlogax]

For me it's anywhere I can drive to in about 30 mins on an average day. Am only a mile SW of the Glasgow boundary so I'd say a broad sweep from the end of the M77 at Kilmarnock up to Dumbarton, and all the way to the other side of town - probably Cumbernauld and down to Blantyre.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I visit family on your Island quite often and it always seems much bigger than that. Castletown to Ramsey is a full day and Point of Ayre seems impossibly remote

Being on an island distorts the concept of time and distance. It is just under 25 miles by road from Castletown to Ramsey- about the same distance as Buxton to Manchester Airport- and it's about a 45 minute drive. It's about the same in both distance and time from my house in Douglas to the Point of Ayre.

Nowhere in the UK would a 45-minute drive be classed as a day out but here it really does feel like it.

That said, for two weeks a year you can watch people do a 37.75 mile bike ride in a little over 16 minutes, so maybe it is!