I thought it best to revive this topic rather than repeating a similar question, as there's a lot of useful info here already -- if you don't mind @cerat0n1a? Also apologies if I missed an update elsewhere, but I'd be interested to find out if you did end up moving and if so, how that went?
I don't remember whether I did do an update or not. We rented in York for a while, and ended up moving to the northern part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Prices rose quite significantly during the time we were renting, so although it removed a lot of the moving stress, and gave us time to carefully consider where to move to, it ended up being quite a costly decision.
I think we're still somewhat in the honeymoon period, but we absolutely love it here - still think 'wow' when I look out of the window, drive to the shops, go for a walk or run. Currently in the middle of major building work - the builders are excellent and making really rapid progress. Our stone farmhouse had a room which was accessible only from the garden, so that is being connected to the rest of the house, and four smaller rooms are being knocked through into one to create a big open-plan kitchen. There's a stone barn, a garage, a couple of outbuildings and an acre of land, which is taking a good part of my time. I took delivery of a load of bare-root native trees and shrubs this week and have been busy planting those.
The village is fairly touristy, which means we have a selection of pubs/restaurants and cafes within a very short walk. There is a shop, good access to doctor etc. There are a few holiday cottages, second homes and airbnbs, but a relatively low proportion compared to many other villages. Everyone has been very friendly and welcoming. Tourism and sheep farming are the main industries, but our immediate neighbours include a GP, an accountant, software engineers, a graphic designer and a woman with a decorative glassmaking business and there's a good number of people working from home during the day. We're not the only mixed-race couple, surprisingly.
Funny to look at my original criteria, very few of which ended up being met.
Proximity to national park(s) or an AONB - hills to run/walk in, forests, dark skies. Not too touristy though and not necessarily actually in the National Park.Tick for all this, apart from the "not too touristy" bit - we're in one of the honeypot areas and weekend daytimes can get pretty busy in the small area around the car park. But still very quiet at almost all other times. Once you get out in the hills, away from the "three peaks", it's basically empty. We walked for a couple of hours along the River Swale last Sunday, in the sun, on a route that had featured in a BBC TV programme the week before, and didn't see a single other person.
Reasonably close to a mainline train route, decent road connectionsBig fat no for this. 30-40 minutes drive to the settle-to-carlisle line or the east coast mainline. Similar distance to the A1.
Within walking distance of GP, supermarket, probably also pub/ restaurants, a bookshop.
Not too far from A&E/ hospital, an arts centre/ music venue, theatre & art galleries a plus.
Ideally somewhere with a running club and a place with traditional music sessions.Have to go into Richmond or Leyburn for many of these things, and A&E is further still. Probably 10 art galleries within a few miles though, and a similar number of fancy places to eat. So a car is definitely necessary, although I often go for 2+ weeks without going anywhere by car.