Which way you're going
East — Lincolnshire, the coast and East Anglia
Out past Newark · A46 / A17 / A1
The quietest roads and the longest last part. A great many of these are downsizes and retirements to the coast or to a village, and the arrival is usually somewhere a satnav is more confident than it should be.
CommonlyLincoln · Grantham · Sleaford · Boston · Skegness · King’s Lynn · Norwich · Peterborough
What this direction is like
The main run is easy and the last part is not. Once you are off the A-roads the lanes narrow quickly, and a village address that looks perfectly ordinary on a map can be a genuine problem for a large vehicle.
A satnav will confidently route a lorry down something it should not. We check the final approach rather than trusting it, and where necessary we shuttle in with something smaller.
This direction carries more downsizes and retirements than any other, which means more clearance, more things going to family, and more storage while a bungalow or a coastal flat is made ready.
The properties are frequently older and lower. Cottages, converted farm buildings and coastal bungalows all bring low doorways, narrow stairs and tight turns that a modern estate house does not.
Nobody is in a rush, which is a pleasant change. These moves usually have more flexibility in them than a job move does, and that is worth using.
What we do about it
Check the final approach for real rather than trusting a route planner
Bring a smaller vehicle to shuttle in where the lane will not take a large one
Handle clearance, family drop-offs and storage as part of the same job
Measure low doorways and tight turns at the receiving end before the day
Watch for
The last stretch of lane. It is the single most common surprise on this direction and it is entirely checkable in advance.
Get a quote
Heading east?
Both addresses, and roughly when. On a long move the second address is the one that shapes the day, so the more you can tell us about it the better the quote will be.