To leave London (burbs) to live in Exeter

[Tinywavesandripples]

I have worked in admin at various universities in London for the last ten years and am increasingly fed up with living in the great big smoke. I have only been to exeter once and loved it. Am I bu to consider selling up, taking dc out of her very good infant school and starting over in Exeter? It appeals to me as it's a university town and close to the Sea. Would it be a culture shock?

Go on, tell me the good, the bad and the ugly!

Million - 124 from next year. This year it's still 120. :)

There are counties where there are more than one school of comparable standard to CGS though...

Exeter's a fabulous place to live! Have been here just a few years, but really love it. Live between Exeter and Crediton - there's a good secondary school in a Crediton. Beautiful cathedral, good shops, lovely countryside on
The doorstep and near the sea. What's not to like?!

Good point molio with regard too pro's and con's of both London and Exeter/Devon, I was just trying to give to OP a couple of things to reflect on as part of her decision making process.

As I said in my point about education standards it is a general point and of course does not mean all schools but you might find these articles interesting:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19151471
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/09/london-challenge-lesson-poor-pupils-labour-policy-schools
Hope these work as I've never linked before!

There are loads of lovely towns and villages within striking distance of Exeter.

We've lived in Bath and Bristol both of which I loved but could never raise kids in or stay long term.

Warning- once you move down to a Devon you'll never want to leave.There are sooooo many beaches,proper countryside,Dartmoor,decent schools and you've got Exeter which has fab shops and Bristol/Bath on your doorstep if you want more.We're getting Ikea too.

Torquay is actually lovely imvho.It has 2 very good grammar schools and another very nearby.It has a lovely light to it,lovely views of the sea,Babbacombe too and I like it.Some nice properties,quite a lot for your money.I think it's on the up,there is a feel about it and many are saying buy there now whilst prices are affordable.There is a new road being built so access is going to be better.That said I wouldn't move there unless you were interested in grammar places.

That said a cottage on Dartmoor would be my ideal.Pm me if you want names of nice villages/ towns and schools.

I grew up in Exeter in exwick it's a small city and is very easy to walk to town from most parts of it usually along the river. Not to mention all the cycle paths along the river I remember my parents doing pub crawl bike rides ending up in double locks the pub not the actual lock itself. It has loads of little historical bits hidden all over the place and is a very pretty place. Do they still do mid summers night dream in rougemount gardens? Getting all nostalgic now not been back for nearly13 years

If it were me, I'd hedge my bets a bit and go New Forest way with easy access to Southampton and Bournemouth Universities, quick access to London, then use Bournemouth/Poole for shopping etc. If you do, you'll find many other Londoners who have done the same.

The trouble with 11+ areas are if your child doesn't pass the alternative school usually isn't great
But I'm happy to be corrected on that
I know it's true where I live :(

We moved from outskirts of Birmingham to north Devon four years ago. Love it.

Another place to consider is Cardiff. My eldest is at uni there. Lovely city. If we hadn't settled here we would have looked at moving there actually.

Noooo not dartmoor the fog will come down you will get lost and then up comes the hairy hands oooooooo

My inlaws relocated to the New Forest from London area,they're not keen.It's something and nothing.

It's not London and bar the New Forest which ain't big it has a decidedly non wild feel to it.

Examine what you want.If it's the proper countryside then you won't better Devon.I do need either the proper non restricting countryside or proper city living like London though,not keen on the inbetweens.I get chlostraphobic if too hemmed in.Loved Bath but there wasn't any true wilderness for miles and the city isn't that huge.It's a beautiful bowl iykwim.

Lila the intake for the grammars covers a huge area.There are loads of great alternative schools.Many don't bother sitting the 11+, it's not like London.

I lived in Exeter for 3/4 years & left.

The climate really got to me! Devon is so lush & green for a reason: it rains all winter!

Devon isn't 'an 11+ area'. There is one super selective grammar school - and it's been pointed out to theOP that she shouldn't move to Exeter banking on her kids getting into it. Torbay, which is a separate LEA, is and 11+ area but since the OP didn't say she wanted to live there, and it doesn't fit her criteria (not a university town) it's not really relevant.

Thanks :) I didn't realise it was only Torbay xx

And there are many great schools surrounding Torbay.The Torbay applicants get kids from as far as Plymouth and Exeter.So grammar schools are a nice extra iykwim.We're applying to a Torbay grammar but live not far from Exeter.We have 2 or 3 other good secondaries to choose from and still not sure where all 3 should go,they could end up in 3 diff schools,there is loads of choice.

Torbay has several grammar schools. Plymouth has several grammar schools. Both are separate LEAs. Exeter is in Devon LEA. The OP expressed an interest in Exeter not Torbay or Plymouth. Devon LEA has one grammar school. It's probably not really very relevant to the OP it was only raised as a point because someone else said the schools in London are better than anywhere else, which obviously isn't true. Although obviously some of the schools in London (especially the bit I'm from) are wonderful.

OP - have you had a job offer from the Uni here. If not then perhaps you should visit for a weekend. Or a week even. But I would either get a move on or wait because you won't get a true view of the place if you visit during the summer Hols.

One other thing to consider - do you get hayfever? My hayfever is a billion times worse down here. It's not just the quantity of pollen it's the types of pollen - the pollen down here is basically the mutant strain.

Blimey. She wants to move to Exeter. It isn't full of lepers! :) Why is everyone suggesting alternatives?

We moved out, not as far as you. My sis and her family did too, to the coast and by bro and his family also to South West. They both are incredibly happy to be away from London. I'm a bit less certain.

Small towns are great for the infant years but as teens they want excitement and you have to make sure it's a place that has enough on offer. (I'd have thought Exeter does.) But do look long term, because the childhood years zip past, and the way things are going, you might never be able to buy in London again. The prices are insane. So as well as primary schools and work for you I'd look at secondaries, sports centres, venues, music and drama activities etc to check that there's plenty to get involved in as your DC grows up.

People say there are jobs in Exeter, that's a good sign. But are there also p/t jobs for your DC in their teens? My sis's kids could never get Saturday jobs, because there weren't any. The economy where they live is dead. So they never had money, never learned to budget, relied on their parents for everything. It's one thing my sis struggled with.

Now my DC are teens I miss London with an almost physical ache. But they had an idyllic childhood away from the city, so don't regret it.

It's worth moving there for The Double Locks pub alone

Shops? Exeter packs a lot into a small, easy-to-negotiate area.
Roads/traffic? If you're used to London, Exeter's 'rush hour' shouldn't phase you.
Culture? Tick
Schools? Tick - there are some 'outstanding' options and if you're moving in, you may have the opportunity to choose your catchment area.

Think about quality of life. If you love the coast, wide open spaces (Dartmoor is 365 square miles) and would enjoy a slightly slower pace of life, Exeter might work for you.

You may find this article, particularly the comments, helpful.

Hi OP. I grew up in Torquay, now live in Exeter. Lots if good points have been made on this thread so won't repeat any but if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Torquay was a wonderful place to grow up. DH and I (he grew up there too) still think fondly of it but there are limited opportunities there. In fact my DF worked away for most of my childhood because of that. Exeter is serving us very well though, a good balance of opportunities and the Devon lifestyle and surroundings.

We live a 10 minute walk into the city centre and our commute to work, which is to the other side, takes 20 minutes most days.

i love exeter. the point of moving there is you liked it.

brilliant new shopping
centre in town. loads of things to do. community feel. university. don't slate Torquay. like someone said the coast has a certain light to it. there is a reason people came here to take in the sea air.
to enjoy torbay doesn't mean you have to sit on a bench in the centre of town. we go there alot for a bit of shopping then it an ice cream on the front.
exeter has a good rail link and am airport right outside it.
in for it op. lots going on there.

Some of the secondaries are ok, some not. There are decent private schools too. Obviously the grammar is a fab school. Culturally, Exeter spends the third highest per capita on arts in the whole country. Number one is city of London, 2 is middlesborough www.thestage.co.uk/news/2014/04/people-want-local-arts-funding-triple-poll-reveals/

There are extensive music and drama opportunities for young people. The SWMS is a poor substitute for a conservatoire run Saturday scheme though. There are several theatres, although the biggest touring productions go to either Plymouth or Bristol (but are as accessible to people in Exeter as the west end is to someone living in say zone 6). The RAMM was named museum if the year last year. The arts community is thriving. Sports wise - the swimming is good, the rugby team (who I loath with a passion because of the way some of the players are in the gym) are AIUI doing quite well, if you like that sort of thing. The footy team are rubbish. We have lots of cinemas, including a picturehouse so we get all the screen arts stuff (NT Live, RSC Live, Globe Live etc). There are plenty of PT jobs for young people but threes a lot of competition because of the gigantic student population. The city council and the local MP are both Labour, making Exeter a little oasis of sanity in otherwise pretty much true blue Devon. Houses are not cheap. But there are lots of new developments going up on the outskirts of the city. Water rates are ridiculously high. The highest in the country. It's difficult to get a good deal buying a new car - all the fabulously keen priced offers you see on the Internet etc are usually only available in London and the north. The trains are atrocious. It's very easy to be cut off because if the Somerset levels flood and take out the line, or if it goes at Dawlish (which doesn't usually happen as spectacularly as earlier this year but is hardly a rare occurrence) then that's it for the fast line, the slow line is also unreliable because whenever the weather is bad there are places along it (crewkerne and sherborne) where landslips happen.

Damediazepam - The Double? Tourist trap! The turf is much nicer.

The airport is the worst airport in the world. Apart from Borispol in Kiev. It really is appalling. I've been assured that things will improve when the daily commuter flights to London start in the autumn but I don't actually believe they will - the problem is the lack of infrastructure, the low staffing levels and the money grabbing approach (which means you can't even drop someone off there without paying). I can only assume the people who describe the trains as good don't actually use them very much!

But those issues are only relevant to someone like me who travels a lot for work. They don't impact at all on anyone who is living and working in the city or nearby.