‘It’s exactly like The Archers’ - Janet Street-Porter reveals she has moved to Norfolk

Janet-Street Porter has moved near Thurlton Credit: Nick Butcher (Image: Archant © 2013)

Janet has made a career out of her strong opinions and no-nonsense nature but when it comes to her personal life she would rather keep things low key.

In her column for The Independent this week, the 72-year-old TV star revealed she has left the remote Yorkshire village she had lived in for 40 years to live in "a ramshackle house miles from a road, surrounded by water, hares, marsh deer and free roaming cattle" in Norfolk.

In the article, she said her nearest village shop was in Thurlton in South Norfolk, near the Suffolk border, and when she arrived last week she had bought newspapers and a marrow for 50p and praised the "chatty and enthusiastic" people that worked there.

In the 2011 census, the village had a population of 779 and it is also home to the Great Goliath Mill, The Queens Head pub and Thurlton Primary School with 100 pupils.

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Janet wrote: "Yes, it's exactly like The Archers - owned by the villagers! Now I know I can be at home in Norfolk.

I have a hub that's not part of a chain, a quirky community store with a table for reading and a coffee, a post office, and well stocked shelves - from fuel to baby food, cleaning products to tins and dried goods.

"I could drive the same distance in the opposite direction to a dreary Tesco Express, or a petrol station mini shop, but why bother? Rural shops are the absolute key to nurturing a community, a place to talk, to offer help and to feel part of your neighbourhood."

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Janet Street-Porter has moved near Thurlton Credit: Nick Butcher (Image: Archant © 2018)

She said that she has decided to move to the county as she wants "a life of splendid isolation" and wants to help rural villages thrive and be part of a community.

She also talked about her time living in Upper Nidderdale valley in Yorkshire, where she has seen firsthand the life going out of rural areas with bus cuts and how local businesses were under threat from big supermarkets and young people moving away.

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espite growing up in inner London, Janet said that growing up she spent every holiday in rural Wales visiting her grandma and, despite her working life being in the capital, she has always favoured the rural life.

During her career as a broadcaster and journalist, Janet has been the fashion editor of the Evening Standard, editor of The Independent on Sunday and in 2011 she became a panellist on ITV's Loose Women.