would you buy a house literally backing onto amotorway ?

[charlieandlola]

are we mad to consider it?

Huge plot, much much more than we could get for our money elsewhere, because of the huge din from the motorway. And I mean huge, as in couldn't hear ourselves think type of din, as in no peace and quiet outside din.

Dh thinks I am barking, but its got an apple tree and a cherry blossom in the garden....

no. We live 2 miles from the m62 and can hear it at night. Plus I want to get a cat again one day and it wouldn't be safe.

No way. Why do you think it's so much bigger/better than you could afford elsewhere? Because no bugger wants it. Think of the resale (unless you would be thinking of staying there until you die, in which case your poor kids will have the hell of trying to get rid). Sorry if this sounds like an over-reaction but it would be my idea of hell...

No. You wouldn't want to eat the cherries and apples covered in exhaust fumes.

I might consider it if the only alternative was Stott Hall Farm in the middle of the M62.

No. you will never be able to sell it on, it will be a millstone around your neck.

No way. Smell, noise, filth.

Couldn't you plant a very small, bijou apple tree in a much smaller garden?

Glad I'm extending not moving then! Ours backs onto a motorway (at end of garden there is about 10 feet of "no-man's land", then a fence, then 40 feet drop to M3). Indoors you can't hear it, in the garden it's just a whooshing in the background. Friends who live near main road say that's worse as you have quiet then acceleration.

i think that constant Motorway noise is possibly worse than train noise

I agree with GoML - I have often loved near (sometimes very near, years ago I lived maybe 30m from a line, not main though) train lines and it's never bothered me. You very quickly learn to tune the noise out and it does become comforting eventually.

Road noise is another thing. I am not precious about surrounding noise but I would not live that close to a motorway or A road.

If it was the only house you could afford that gave you space you needed (bedrooms!) then maybe. We have twice looked at noisy houses.

First was lovely but down below the M4. It was down a misleading road, so you started off some way from the M4 and then the houses at the end backed onto it. We knew before looking around that we really weren't going to offer. If someone came off the motorway at that point they could land in the garden.

The other was huge, much more than we could get elsewhere, but backed onto a busy road. The garden was lovely but too noisy to enjoy. If we had needed all the room then we might have gone for it, as we didn't ...

You can always plant your own Apple and Cherry trees. Look at the garden and what you like and keep those ideas for when you find your dream house.