Llantwit Major

[Izziebelly]

Hi All,

I am hoping that one of you lovely people might be able to give me some info on Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan. We are thinking of looking at at house here but don't know the area at all.

If anyone knows of good/bad parts to live in, facilities, schools and generally whether this a nice place to live. Any information or opionions would be great!

[ClareMarriott]

Hi I don't know the town myself but you might find some information by checking these sites. www.llantwitschool.org.uk www.llantwitmajortowncouncil.gov.uk and www.llantwitmajorchamberoftrade.co.uk Good luck

[Izziebelly]

Hi Clare,
Thank you for your help. So hard to make a decision on an area you don't know so I will have a good look at the sites you've suggested.

[Jessimamacat]

Hi there,
I moved to Llantwit Major from Cardiff with my partner in July this year as I really wanted to be nearer the sea.

It's a really lovely little town, it's got a decent number of shops and facilities - Drs, dentists, leisure centre etc and so far the people seem really friendly and nice; apart from the lady in the post office- she was super grumpy and rude when we didn't have ID for picking up a parcel!

Anyway, the nicer areas are mostly in the west of the town. From our househunting experience we decided to avoid the area between Eagleswell Road and Bedford Rise and around Cardigan Crescent. They're by no means horrendous just the less nice areas but the house prices reflect this!

The old part of the town is the westernmost and has the loveliest houses, sadly we couldn't quite afford that bit so we went for one of the modern estates in the northwest.

The best way to get a feel for it though is just to come look at some places, there's three estate agents in town, Anthony brown, chris Davies and make your move, the latter were pretty rubbish and we gave up on them- they never had keys or replied to our messages.

Things that drew us to the town- it's less than an hour to Cardiff by car and train (yay a train station!), it has a beach which is rocky but beautiful and there are sandy ones nearby, the town has good facilities and schools and the surrounding area is really beautiful.

The town itself has a large Co-op and a Filco (a local supermarket) which between them have plenty for everyday food and essentials. There's a pharmacy, travel agent, Greggs, off licence, health food store, and several independant shops - hairdressers, jewellers, optitions.
If you need some bigger shops Bridgend has a giant Tesco and lots of other major chain stores only 15min by car away.

Hope some of that helps! If you have any other questions I'll do my best to answer them

So far we are loving it here!

[hefalumpbecky]

Hi Jessi,

Thank you so much for replying, it is really helpful to hear the opinion of someone who lives in the area and I'm glad your happy with your move!

We have been for a look around the town and it seems like a nice place - quite similar to the town I grew up in and I love the feel of a small community rather than a city. Some of the older houses in the West look beautiful, but after looking on right move I'm sad to say, out of our price range. There doesn't seem to be much for sale at the mo, but most of what is in our price range seems to be in the south/south east (around Ham ln, Illtyd avenue).

The area of Cardiff we live in at the moment is a bit questionable with quite a bit of anti social behaviour which has made me a bit paranoid about picking and area, so I think we will have to take a few more trips to stake out the areas we can afford.

Do you or your partner work in Cardiff? If so how do you find the commute?

Thanks again for your help it is really useful to have the perspective of someone who is new to the area.

[hefalumpbecky]

Hi Jessi, forgot to say this is Izziebelly but name changed - just incase I confused you!

[WoweeZowee]

Hi.
I'd echo what Jessi said about Llantwit. It's a lovely town! We lived there for six years and really enjoyed being out of the city... Moved back to Cardiff, though, as the commute was getting to be a real drag tbh. It's not that it's a bad journey as such (as you've got either M4 or A48 routes depending on what part of Cardiff you need to get to) but as we only had one car it was getting trickier to manage. Would usually take 40mins but if Cardiff traffic was bad (esp bute tunnel and link rd) you could be stuck for AGES.. Train service is regular but a bit unreliable in bad weather or later in evening.

That aside, the areas you were looking at - illtyd ave / ham ln - always seemed nice, quiet and reasonably priced... Plus they're not far from the beach and shops. There was recently a couple of houses for sale on ham ln sth which were making me wish they'd been for sale when we were looking! Boverton might also be worth a look?

Ooh I'm feeling all nostalgic now . Happy house hunting - I hope it works out for you! If I can be of help with any LM info too just let me know.

[TheReturnOfBridezilla]

I used to live there! No advice as haven't been for years but I remember it being a lovely place to grow up.

[hefalumpbecky]

Hi wowee and Bridezilla,

Thanks for your comments. Its really useful to hear from someone with experience of both Cardiff and Llantwit Major and really encouraging to hear you both liked it there. It is an exciting decision, but seems like such a big one!

Wowee other than the commute how would you compare living in Cardiff and Llantwit Major? The possible length of time to get to work in the mornings does worry me a little, especially as we don't really get much more for our money in Llantwit Major than we do in some nice parts of North and West Cardiff.

Also, can anyone let me know is there much to choose between the primary Schools in the area or are they all okay? Also (thinking of enjoying ourselves whilst we are still child free) are there any good pubs or resturants in the area?

Thanks to everyone for your help.

[WoweeZowee]

Hi again

You know, I'm not sure there really is much of a difference between Llantwit and, say, Whitchurch (where we live now). It was always nice to get away from the city, and spend weekends enjoying the country walks, the various food, art & craft, beer & cider festivals, etc that took place in Llantwit and nearby parts of the Vale that we wouldn't otherwise have known about. But, we just seemed to spend the vast majority of our time in Cardiff - whether it be for work, going out, friends or shopping (there's only so many times you can traipse around McArthur Glen!) - so we decided to make the move back.

That said, I'm not sure if anywhere in Cardiff can compete with how lovely and cosy Llantwit is when it's snowing and the smell of wood burning fires is in the air...

I'm afraid I can't help on the school front... but we did frequent our fair share of pubs and eateries in our time there. It's been a couple of years so a lot could've changed since our last visit but The Swan or White Hart were our town centre faves. We also used to go to the Blacksmith's Arms in Llanmaes, which was really nice too. That and The Swan did good food - with The Swan doing lots of exciting beers and ciders. I think pretty much all the restaurants are decent - Illtyds 216 being at the fancier end of the scale, but there's a couple of Indian restaurants and an Italian worth checking out. Lots of good takeaways too. there's no chance of going hungry in Llantwit, that's for sure! Our absolute favourite pubs were out of town - The Horseshoes (MArcross - lovely food - nice walk to the lighthouse), Plough and Harrow (Monknash - lovely food & exciting beer & cider), Pelican in its Piety (Ogmore - more nice food), The Star (Wick). Basically, the bus route between Bridgend and Llantwit stops at most of the pubs en route - giving you at least an hour at each one to errr sample the local ambience - and runs until late.

I guess there's no better excuse to go and have a meal out / visit a couple of pubs / view some houses - all in the name of research! We found it really useful to check out a few different areas before we took the plunge, and then make lots of lists of pros and cons. Like you say, I don't think there is much difference between house prices in the areas you mention.

Crikey, sorry, I've written rather a lot...... oops!

[Jessimamacat]

Hi again, we looked at the areas you mentioned too and it seemed quite nice and quiet, but an asb hub as far as we could tell! We put an offer in on a house on Fitzhamon Ave but they rejected it sadly and we went for somewhere a bit cheaper on Clos Ogney in the end.

We used to work in Fairwater in Cardiff but the job has moved to Bridgend and my other half is in Barry now so our commutes are pretty short. Though we still visit MIL in Llandaff quite often. Depending on time of day we either go A48 through Ely of M4 to Coryton.

When we were commuting to Cardiff we were lucky cos we worked shifts so we weren't coming and going in rush hour which made it a lot easier.

A big reason for moving out of Cardiff was thinking about starting a family and both of us having grown up in the country we didn't want our babies growing up in and going to city schools. But that's a personal preference and there are some really good schools in Cardiff.

[hefalumpbecky]

Hi Wowee,
Don't say sorry, the more info I can get the better! Whitchurch is also a possibility for us, I love that it has nice centre with bars and resturants and a sort of 'villagey' feel - but a little bit of me wants to be surrounded by fields and countryside! How do you find it there?
We originally started looking in Llantwit in the hope of getting the house we wanted in a nice village/small town setting (which we were struggling to find or afford in Cardiff) but the prices aren't much lower. I think I might just have very unrealistic expectations! A few trips to the pubs you mentioned will definitely be in order in the name of 'research' as you say!

Hi Jessi,
Sorry to be a bit slow, but do you mean the areas I mentioned in Llantwit Major (Ham ln, Illtyd ave etc) are a hub of anti social behaviour, or parts of North Cardiff? It's a major issue where we are now, and one of the reasons for moving - so definitely want to avoid it if I can! Clos Ogney looks lovely, very smart looking houses.
Totaly agree with you about starting a family - I grew up in a small ruaral town and loved it as a child and think it would be great if my future children could have the same sort of childhood.

Thank you both for your replies, really helpful

[Jessimamacat]

Ahh typo there I'm afraid! The essential word I missed out being Not. The places you looked in llantwit seemed like they had very little asb as far as we could tell but it's probably worth having a drive/walk around on a fri/sat night to make sure. Whitchurch as far as I know is mostly ok and about as close to a village feel as you can get actually in Cardiff.

Hope you find somewhere you really love soon and manage to get away from the asb around you, it's must be a nightmare!

Good luck :)

[turkeyboots]

My SIL lives there and is a teacher (on the far side of Cardiff) and is positive about all the primaries.

HTH.

[turkeyboots]

Ha wowwee has just named most of DH's underage drinking haunts! They are all very nice now though, and not full of teenage Goths.