Cornwall

[Sundayroastallday]

Who lives there? What is life like actually living there, especially for kids?

We have a 4 year old Dd, originally from the North but live abroad.
My family now live in Cornwall…we’re thinking of returning to the U.K. and not sure we can live away from the sea now.
Is it easy to integrate there? As a new mum , could I easily make friends at the school gate or are friendships mainly formed from youth and people not that open minded?
Dh surfs, so I’m guessing he’d fit in?

Thoughts on Cornwall?

We've recently moved away after 7 years living there.

The scenery is beautiful, but it has so many problems. Lack of diversity, a cultural desert, too crowded to go anywhere in July or August, and a very small minded attitude to anyone from Not Cornwall.

I've lived all over the UK and have never found anywhere quite so insular and with so many barriers. And my children are all of Cornish heritage.

A few gloom and doom responses. Yes its a long way from London, but would you believe that London isn't the centre of the universe and many people never ever go there. Drugs and underage drinking, where doesn't this happen in the UK? God forbid that grown up children should have to travel to find work.

Having got that off my chest the roads are shite even though there have been some improvements. 🤔😂

I live here..love it. Lots of friendly people. Find your tribe, get into some sports or hobbies or volunteering to get to know people.

Traffic very very Difficult and frustrating in summer. It's deadlock twice a day in and out of popular places. Plan your life, location and worl accordingly.

Health services here are very bad

Don't know why I posted a huge gap there

I don't live in Cornwall but I do live just over the bridge in Plymouth and work around Cornwall so I am there all seasons.
In summer you can't move for traffic with holiday makers which is very frustrating especially as you really need a car to go anywhere and you will never get parked but then in winter it's often raining and drizzle (mizzle) but better on the roads.

If I'm taking the kids anywhere I will definitely avoid going far in the summer holidays.
There's a lot of hostility towards incomers from the locals, I can't lie I hear it a lot and likewise to tourists.
It's a beautiful part of the country but it doesn't look nearly so nice on a grey day without the sun sparkling on the sea and most of the seaside resorts are dead in winter and shops closed up.
There's also no phone signal anywhere.
It's not somewhere my dc would want to live due to not much for them to do, they don't even enjoy visiting anymore because scenery isn't really enough for them.
Some inner towns can have some rough areas as do most places but are probably a bit cheaper and villages would definitely require a car.

I'm on the North Coast, near Devon.

A lot depends on where in Cornwall you go and what you do for a living. The housing crisis is real and jobs tend to be a mix of seasonal tourist types, public service, farming or remote. The last category is very fast-growing as the internet service down here is good and a lot of people moved during Covid-19. It's being encouraged in the schools, with a focus on coding and creativity; they want to create a skilled services hub in the county.

There is only one major hospital and as others mentioned, public transport is crap. There's no rail service in the north and the southern one is struggling due to coastal erosion. The bottom line is; either live in a large town or city where you can walk/cycle or else drive everywhere.

I love Cornwall in the winter. It's rammed in the summer and my town has been packed to the rafters for the past three years, thanks to a combination of flight restrictions, CoL crisis and good weather. You have to pick your times to travel wisely.

Despite all that, the people are welcoming, the towns are safe and there are a lot of clubs, sports and hobbies and the scenery is spectacular. If you have an outdoor family and you can afford the house prices, its well worth considering.

I also live in Cornwall, we moved down 13 years ago. My 4 are aged 22 down to 14 so have done all their teen years here. We are lucky to live in Falmouth so they get the student nightlife and reasonable public transport.

2 sail and are very involved in the racing side of it. 2 like hiking etc so have done/are doing Ten Tors and walked large chunks of the coast path. They all like surfing and one does surf life saving. The older 3 have all spent many summer evenings at the local beach with their friends. 1 has dabbled with drugs but nothing more than happens all across the country.

3 are into theatre/drama so we try and get to Hall for Cornwall for touring shows when we can. Oh and we go as a family to a local music festival each year and the older 2 have been to Boardmasters/Tunes in the Dunes.

It’s definitely a different pace of life to Up Country and I have never regretted moving here. We’ve always been made to feel welcome although none of my good friends were school mums - but I think that was more me than them!

From experience with friends it is great for primary age kids who live a fantastic outdoor life. Great for kids 17+ who have a driving licence. 11 - 17 is trying as parents have to do an awful lot of schlepping kids round the place with no public transport and things being a long way from each other.

I have a friend who moved back to Cornwall from London, she grew up there and has lots of family still there. It's quite insular and difficult to find a job if you aren't from there so they only made the move once her husband found a job where he could work from home. She loves it for her children, it's idyllic being able to walk to the beach in 10 minutes and living nearby family but is planning to move to a bigger city or back to London once they are teenagers.

I grew up in a coastal village, lovely location, we did spend a lot of time hanging out around the beach. Or waiting for a bus into Truro! If you missed the last bus back (9pm-ish) you were in big trouble!

When we were kids (1980s) our village had a pub, a post office, a bakery, a newsagent and a general store. Only two houses in the village were holiday rentals.

Today the pub is still open but all the other shops have closed, so if you even want a pint of milk you have to drive/order online. Half the houses are second homes or holiday lets so in the winter it's completely dead. And the house prices are such that my NHS worker DSis could no way afford to live in the village.

Most of my friends who went away to university haven't come back to live. I moved away too but have since come back as far as Devon. We have some of the same tourist-area problems here but not to the same extent. Plus I have DDs who are 18 and 16 and we are in striking distance of both Exeter and Plymouth for shopping/gigs etc. And we can pop down across the border to see family.

I don't think people in the SW are that hostile to incomers unless they're buying up all the housing. I work in a Devon school and some of the staff are local, but lots are not and it's no big deal.

Rick Stein owns all the restaurants.
All the houses in pretty villages are owned by rich people from London.
Locals live in grey towns away from the coast.
It's 10 hours away from anywhere.
Seals outnumber people 2 to 1, except in summer when tourists outnumber people five million to one.
The internet sometimes works, but only if there is no phone signal.

To be honest there are so many people who have moved to Cornwall in the last few decades that I don't think you would have a problem fitting in or making friends, it's probably no different to moving anywhere in the UK.

I've not been there myself but I recently watched a documentary called 'Doc Martin' and gather from that;
resident policemen are a bit simple,
there is a risk of food poisoning at local restautrants,
primary school teachers are self-obsessed,
local girls spend most of their time meandering about shrieking and giggling,
any slightly unusual event will result in a wildly bizarre accident,
local GP can be a bit a blunt, but the only alternative is go to Wadebridge,,
there is only one neck-brace in the whole county and that has been permanently allocated to one individual,
it's a bit hilly.

On the positive side;
nice beaches,
always sunny,
you can waltz into the doctor surgery at any time you like and get an appointment,
nice beaches, which are always sunny.

Not just Wadebridge, you can go to Delabole!

Gone are the days of campsites and people happy to slow down and spend time being laid back and relaxed. Its really quite noticeable how the type of visitor has changed.

This doesn't really relate to the OP's questions but what you have posted above came up in a conversation with friends the other day, you are right and we all miss those days.

love it 😂 yeah, what they said

😂 brilliant, brightened up my shit day!

Umm not quite…

It completely depends where in Cornwall you move to. There are villages that are dead 10 months of the year, and villages with a lively, thriving community. There are towns that are really depressed, towns that are expensive and full of DFLs, and towns with a buzzing student scene.

It really makes me laugh when people say there's no culture here- they don't look very hard, do they?! 😆 Check out the Redruth Drapery, the Poly in Falmouth, the Cornish Bank in Falmouth, the Acorn in PZ, the Old Bakery Studios in Truro, etc etc... over the last year I've heard banging acid techno, black British folk music, Gruff Rhys, I just missed out on tickets to General Levy the other day, I'm going to see Attila the Stockbroker next weekend, saw an amazing one man show last weekend at the arts centre in my actual village, saw an exclusive preview of Empire of Light at the Falmouth film festival, participated in the Montol midwinter parade and general lunacy in Pz.....and that's as a single mum who can't get out much, there's way more going on that I can't get to!

With teens, I'd try and find somewhere close to a station. Then Falmouth, Truro (for college), Penzance, Plymouth, Newquay are easy for them to get to. (I'm in a village. DS1 has made sure that every single one of the friends he's made at secondary lives on the exact opposite side of the catchment area, 30 mins drive away. It's excruciating).

Well tourism does affect your day-to-day life if you live here, does it not? We used to be laid back, everything was 'dreckly'.

You were nobody if you hadn't been down the local campsite and snogged an upcountry boy 😁

All of this is true but you forgot to mention that the locals walk round with pitchforks to spike the emmets' car tyres.

And you've sampled the mayhem of Golowan? Crazy all round.

@FuzzyPuffling What do you mean?

What is up country please?

Anywhere over the Tamar