People who live in Cornwall

[Firstbbqoftheyear]

With young kids…what’s life like?

What are the schools like etc? I’m looking for somewhere with a lovely, community feel, a safe, beautiful place…is it all horrendously expensive?
What do you do at weekends? Did it take you long to fit in/make friends?

Anyone live there

I'm from penzance but I live in Plymouth now.

Not all cornwall is extortionate like st ives or oadstow. All Penwith is tiny and the little towns are close together. I felt the community feel very much growing up.

Redruth and camborne are really depressing.

Truro is lush i would live there and Falmouth but property is more.

My mum lives in lostwithiel she loves it. V close community and loads going on. On the river it's very pretty. Close to the beach too.

Newquay is grim and touristy.

We moved from north Cornwall to Plymouth ( waves at Pastypirate) last year.

The bit we lived in was beautiful, but remote, no facilities, no infrastructure (primary school
children had to be bussed to school, 15 mile round trip to the GP or a shop, definitely no takeaways!) and locals who resented non- locals. ( Cornish family heritage, but no matter!)

There is very little about it that I miss.

Are you ok with the children moving away when older as there's few job prospects down there?

Waves back! 💚 This is why I don't go home to live. The infrastructure. Plymouth is a bit rough and ready but it has loads of stuff - and it's a v short drive to beach moors whatever but the dds can walk to school (one of them - the other one is another story). I can access all the dull but necessary stuff very quickly. There's no early closing or anything inconvenient like that here.

I could do my job in cornwall but Jesus the driving they would expect. I am within city limits here. The first best round trip to the end of plympton is 11 miles.

I'm from Penzance and still live locally. Where we live there's a sense of community but also large enough area that you don't feel like there is always someone in your pocket nosing around - had that growing up in Mousehole.
I have young children and older ones. The schools have been great, the currently secondary school did slack slightly with recent bullying but the police were quick to be involved and nip it in the bud. My eldest lot (17 and 18) have had no problems getting work and all of them have great social lives with plenty of access to skate parks, play-parks, high streets, cinemas and beaches at a short walk or train journeys.
Can't see myself living anywhere else.

Most of my generation escaped Cornwall when they hit 18-20yo and now few of us have been able to afford to come back.... I'm also a Pz girl and living in SE Cornwall these days.

Cornwall is NOT an idyll. It's impoverished and many places are rather run down (St Austell, Camborne etc are prime examples of this). There are plenty of superbly pretty towns and villages where you'll have a bustling lifestyle, but they are almost all tourist traps with terrifyingly high rental and house purchase prices.

Schools are hit and miss - the local school to me is "good", but I hear nothing but bad things about SEN provision for example.

Safety and crime - well, that depends on how closely you look. I work in the CJS, so I'm more aware of the real numbers rather than people's perceptions but I think we're proportionately pretty safe. I can't think of anywhere I'd feel actually "really" unsafe walking around at night but that's highly subjective. We have plenty of drugs use where you'll see the Spice zombies in high streets, enormous County Lines problems, a disproportionate amount of 1% MCs roaming about at the moment (although they won't be an issue to you unless you're an issue to them - a bit like bees), and our roads are surely amongst the least safe in the country judging by the number of deaths linked to vehicles this year alone.

So in short - be picky, look at what you can afford, consider you needs to public transport links such as trainlines (we only have one) and go from there.

Maybe consider Dorset? It has many of the West Country benefits- slower pace, safe, beautiful, beaches for watersports etc- but it's less isolated. I've always said I wouldn't move 'round the corner' (i.e. beyond Honiton) unless I was ready to give up 'real life' altogether.

Dorchester is nice if you want a town, or the Bridport area if you want more village.

My family all live in the Lostwithiel/Par/Fowey area, which seems OK. Mullion seems to have good schools and a lot of community stuff going on.

Any where near a beach is lovely for kids

Depends which bit you had in mind. We are in the Tamar Valley in south east Cornwall and it’s pretty well set up for good community life, public transport and schools etc.

As PPs point out other parts are more problematic for different reasons.

@Akiddleetivy2woodenchu I live in that general area now with 2 early teens. Moved here when kids were toddlers. Primary schools are excellent, secondary a little hit and miss but sixth forms are outstanding (sixth form provision is largely separate from seconday schools here, but its really excellent) I have no regrets primary years have been amazing for my kids, they sail, at school and in their own time, spend a lot of free time at the beach belong to cricket/football/gymnastics clubs and have a fair amount of freedom to go out with friends and roam around, we'd never have allowed that in the city we moved from. We live in walking distance from mainline railway so my older teen gets the train to Truro or Plymouth with friends to go shopping etc but basically its a very outdoorsy life, both kids are very active/sporty if they were different characters it probably wouldnt have been such a succesful move.

We moved to Penzance 15 years ago with small children. Schools have been generally good both at primary and secondary - post sixteen is Further Education college (unless you go private) - both good. My daughter is at uni and comes home for the longer holidays to a close knit bunch of friends. Plenty of temporary/summer jobs. However I can't see her returning to live at home - there just aren't the career opportunities.House prices are high, rental properties scarce, wages low. I like being 'miles from anywhere' but it can be a problem- also only one hospital, if you want to fly anywhere its 4 hours to the airport....Just to pick up on a previous point our second child was born here with a rare disorder leaving her with learning difficulties - care and support is hit and miss as is education provision. Finally hope you have strong teeth as you will never get a dentist.

I'm in a popular N. Cornwall town. My DC have moved 'up country' now for work, but when they were little there was always loads to do. Beaches just a few miles away, a great town with a fantastic community feel, sports centre, park. BUT, for teenagers it was pretty boring as we're far from a railway station and buses anywhere worth going are infrequent. I can't see either of mine coming back to live as property prices are ridiculous and wages are low.

I moved here from the SE at 13, to a tiny village in the middle of Cornwall with no public transport. I hated my parents for moving and had a really unhappy adolescence. If you do move, choose your area wisely.

Realised i only answered the child related part of your post, to answer the part about fitting in, kids fit in at nursery immediately obviously. My husband plays a sport so joined the local club and quickly made friends it took me a little longer. My job isnt based in Cornwall, remote worker for national company, so no local work friends. I dont think I felt really settled until kids started school and I met a wonderful group of mums (some born and bred Cornish, but many from the rest of the UK and beyond). A few years ago I re started a hobby/sport I played as a kid and now have friends for life from that group too. In my experience, it takes a bit of time but there are lots of people moving here from elsewhere who are in the same boat, the challenge is to find them!

My sister moved from the south east to Bude. Negatives are (in her words) most things (hospitals, major shopping centres) are an hour's drive. Schools are a mixed bag, it's packed in summer and she finds people have less disposable income so not as much going out for dinner.

I grew up in mid-Cornwall. It’s good for pre-teens with the beaches etc. It is safer than other regions in terms of crime, burglary etc, it is less culturally diverse (can be quite intolerant) and has very little in the way of things for teenagers to do which means there is a tendency towards anti social behaviour, drugs. Schools aren’t great although Truro College is quite good. However employment opportunities outside education, health/social care, Navy and tourism are minimal.

My DH lived in Bude as a teen and hated it. Public transport was dreadful. He missed the amenities of a large town - cinemas, record shops etc. And out of season the place felt like a ghost town.

The beach is lovely, and if your kids are very outdoorsy types, they might get along fine. But look carefully at the demographic of the local area before you buy. Some areas have been absolutely decimated by 2nd home ownership.