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Original poster

Can't really stay here - WHERE TO LIVE???

58 replies

2ManyPimms · 01/03/2006 12:54

I am American living in St Albans. It is a lovely place to live for parents with small children but I am becoming increasingly concerned about the move to 2ndary school. A girlfriend mentioned to me that her son was mugged at his school on a non-uniform day (his attacker was wearing a hoodie so he couldn't identify him). WTF? I realise that this isn't terribly surprising in this day and age (how sad is that?) so I am thinking of moving out to somewhere a bit more, well....detached.

Friends have said that you can't get away from the problems in society as they exist to a greater or lesser extent everywhere, but I'd like to at least find a place to settle down where things are simpler.

We have looked at moving to Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, etc...

Can anyone point me in another direction or give me any advice at all?

If we move it will have to be soon, it will become increasingly difficult to wrench DS and DD away from their little friends. :(

OP posts:
interstella · 01/03/2006 13:15

I think the problem you are describing really does happen everywhere-from leafy genteel white middle class areas ,rough multi cultural inner city areas to remote countryside areas.

Piffle · 01/03/2006 13:16

Lincolnshire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CAn wholly recommend Sleaford
Secondary Schools Superb for oen thing
House prices excellent, nice semi rural town, with good links to Nottingham, Newark, Lincoln andPeterborough
We moved from Hants and we love love love it!

interstella · 01/03/2006 13:25

I went to school in Sleaford,lived just outside it and the incident which 2manypimms mentioned happened to her friends son could just s easily have happened in sleaford as it could in st albans,hackney ,ascot,glasgow,taunton....There are pros and cons to every area but horrid things happen all over-always have,always will.A friend who lives there still told me there was a curfew on all youngsters during the evening hours a couple of years ago,and you wouldnt believe the horrors that were going on in nearby Cranwell!!

Original poster
2ManyPimms · 01/03/2006 13:27

Piffle and Interstella - Do you know anything about Louth? I only ask as DH was quite keen on it...

OP posts:
SenoraPostrophe · 01/03/2006 13:30

I would love to move to Lincs, but dh is rather anti- to say the least. we have been vaguely thinking of moving to norwich or brighton - dh says he would "least hate" to live in brighton.

can you give me any other ammo piffle? sec schools a long way off yet so probably won't persuade him.

interstella · 01/03/2006 13:34

Honestly,i dont think im the best person to ask about Lincolnshire,I,and most peple i was at school with escaped pretty quickly.There is some nice countryside,some nice market towns,some decent schools,cheapish housing,but thosr things dont do it for me or my family personally!I do have family in the county and visit fairly frequently,personally,St Albans to me would be heaven on earth compared to anywhere in Lincs...Sorry!

nailpolish · 01/03/2006 13:36

what about scotland? i live in rural scotland. we dont have problems with bursting-at-the-seams classrooms, we have dentists with no waiting lists, good public transport and the no-smoking ban comes in the 26th of this month. i live in Angus, would thoroughly recommend it. theres a new school getting built round the corner too

Grin
katyp · 01/03/2006 13:42

I have to say I was surprised to see where you live 2manypimms - I was expecting a rough inner city area! (For those of you who don't know it St Albans is an expensive fairly middle class commuter town in the home counties with excellent schools). I think as others have said, you can get problems in any area, so if you want to move for other reasons as well, fair enough but unless you move to your own private island, you can't avoid horrible people totally. I personally would beware of moving to a small rural village due to some of the stories I have heard about the lack of activities for teenagers and widespread drug abuse due to boredom...

Pfer · 01/03/2006 13:43

2ManyPimms - Louth is in a lovely area of Lincolnshire - hilly and picturesque, but due to the high ground it does have a tendency to attract snow - and lots of it. When we have snow Louth is usually snowed in.

I live about 5 miles from Piffle, have lived around here all of my life, and agree that the schools in Sleaford are excellent (went to one myself). It's an Ok area, but TBH we are planning on moving away before the kids are too much older due to the lack of prospects for them when they are older. Unless you are OK with commuting jobs are pretty pants and the pay is low low low.

Piffle · 01/03/2006 13:47

grammar school area in Lincs, in our town primary schools are also excellent.
Access to really god farm shops at good prices, less crowding
Me don't like Louth as an awful lot of new building on a cram scale, although I suspect outlying villages would nicer, I know nothing about the schools and it would depend on where you needed to commute to work?

Piffle · 01/03/2006 13:48

That's also true I doubt we'll stay once the kids are at leaving school age.
Great place to educate them and bring them up though.

Pfer · 01/03/2006 13:54

TBH Piffle I hated growing up here as did DH. We know too many of the 'awful' people to want out children to grow up here with the children of these people. Sad

Piffle · 01/03/2006 13:55

Everyone we know just moved here too LOL

FrayedKnot · 01/03/2006 13:59

I do agree that these kind of problems could occur anywhere, however, if you are looking for somewhere with a slightly frenetic way of life, I can recommned Norfolk.

Norwich is the only town of any size so you would probably want to be based nearby. It's a lovely place with a lot of character and if you like fresh air and wide open spaces then the countryside around should definitely appeal.

You've also got the Norfolk Broads for sailing and great beaches within half an hour.

I've recently moved down to the SE from Norfolk and the traffic, sheer number of people, and general frantic pace here really gets to me.

I should work for the tourist office really, shouldn't I Wink

Pfer · 01/03/2006 14:00

Wish we could say the same Piffle. Most of the people we 'know' but avoid are either current criminals or ex-criminals and sadly their kids are shaping up much the same Sad

Piffle · 01/03/2006 14:06

I liked Norwich too, the river with all the pubs alongside, lovely place. Mostly liked it as my svengali lover lived there, but well...Grin
Pfer!!!!!!
A few of our neighbours teens are shaping up as little buggers too. But given that we moved from a very upper middle clas village in Hants, we find kids here 100x more polite and less scary!

Original poster
2ManyPimms · 01/03/2006 15:03

I probably should have added that DH is retiring in October so we don't have to be in commuting distance of London (joy!). We have no family ties to speak of (mine are in the US and DH's have passed away). Although St A is lovely (although with frightening areas like everywhere else), I cannot justify spending the huge sum of money we'd need to in order to have a fair size house with a bit of garden. Sooooo....unless we seriously compromise and move into a crackerbox size property, we have to leave.

We have moved something like 9 times in the past 10 years and frankly, I am getting antsy for a place to call our own.

Interstella - you have a point. If there isn't anything for them to do, they invariably get into mischief. THAT is my primary concern should we move to a small, out-of-the-way place.

DH liked Norwich (he lived there in his 20s) but the schools in the city aren't too brill (the last time I checked). I liked the Cotswolds but it isn't cheap! Warwickshire was terrific when we were there for 6 months, but again not cheap.

If we had some serious constraints (ie, family, job etc...) it would put limits as to where we go, but without those ties we are seriously adrift.

I had been reading with interest some of the other "where to live" threads and am just going to have to bite the bullet and either compromise here or move way out in order for us to have what we want.

OP posts:
Original poster
2ManyPimms · 01/03/2006 15:05

Pher - where are you?

OP posts:
nailpolish · 01/03/2006 15:07

2manypimms, if you dont have any ties why dont you move somewhere like scotland?

house prices are SO much more cheaper round here. as is council tax. where i live is the cheapest in the country.

FrayedKnot · 01/03/2006 15:07

2MP, if you want a good secondary school in Norfolk, you need to move to Wymondham.

Wymondham High & Wymondham college both v. good.

Property prices do reflect it a bit though.

nailpolish · 01/03/2006 15:10

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Original poster
2ManyPimms · 01/03/2006 15:10

Nailpolish - I LOVE Scotland. DH is a "sun" person and I think he'd go nuts in the winter. I told him to move to Spain! :o

Wymondham - I remember that name from somewhere! Checking Vebra.com as we speak...Ta!

OP posts:
nailpolish · 01/03/2006 15:14

\link{http://www.tspc.co.uk/showschedule.asp?propid=76723&type=pdf\another}

Original poster
2ManyPimms · 01/03/2006 15:16

Nailpolish - Now that is what I call value for money!!!!

OP posts:
nailpolish · 01/03/2006 15:17

well go for it then! with a cheaper mortgage you could have loads of holidays in spain instead!

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