Blimey, your more of a suvverner than i am, not that anglians are sarf. Kent is sarf, you must have liked being down south. You mentioned the open spaces near you including the Malverns, i spent a lot of time there. You must like open spaces i do, there is the fens, no high ground, and a big sky.
Cities are great but not for an appetite that must have space and opennnes. As long as your happy thats the main thing, home is where the heart is though. There might be something wrong, but i still haunt my childhood streets, places, pubs, memories, for no other reason than being there. I volunteered to work in the churchyard over my childhood back yard wall. Probably.