Town mice or country yokels?

Family Investments, a children's savings provider, recently undertook a survey to find the best place in the United Kingdom in which to raise a family. In top place was a Devon village -Winkleigh. To me, it sounds more like a small town that a village with a butcher, baker, fishmonger, school, doctor, vet, two pubs and a sports centre.

I am a townie. I was born and bred in a town and have never lived anywhere but towns, although my mother would take my brother and I for country walks whenever possible. My wife is also a townie but she did have family friends in a small village in the Midlands and spent much of the school holidays with them. There was a time when my wife and I briefly considered a move to a country location. At the time I was working for a bank. One of the advantages of that employment was the low interest rate and comparatively high loan-to-salary ratio available to staff. The interest rate was a fixed 2½% - not tied to bank rate - and the mortgage could be up to four times annual salary. This was a time when mortgages were generally limited to three times salary. Another perk - but one which didn't come round all that often - was that the bank would sometimes agree to meet all the costs associated with moving to a new house - estate agent's fees, solicitor's fees, removal expenses, the lot - when one was transferred from one branch to another. Admittedly, this was only the case if the new branch was considered (by the bank) to be too far for convenient daily travel. Some of my colleagues used this scheme to move up a notch every few years. For me, there was only one occasion when the bank offered to pay removal costs. I was sent to a branch in an unprepossessing town and it was suggested to me that I should move to that town. We briefly considered a move to a village a few miles outside the town, but we decided to stay put as our eldest son had only just changed school and had settled nicely. We had no wish to disrupt the children's education.

But, I wonder, is the received wisdom that it is better to raise children in the country really correct? In the town we have always lived within walking distance of the children's schools and, from a fairly early age, they (the children, not the schools) would make the walk on their own. Could they have done that in the country? In many places the narrow lanes with no pavements or verges are just too dangerous to allow children to walk or cycle to school (if the school is with walking or cycling distance anyway) so the parents drive them. And what about those out-of-school activities like Scouts? Are they available in small villages or is it necessary to drive several miles each way?

Eventually, every child will end up in a town. At least our town mice were street-wise at much younger ages than many country yokels would have been - and in less danger because of that. There is a lot to be said for a country upbringing. But the converse is also true.