Where is the ideal place for a UK prepper?

[Straight Shooter]

Anywhere rural ,even better if you know the area, but underground would be even better, some weeks back Highlander posted....with pics .....his hide out ...and he is very out the way, but I think he is bang on the money with what he's done ......in my opinion. Its the only way to go.......as soon as funds allow that's what I want.

[River Song]

I was feeling stupid darlings.

Maybe we can send BP as a prepper-missionary to Brixton :-)

[Jonas]

(7 October 2013, 15:28)Tibbs735 Wrote: I would really value your opinions on where is, in your opinion, the best place for a prepper / survivalist to set up a retreat, or live in the UK? I'm currently leaning towards rural Northumberland / Cumbria, but I don't know very much about those areas.

Uhhh... Texas?

[Tibbs735]

(7 October 2013, 19:21)Jonas Wrote:

(7 October 2013, 15:28)Tibbs735 Wrote: I would really value your opinions on where is, in your opinion, the best place for a prepper / survivalist to set up a retreat, or live in the UK? I'm currently leaning towards rural Northumberland / Cumbria, but I don't know very much about those areas.

Uhhh... Texas?

Maybe the UK could become the 51st state of the USA? Excluding the greater London area of course, which would be cordoned off similar the the film Doomsday.
Norfolk is in my opinion a half-decent place to be, the population density could be improved, we are good on other factors like fertile land and gun ownership.

[Midnitemo]

(7 October 2013, 19:37)Tibbs735 Wrote:

(7 October 2013, 19:21)Jonas Wrote:

(7 October 2013, 15:28)Tibbs735 Wrote: I would really value your opinions on where is, in your opinion, the best place for a prepper / survivalist to set up a retreat, or live in the UK? I'm currently leaning towards rural Northumberland / Cumbria, but I don't know very much about those areas.

Uhhh... Texas?

Maybe the UK could become the 51st state of the USA? Excluding the greater London area of course, which would be cordoned off similar the the film Doomsday.
Norfolk is in my opinion a half-decent place to be, the population density could be improved, we are good on other factors like fertile land and gun ownership.

When you say good on gun ownership do you mean lots of gun's or very few gun's......good on gun's for me would be very few gun's around my area...i'd like to be one of the few with, not one of the many.

[Tibbs735]

Highest legal gun ownership in the UK. It's funny because the maps of legal gun ownership in the UK (Colour intensity changing) can be reversed to get the illegal gun ownership maps (London and other urban areas being the highest.)

[Highlander]

(7 October 2013, 17:00)Midnitemo Wrote:

(7 October 2013, 16:52)bigpaul Wrote: trouble is (as we have said before) these are islands, there is a fine amount of land surrounded by water, some are tree less and others are just scrub, a lot of these places the food and supplies have to be shipped in on a regular basis.

the Shetlands have been inhabitted for at least a couple of millenia...things do grow...admitedly not just anything ...peat for fires...fishing ...sheep and ponies....never short of a bit of wind for the turbines...geo thermal heating would work well too...not going to be everyones cuppa tea but i fancy it

If a really life threatening emergency happened you would probably starve on Shetland,.. everything you have said is true, ...if you are a local who has lived the land for many, many years

Almost everything that Shetland has has to be imported, the weather is always against the grower, peat has to sit for a year to dry out,. after you have learnt to cut it,.. fishing, yes when the seas allow,...can you pilot a boat in rough weather?

Shetland would not be for me, Shetland could well be a trap of your own making unless you know the place

[LawAbidingCitizen]

(7 October 2013, 18:00)Midnitemo Wrote: RS is just trying to shorten the oddslol...everyone she can send to brixton is one less to worry about!!! the frontline is pretty scary even before shtf!!!!

It ain't that bad, central part is full of hummus munchers these days

[TheFalcon]

(7 October 2013, 18:58)River Song Wrote: I was feeling stupid darlings.

Maybe we can send BP as a prepper-missionary to Brixton :-)

Hey dont disrespect me lovely neighbourhood

[Timelord]

The ideal place will never be defined in the UK as long as there is more than one person to answer it. The geology of the landmass has been altered through time by earth movements and by glaciers and their effects. The anti cyclonic winds and general weather trends, the gulf stream and rain fall, all combine to make the UK land/soil types to be extremely varied across the nation. The end result has been that people have primarily inhabited the warmer, more fertile and nature resource rich areas first. gradually colonising into the more marginal areas. Unfortunately this means that the most popular/populous areas are the primary ones and the most marginal are the least populated ones.
On the face of it the less populated areas would seem to be the best for a prepper who desires a secluded habitat, but as we can see from the above info, this comes with some considerable disadvantages. Striking a balance could be a good tactic, but into this consideration should be put that if a scenario changes the weather pattern, either temporarily or long term, then this will also change the capability of the land area you are looking at. A marginal area may become untenable - as has happened throughout history, shown by many abandoned farmsteads and some villages. This does not mean marginal areas are not ideal, just that there are reasons for things to be as they are and historical examples can provide extra info.
The soils which essentially dictate fertility of cropping are generally superior below a line crossing from the "Bristol Channel" to "The Wash" Everything above this has had major glacial erosion which has stripped off much of the upper fertile soils and left poorer soils formed from much older. deeper rock types that often does not drain as well and is much stonier - an important consideration to farming ability/crop types.
This is far from the complete picture, because since the Ice Ages soils have built up naturally and also been deposited, by processes such as river alluvial deposition or estuary silting or coastal accumulation, mainly on the West or reclaimed land from the sea + other accumulation processes. This results in a very "localised" diverse range of soils and some of these "locals" can be quite fertile throughout the glaciated zone. One major drawback even with top soil of a more fertile type, is the underlying geology being much older and compressed/solid, often results in poor drainage of the upper layers and this affects crop type, yield, land access, farming ability etc.
On top of this, the West side of the country from the "Watershed" backbone of hills running North/South generally, is wetter than the East and also has approx. 2 weeks less of the growing season due to the climate being cool 2 weeks longer before plants respond. At the end of the growing season, due to the Autumn and Early winter being much wetter than the East side, then farming activities, especially with machinery are severely hampered by wet weather, resulting in limited good access to and across many fields.
Because of this, there is a predominance of pastoral farming and of that a major percentage being sheep. The East side of the country is more amenable to crops and has always produced and farmed better for this resource.
The further North you go, the colder the average temperature. there is approx. a 2 degree drop from the South to the Midlands and another 2 degrees from there up to Scotland. I suspect another 2 degrees to the top of Scotland but I don't have that data myself :-) Ask Highlander... unless he has the gulf stream running anywhere nearby. lol)
Basically, there is a theme of warmer & better soils to the south, with cooler and poorer soils going North. Wetter to the West and drier to the East. More fertile, accommodating climate to the South & East, leaner less comfortable climate going North & West. Add into this the extreme local diversity of soils due to landform processes, which result in degrees of plant fertility and resources, the ease of working that land or whether you are able to collect resources from other land types like estuaries, rivers, shorelines and to cap it all the population density relating to all of the above, then it can be seen that :-
Any individual asking the question of where is the best place in the UK, will have to focus in and target not only specific local land types and the resources that provides, but also their own individual specific requirements and their perceived external influencing factors. The actual places that could fit the individual specification will be many and surprisingly often to be found in localities throughout the UK due to the many many variables at play. Unless you are loaded, then a compromise fitting as many of your requirements as possible will be the likely outcome.
One last piece of advice - "Don't buy houses built on floodplains" lol. TL.