Leaving London for Salisbury

[ChirpySeal]

My family live in Salisbury and we have found a house we love there, but after 20 years in London I’m finding the thought of moving very scary. Anyone live in Salisbury who can help alleviate my fears. Have 2 kids age 6 and 9 and the house is in Harnham.
Thanks in advance.

Salisbury is lovely, I'm sure you won't regret the move. Feel free to send me a PM

What are your fears about Salisbury?

@RandomUsernameHere its probably not Salisbury itself, but the thought of starting again when most mum friend groups get established during reception.

Salisbury is lovely and relaxing. Cleaner air/environment and laid-back. We also moved to Harnham with a teenager some 5 years ago. Good school options and we enjoy the nature on our doorstep, an amazing cultural (small) city, and..maybe, our son, appreciates less stressed parents.
p.s. slightly better weather/warmer temps here in the SoWest.

Sure you will meet folks through the school network. Especially as you have two in that age group. Was a bit more difficult for us, as we had a teenager.

Bear in mind that, depending on the age of your kids, they have the 11+ there.

Cetainly keep in mind there's the 11+ in Salisbury.

We've done ok here but my children are older and going through the grammars so that gives us an anchor. Must admit I've come to the conclusion after a few years that it's not my forever home. For a few years I thought it would be but it's lost a lot of charm over the last few years. Huge new build estates sort of change the fabric of the place but no new employment and creeking infrastructure that's not upgraded to go with it. Anyone average middle class here is either military or NHS (now the big goverment lab is closing down that's that social group gone too). Limited social groups unless in those industries. I miss the interesting and varied people I met in big cities like London. Once my children left the private system I hardly made any new friends. Private schools are popular in the countryside for various reasons so switching to state school with a large catchment area like the grammars means even my children don't have anyone to hang out with at weekends. It's also quite an aging place, lots of retirees, I feel I've aged quicker here. Winters are bleak and the countryside here isn't the most stunning the UK has to offer, mostly muddy, flooded and intensively farmed. Harnham like a lot of Salisbury is quite soggy with it's water meadows (marsh) and North facing hill. Most of the parks in Salisbury are designed to flood so winters are hard with no decent park space (Churchill, Lizzie Gardens, Harnham Rec/Middle St Meadow all flood only Victoria Park stays dry). Harnham has lost a lot of charm since the new build estates and it's quite transient because of the military which impacts the local youth scene. Not as much community as I was expecting certainly there was more a few years ago. Anything youth focused seems to be around the established council estates like Bemerton Heath. I think it's just one of those things, there's a lot of pressure to not be that type of Londoner to moan about provincial towns but actually they are boring and limiting even if the close and meadows are pretty. I was recently on an expat FB chat about someone weighing up a UK countryside v city expat move and a lot of people said countryside with private school or city with state school, basically private schools here offer a lot more socially with the extra sports and Saturday schools whilst in cities this is really not needed as there's so much going on. It was reassuring that at least expats picked up on this as I was wondering why it was so hard to find things to do and build a social life. It costs a fortune to leave by train, everyone drives everywhere, roads jammed and lots of nasty accidents as people rush everywhere (I'm normaly enjoying my scenic ountryside drives through the Cranborne Chase with a white van up my bumper). Honestly the way people drive and are just as unkind to pedestrians as anywhere else really doesn't make it feel any different from London. I thought it would have a kinder and slower pace of life but I still get beeped at here for letting school run parents cross with young children at traffic islands. Anyway it's ok to a point, you'll be fine for a while but don't be surprised if it doesn't feel like a forever sort of place eventually, I've met many older parents like me who sort of bottle it up for years but as soon as the kids are off to Uni suddenly they sell up. Many people are only here for the grammars so put a brave face on it. I have been happy with the schools. I'm personally planning my escape once my children are finished their exams, either back to a city, back to expat life or maybe even real countryside somewhere more rugged and less of the faux market town gentry thing going on, I've learned that the middle ground is very bland. Good luck with the move.