Where to move to? Any ideas?

[sadchic99]

We are a large family (3 boys,8,6,4 and 1 girl of 12 months) and are thinking of moving. We currently live in south west London and want somewhere slightly quieter, calmer, SAFER, where there are good schools, but not hugely expensive.

No ideas whatsoever, please help!

Where are your family? Can you move anywhere re: your jobs??

Shropshire is v nice, v rural and has all the things you describe but it is far away from where you are now.

Hereford, Worcs and Gloucestershire also nice.

Family aren't really an issue and dh can work from home so anywhere is possible.

Not really thought about anywhere further north than B'ham. Need to do lot's of research. Where do I start?

South Somerset is good.

Or how about Africa

LOL, cameroon. My landlords are loving it, especially the power cuts .

budget? priorities in a home/location?

power cuts??? I have no idea what you are talking about expat

The west country, lovely.

and ironing everything because some parasictic type fly gets into the clothes as they dry, mozzie nets and kamakaze monkeys, cameroon .

but man, what a GARDEN he's got now - incredible, everything grows. got amazing brocoli and aubergines just now.

mmmmm.

I am in Shropshire and there are some really lovely areas especially around shrewsbury. what type of thing do you want? write a list and work from there!

mango flies, got to love 'em. You would do well in Uganda with your laundry fetish

You should see the flowers in Nairobi - amazing!

Sorry for the hijack, can't you see how interesting it would be to live in Africa?

Yes, I vote for a move to Africa, sadchic.

Lots of jabs, so plan ahead.

Bath. Beautiful, and nice country/town combo.

Bath is gorgeous, but isn't it £££?

North of norway is lovely. Really good free state schools. Integral after school club 10 hours per week after school for just £100 per month with hot meal served.
Nurseries cost just £240 per month full time, and with a 20% sibling discount.

A 35 hours per week working week. It is illegal to work more.

Yes, all that and NO jobs unless you work in very specific industries, WW. Oh, and you will most likely need to run a car. A lot.

And housing isn't exactly cheap in comparison to average wages.

EXPAT Go vote.

i would if there were anything to vote on at present.

bristol - cosmopolitan, but not scary.

Also, close enough to Cornwall and beaches. Great

Can vote for Worcestershire/Gloucestershire too - beautiful countryside, loads to do, nice small towns where theres a pool/leisure centre/ community theatre/shops sort of thing so the kids can walk to stuff, nice places to go and eat. But, even on our slow train line its only two hours into London (am near Worcester), can be in Birmingham centre in 40 mins, Bristol in 1hr10 etc.

We found it a useful exercise to write down what we wanted in our location, distances to family, and what we wanted in a house, and then looked at the map and Rightmove to find something

oh yes cmot

we had an epic spreadsheet [geek]

Only go to Bristol if you can afford private education or live on the outskirts, state schools are shit, unless you can afford £400k for a smallish Victorian terraced house (even then you may not be in a good catchment!!).