To Move to Wales

[TheHateIsNotGood]

Nothing wrong with Wales except I would feel rather ashamed/guilty for moving there because the main reason is that me and ds are no longer able to 'buy into' the agricultural life that we both are suited and qualified for is because the countryside round here in NW Devon is now so gentrified that 'way' of living is now way out of reach.

My understanding is that Wales does encourage livestock farming and we would rather learn from the local wisdom than try and change anything.

IABU - you're just shifting the problem and Wales don't want you
YANBU - worth considering as Wales could do with some more Young Farmers

I've lived in west Wales for twenty years, we moved when my kids were small. We don't regret it at all, and on the whole the people are welcoming whether you speak Welsh or not. My kids learnt at school, but if you want to (and it's probably a good idea) there are plenty of free classes for adults.

We have several friends who came to start smallholdings and farm, and have found their Welsh neighbours friendly and helpful.

The weather can be an issue, but on a sunny day there is nowhere in the world more beautiful.

Where in wales are you thinking? You will benefit from learning some welsh in more rural west wales for example. I’m in the north east where welsh isn’t as widely used. However, I think it would be great for you to come to wales

Not at all, my Dd started school in Wales and learning Welsh for the first time at 8 nearly 9 and she's fluent Welsh speaker.

If going to a rural community and making an effort to integrate (partly by learning some welsh) I’d hope you’d be welcomed.

Croeso!

Do you speak Welsh? A lot of west wales and rural areas still speak a good bit of Welsh- you may struggle or face animosity without it.

The health system is not as good as in England though that’s not saying a lot, and the school inspection system isn’t as rigorous. I wouldn’t move hours and hours away from family if you ever want to have children either.

@GogLais you could be right. My friend's Welsh-language trained dog had to learn English when she moved to England. She's now happily bilingual. She was a lot younger than 7 when she moved though .

Rural communities in Wales depend on newcomers really. Local youngsters tend to move to cities for university / jobs (not all obviously) so that leaves a gap between young and old folk.

Learning Welsh and generally being sensitive that you've moved to a separate country with its own culture will make a big difference.

Getting a dentist will be your toughest challenge

Do you speak Welsh? A lot of west wales and rural areas still speak a good bit of Welsh- you may struggle or face animosity without it.

I suppose it may depend on exact location, but I know somebody locally who has done this in a very rural area where Welsh is widely spoken. Neither he, nor his wife, can speak Welsh. I think they would like to learn but don’t have the time at the moment. Despite that, they have settled in nicely.

Aside from the rather annoying Welsh language or not debate, it's interesting to think whether you could have a farming lifestyle with only £100k. Would you be intending to take on a big mortgage, or buying a house without land in a cheap area then working on someone else's farm? £100k isn't going to buy a house with land in any part of Wales.

The Welsh speaking debate really does solely depend on the area. I've never met someone who speaks Welsh as a first language and I'm Welsh born, my husband's family on one side are farmers, all first language English, I even knew the woman who owned the farm where the hold the Royal Welsh Show and she didn't speak Welsh first language either 🤷🏼‍♀️ so it's really doing to depend on area but I don't see why anyone would have an issue with a non-welsh speaker. If anything it will just generally be because you're English 🤣

I won’t get embroiled in the Welsh speaking debate but you mentioned sheep? Would you need to make a living off sheep? Have you had sheep?

Sheep are escape artists who are very good at dying for seemingly no reason and actually quite pricey to keep. You need quite a lot of land, they need sheering, can you sheer? If not it costs more to get someone in than you’ll get for the wool. They also love to break fencing. Repairing fencing is expensive.
We had sheep in the family 20 years ago and wouldn’t do it again. It was really hard work and these were just pets!
I live in an area where every other house seems to be a sheep farm, most of them make minimal, if any, money on the sheep and their profit comes from using the land for other things, such as a converted barn or 2 for an air bnb or wedding venue, converting a barn into some stables and offering livery or boarding kennels for dogs.

@SirVixofVixHall and that's just it - the incomers moving in and pricing out the locals, just like here in NW Devon and elsewhere, and then exerting their will through 'money power' to subjugate the locals.

Not much has really changed over the centuries.

Just checking out the MN Collectiv to see if incoming Young Farmers might be welcomed rather than not-wanted in Wales.

DS likes cooler weather and rain, I prefer sunshine, but for his sake I'll be happy keeping him warm and fed when the stock are tended to, even happier if he met a like-minded partner to be his equal; then I can fuck off to warmer climes, hopefully before my dotage.

And yes @Lastqueenofscotland2 completely agree about sheep having kept a few myself, however I understand that most of the Welsh landscape is best suited to sheep. Prefer cows myself, but DS is very good with sheep.

I was wondering about the financial side of things £100k really isn't a lot here.

@TheHateIsNotGood try following some farmers on FB. Gareth Wyn Jones is our most well known farmer. Worth a look he reposts other farmers stuff.

Pembrokeshire really isn't 'mini England...' granted, we don't sound as Welsh as other areas but I can assure you we are definitely Welsh and to be called 'mini England' is really offensive tbh.

Ah yes, £100k doesn't stretch much, hopefully a bit extra for stock, etc - but there is always that, the money thing. Obviously just a toe-dip question which maybe I should rephrase to:

Would it be okay to leave my young adult (autistic) son on a Welsh hillside with a bare-boned residence and a herd of sheep? YABU/YANBU

I think people have only a vague grasp of the concept of ‘little England beyond Wales’ but you are right that it refers specifically to a very small area of southern Pembrokeshire.

There has been some absolutely fascinating research done into the area south of the Landsker Line. The differences are not just cultural and linguistic but genetic and probably date back to the 12th century. There are significant differences in DNA signatures in populations in north and south Pembrokeshire, probably because the southern areas were anglicised around the same time as Devon and Cornwall. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landsker_Line

Manny in education in England would say that a bit less "rigour" in school inspections would only be a good thing!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11872153/The-Ofsted-report-condemned-headteacher-later-killed-herself.html

I went on holiday for years to a Welsh farm and all of the family, who had been there generations, spoke Welsh.

Factually true and also proves how utterly unhelpful one person’s anecdote is as a contribution to this sort of discussion 😂

I was thinking this. Farming land is of value in Wales just as it is in England.

We were in Wales recently and it was the weirdest thing. Everywhere we went we never even hear da Welsh accent and only heard the Welsh language once. We main”y heard Brummie. We were in Machynlleth and Harlech and around.
So is mid and West Wales stacked with incomers?

Machynlleth does tend to have a lot of tourists and visitors as it's very close to seaside places like Borth, which has always attracted people from the Midlands. And Machynlleth also has the Centre for Alternative Technology, which makes the area a hub for incomers looking for a more sustainable lifestyle; traditionally west Wales has always attracted those people.

If you go outside the main tourist areas, or out of season, you'll hear plenty of Welsh spoken. Welsh speakers will always speak English to non Welsh speakers of course, and you can't always tell by an accent who is able to speak Welsh.

As a response to OP though - just be aware that Wales really isn't that much cheaper, and it's absolutely essential to have a car!

100k for a farm in wales is very unrealistic…

If you moved to a welsh speaking environment learn Welsh. If you didn't you wouldn't have to. It varies. You sound very amenable.

So simple.

I am part of a South Walian farming family and no they don't speak Welsh. Though a lot of the children do now, through schooling.

God Alive.This posters thread as has in classic style been derailed.

I would think about the financials . That's the key point.

Although I live in west Wales I've recently been looking at houses in Somerset (long story) and was surprised there's not really much of a price difference.