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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Cornwall

70 replies

Sundayroastallday · 05/03/2023 19:59

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?

OP posts:
Boopydoo · 05/03/2023 22:17

Sundayroastallday · 05/03/2023 22:12

What is up country please?

Cornwall is considered to be 'down' the bottom of the country, so 'up country' is anywhere over the Cornwall border

Reinventinganna · 05/03/2023 22:18

Most people here aren’t from here.
You make friends here same as anywhere.
Our teens keep (mostly) out of trouble.
The busier summer months make you appreciate the winter sometimes.
There is plenty of culture if you look for it. Diversity not so much but it’s getting better.

Apart from an overstretched hospital, lack of jobs/ housing and poor public transport there’s nothing that I would change.
It’s a beautiful place.

Reinventinganna · 05/03/2023 22:19

Up country is over the bridge (they eat their scones wrong over there).

Boopydoo · 05/03/2023 22:19

If you do make the move just dont forget 'Train don't stop Camborne Wednesday'

Seashor · 05/03/2023 22:20

I’m Devon, on the coast. My husband commutes to Exeter for a well paid job. I much prefer Devon to Cornwall, it’s less remote but absolutely stunning.

crackofdoom · 05/03/2023 22:22

Boopydoo it's alright, on Wednesdays they replace it with Trevithick's engine 😆

Boopydoo · 05/03/2023 22:23

Seashor · 05/03/2023 22:20

I’m Devon, on the coast. My husband commutes to Exeter for a well paid job. I much prefer Devon to Cornwall, it’s less remote but absolutely stunning.

I prefer Devon too now, quicker to get to the airports and to the motorway. Going anywhere when you live this far down requires an extra night for the journey.

Cornwall does have an airport, but it tends to be very expensive to fly from, is in the middle of nowhere and there is no public transport at all

TheMadGardener · 05/03/2023 22:31

I do appreciate it in the winter when I can park fairly easily in places which are rammed all summer! My heart sinks at that time of year when camper vans start appearing and my commute home from work takes longer because the roads are clogged.

Also, it's handy to be good at reversing down narrow lanes because you're nose to nose with a panicked emmet in an expensive 4x4 who can't reverse. Although I do quite enjoy staring them out sometimes until they try reversing (if I'm not in a hurry...)

HelpMeGetThrough · 05/03/2023 22:33

Maybe not so much now with the internet?

We don't have, sorry, they don't have the internet in Cornwall yet.

And it's so, so, so far from London, so far, I left London at 1pm and was home having a cup of tea at 6pm.

Whatsshecalled · 05/03/2023 23:25

I live here, grew up here, moved away for 16 years came home with my kids. A lot of the responses above make no sense. Eg wages, I work from home for a national organisation as do many people i know (because the internet is the same as the in rest of the country) so my wage is fine. A lot of people here commute to Bristol/London a couple of days a month. My friends are from all over the country/world. Some inland villages may be insular, most on the coast are not. Its a big county, Newquay is very different to Falmouth which is very different to Truro which are all worlds away from a village in the middle of Bodmin moor. Lots of generalisations from some posters above.

transformandriseup · 06/03/2023 01:12

@Whatsshecalled a lot of the posts on this thread are tongue in cheek.

Actually due to living in a stone cottage and in a remote village the internet and mobile data is very poor. I have one bar of signal now and probably no mobile data if I turned off the wifi. Both of these were excellent when we lived in a town a few miles away.

I also work remotely for a national company and get paid a higher wage than I would here but not everyone has that option.

Obviously the train DOES stop in Camborne on Wednesdays but only every other train stops at Hayle.

Boopydoo · 06/03/2023 08:58

transformandriseup · 06/03/2023 01:12

@Whatsshecalled a lot of the posts on this thread are tongue in cheek.

Actually due to living in a stone cottage and in a remote village the internet and mobile data is very poor. I have one bar of signal now and probably no mobile data if I turned off the wifi. Both of these were excellent when we lived in a town a few miles away.

I also work remotely for a national company and get paid a higher wage than I would here but not everyone has that option.

Obviously the train DOES stop in Camborne on Wednesdays but only every other train stops at Hayle.

Yes, if you buy a lovely granite house or cottage signal is much reduced, its not unusual to see phones perched on window frames as that's the only place in the house you get a signal, people then run outdoors to answer a call.The only area with 5g currently is Truro, that's it, 4g elsewhere and drops to 3g in outlying areas. In certain valleys and coastal areas there's no signal at all. I have taken short breaks in Hayle, Boscastle, Bude and on The Lizard and have had huge problems finding phone signal.

I have fairly good internet, but I have fibre installed, was the first in the street and I know there's a waiting list now nine years on, the telegraph poles/exchanges don't have the capacity to provide fibre to every household. You can't get cable services here, I mentioned the irony of years of upheaval due to cables being taken up country, but we were completely bypassed in a previous post.

Trains have reverted to the 1970's, we might have shiny new things but they often don't have catering on them down into Cornwall. It used to be Plymouth where the catering came on board, so two hours into your journey you could get a hot drink. Same coming home catering would get off at Plymouth, at least in those days you visited the catering car and fetched yourself a drink before Plymouth. We had a short space of time when the trains arrived in Cornwall of catering on board from its originating station and all the way back again, it was bliss! Nowadays, you're incredibly lucky if there is a catering trolley on board at all and more often than not you won't see it in your carriage before it gets taken off. On a recent trip I jokingly commented that it was like going back to the 70's where everything came off and back on at Plymouth, I actually thought the issues were down to strikes and a lack of staff currently. GWR staff informed me that actually trolley services were planned to be based in Exeter and another station I can't remember.. might have been Taunton! I was shocked, we waited years for new trains as we always get cast off's from other areas and now we've got them we get some half arsed service to boot.

We Cornish can take the mick out of ourselves, a lot of posts are tongue in cheek for if we didn't laugh we'd cry. Since we left the EU Cornwall has lost a huge amount of funding and things are only going to get worse and to boot the Government are trying to make us have a Mayor!

Train not stopping Camborne Wednesdays is a famous Jethro joke, he'd probably add Hayle into that joke nowadays too.

Sundayroastallday · 06/03/2023 10:55

What are the national companies everyone is working for online?

OP posts:
falmouthdoglover · 06/03/2023 11:31

Hi,
As username suggests - I live in Falmouth. Moved here 15 years ago with small children. DH is Cornish though.

Mostly, living here has been great for us - we moved from London, so, although housing is horribly expensive, we were able to buy a house we could never have afforded there. I've found it easy to make friends - primary school was a mix of people who grew up here and incomers like me. (And lots of families like ours with one 'proper Cornish' parent and one from elsewhere.)

DH works at the hospital and I am self-employed as a copywriter (through my London connections in our previous life).

Having young kids here was brilliant - lots of time at the beach etc. We love coastpath walking and paddleboarding. Kids are teens now, and they largely do things with their friends that I think teens do anywhere - football in the park, hanging out at each other's houses, shopping, bowling etc, with quite a bit of beach-ing thrown in. They definitely miss out on some stuff through living here - specifically sport and culture opportunities - but we do a fair amount of visiting people/city breaks, and they are old enough to travel to Plymouth and Exeter for shopping/ league football etc.

Primary schools were great; secondary school has been in a state of flux ever since my eldest started there and is a bit of a mixed bag. Sixth form provision locally is good though.

Overall, it's been a good things raising kids here.

lorn195 · 06/03/2023 11:57

Kids are teens now, and they largely do things with their friends that I think teens do anywhere - football in the park, hanging out at each other's houses, shopping, bowling etc, with quite a bit of beach-ing thrown in. They definitely miss out on some stuff through living here - specifically sport and culture opportunities - but we do a fair amount of visiting people/city breaks, and they are old enough to travel to Plymouth and Exeter for shopping/ league football etc.

Primary schools were great; secondary school has been in a state of flux ever since my eldest started there and is a bit of a mixed bag. Sixth form provision locally is good though.

Overall, it's been a good things raising kids here.

@falmouthdoglover completely agree with your comments as we live in Falmouth.

Both boys attended the local primary and secondary schools. The secondary school is much better than it was, though there is still some room for improvement. DS (16) just been offered a place at the college as he wants to study sports.

DS (16) spends most of his time out with his mates playing football, hanging out at their houses and paddle boarding during the summer. He does like 'crossing the border' to attend the league football teams, however he is an avid supporter of the local team!

DS (21) is at University in London and admits the pace of life is at a slower pace back home than the city and tends to get grumpy at the lack of decent transport.

Overall Cornwall is definitely a better place to raise children.

Ihaventgottimeforthis · 06/03/2023 12:23

I've lived down here full time for 11 years, as an incomer I have never had any hassle at all, I genuinely don't think anyone could care less.
Life in Cornwall does have its challenges, and most of the time it's the daily grind just like anywhere else, but on a good day there is nowhere else I would rather be.

Mummyratbag · 06/03/2023 12:32

Depends what you like. I live here and wouldn't leave unless to go and live near adult kids a long, long way in the future.

Weather can be stunning and also can have months of rain.

Schools are like anywhere, you can take a while to find your tribe, but not being brought up here doesn't influence it.

Jobs can be low paid and houses expensive.

Teens - hang around with other teens.

We have more going on entertainment wise than when I grew up here, but we maybe go to Plymouth to see a show/comedian a couple of times a year. Eden sessions have some big names (St Austell)

Travelling abroad for hols means seeing where you can fly to from Bristol or travelling a long way to Gatwick/Birmingham.

dameofdilemma · 06/03/2023 16:57

Dp is from Cornwall and all his extended family still live there so we visit several times a year. There are lots of things I really like about Cornwall and I always look forward to going but....

Over the last few years the casual xenophobia, indirect racism, comments along the lines of 'benefit scroungers/immigrants taking all the GP appointments etc' have become rife and really quite depressing.
As poverty has increased, homes become even more unaffordable, people are looking for someone to blame.
Not unique to Cornwall - happening across the UK, but this is an area where Farage had a lot of support, which speaks volumes.

How much this bothers you depends on personal outlook and politics though.
Overwhelmingly it's the one reason we'd never move back.

And no, I'm not saying Cornish people are horrible (I adore my in-laws, I know there are lots of nice, friendly people there) but the undercurrent is undeniable if it's the sort of thing you notice.

dameofdilemma · 06/03/2023 16:59

Incidentally a family member who has lived and worked in Cornwall all her life has said herself how much tolerance has reduced and bigotry increased. So not just my 'upcountry' view!

countr12 · 02/04/2023 22:07

I dont have any answers for you op but me and dh are also looking into moving there and have 2 girls aged 5&7

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