Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Complaining about Village life?

362 replies

BumpkinChic · 08/10/2023 08:47

I just don’t really get this.

I live in a rural village and almost every week we have someone complaining on the village online group about one thing or another… mostly over things that pretty much come along with rural village life. The top culprits are usually along the lines of:

”they haven’t told us they are going to spread manure and now I can’t open my windows because of the smell”

“church bells ringing at all hours”

“the internet speed is always so poor”

Why are you living rurally if you didn’t factor these things in? What is complaining on a Facebook groups supposed to do about manure? IMO a lot of these things are minor annoyances. I know not everyone has the choice of where to live but I know this is not the case for some of the regular moaners. And I know village life can sometimes be dreary but I love it and have always lived in small villages so I know I’m biased.

please enlighten me, I’m genuinely baffled.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
14
Zonder · 08/10/2023 08:49

That's so funny. It's like people who buy a house next to a school and then complain about playtime noises. We deliberately didn't buy next to a pub because I didn't want to here late night noise.

PuttingDownRoots · 08/10/2023 08:49

Muck spreading amuses me. Its essential. Where do they think crops come from?

CherryCokeFanatic · 08/10/2023 08:49

The best ones are younger residents who’ve moved into new builds wishing that a supermarket or petrol station could be built nearby. Gets the older residents angry! Love it 😂

DustyLee123 · 08/10/2023 08:49

We’ve had people calling the police for a man in a field with a gun. Yes, that would be a farmer 🙄

Elvis1956 · 08/10/2023 08:51

Agree, we live in a town in Somerset and someone wanted to report the smell of cow slurry spreading to the environment agency. Until someone else pointed out the alternative are chemicals!
thankfully here someone always shuts them down with a "well what do you expect, you've moved to Somerset"

Shinyandnew1 · 08/10/2023 08:51

Zonder · 08/10/2023 08:49

That's so funny. It's like people who buy a house next to a school and then complain about playtime noises. We deliberately didn't buy next to a pub because I didn't want to here late night noise.

Or buy a house near a school and moan that it’s really busy in their road at 8.45 and 3.15!

pickledandpuzzled · 08/10/2023 08:52

To be fair it’s how people learn. When you patiently reply, ‘yes, every year round about now. I love the way rural life marks the seasons.’, they learn what to expect.

Horse dung? Yes, pre composted grass. Great for the garden, no damage to your tyres or the tarmac, and of course the rider can’t dismount to clear up…’.

They start to catch on.

YukoandHiro · 08/10/2023 08:53

DustyLee123 · 08/10/2023 08:49

We’ve had people calling the police for a man in a field with a gun. Yes, that would be a farmer 🙄

😂😂😂

Badbadbunny · 08/10/2023 08:55

And those complaining there's not much entertainment going on? Well yes, it's a village, what do you expect, a nightclub, theatre, ice rink?

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 08/10/2023 09:00

Worst case I heard of was in Devon (friends in the area) where some couple who’d recently moved to the fairly rural location (not far from the coast) wrote to the local paper complaining about the noise of air/sea rescue helicopter training flights at night.

There was such a hostile reaction from the locals that apparently they sold up and left.

Spudinafuckit · 08/10/2023 09:01

Tractors in a field going up and down noisily with lights on at 3am early Monday morning. It woke her, her husband and her child and she was incandescent with rage. She’d had to put up with them all day Saturday and all day Sunday ruining her beautiful view, but this was her absolute limit. Barely any sleep and she had to be at work for 9.

This was the best day ever on my village Facebook.

Morechocmorechoc · 08/10/2023 09:03

Our village fb seems so boring compared to yours!!! How funny. The only one that we get is smoke. But that's reasonable because some idiot has a fire whenever the weather is hottest and they can cover the most houses.

essaytwenty · 08/10/2023 09:05

My local one always has people moaning about the internet speed, and the same people moaning about the planning application for a 4G mast to serve the village.

Jeffjefftyjeff · 08/10/2023 09:06

We had someone complaining about cows mooing. And frequently get people moaning about church bells.

I have some sympathy with the poor internet - there are areas of our small rural town that have been upgraded (the streets where all the posh houses are basically) but not others

Mischance · 08/10/2023 09:08

That's very strange - I live rurally and have never heard anyone grumble about these things. Have you got a lot of "incomers"?

GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut · 08/10/2023 09:11

Oh dear! 😂

The best one we've had was someone new moving in to a place down a narrow lane and putting up homemade signs for 'No HGVs!'.

On the public highway.
That also serves farms, who need deliveries and milk tankers etc.

user1477391263 · 08/10/2023 09:11

Basically, these people want an exurb - a distant suburb on the outskirts of a city, the kind of place you get in the United States and similar countries, where cities are allowed to sprawl to vast sizes.

In the States, those who want to and have the money buy houses in the exurbs that are bigger than what you'd get in town with a large garden and a lot more space between them and their neighbors than urban residences have.

In the UK , we don't allow this kind of development because of greenbelt policies. So British people instead move to villages to try and enjoy this kind of lifestyle (particularly as villages in the UK are very often close enough to towns to allow you to commute daily).

This inevitably causes tensions, because somewhere that is an Actual Village will have Actually Rural Stuff going on, like crop spraying, manure, tractors trundling about, no streetlighting, fields full of livestock etc.

The next round of tantrums will be about electricity pylons, solar panels and windfarms etc. Because a lot of people want all the conveniences of modern life, combined with chocolate-box views out of the kitchen window.

maddening · 08/10/2023 09:14

I live in a village and grew up in another village, both rural, I am on both village fb groups and also the fb group of neighbour village and there is really none of what you describe - mostly dog poo and fireworks as far.as complaint type posts go and some parking ones. Other than that it is largely non complaint type posts.

Ifailed · 08/10/2023 09:15

I grew up in a small village in the 60s, and I complained about church bells ringing throughout the night, but was told it was for people who couldn't afford a clock.
I don't think the same arguement would hold water nowadays.

Galadali · 08/10/2023 09:18

When this city girl moved to a very rural village I was shocked by the amount of noise and smell. Wouldn't have dreamt of complaining about it though! The only thing now that really rattles me is the hunt trashing our land and frightening my kids/animals every so often. I've learnt to keep my mouth shut on that though 😭
Honestly, the only things that seem to get our village WhatsApp group fizzing are the state of the verges and solar farm planning applications.

KimberleyClark · 08/10/2023 09:22

Moving to a rural area where a car is essential then moaning about the price of petrol. Well that’s something you should have thought about.

MrsMontyDon2020 · 08/10/2023 09:23

We live under a flight path and people are constantly complaining about the planes. Drives me nuts! The airport (and runway) has been here for years!
I personally LOVE seeing the planes fly over. One of the reasons we bought where we did.

The worst I heard in a village Facebook group was complaints about the noise of the birds 😂

tenbob · 08/10/2023 09:26

I live in zone 2 London, and you wouldn’t believe the amount of people moaning about hearing sirens, their neighbours parties, planes on the overhead flight path etc

The absolute worst are people who move to Soho or near a long established music venue and then complain relentlessly about the noise until the council closes the venues down.
God knows how many have been lost because of this

Keepingthingsinteresting · 08/10/2023 09:27

Galadali · 08/10/2023 09:18

When this city girl moved to a very rural village I was shocked by the amount of noise and smell. Wouldn't have dreamt of complaining about it though! The only thing now that really rattles me is the hunt trashing our land and frightening my kids/animals every so often. I've learnt to keep my mouth shut on that though 😭
Honestly, the only things that seem to get our village WhatsApp group fizzing are the state of the verges and solar farm planning applications.

There is no automatic right for the hunt to be on your land @Galadali , I’d get that sorted personally.

bozzabollix · 08/10/2023 09:29

@Galadali I come from this rural town and so feel totally entitled to be disgusted by the fox hunt, you’ll find there’s a lot of people who will be in agreement with you.

Ours is on the way out now, public opinion has changed so much. Good. They’re psycho arseholes and if they come on my land I’ll blow a gasket.