Rural bliss?

[Monison]

So what's it like living in the country? We're hoping to trade in citylife for a detached rural property in the south west. What are your experiences of making this move? And do you know of any particularly nice areas in the Bristol/Bath/Cheltenham/Stroud areas? Thanks x

I agree that living in small market town / large village is probably easier.

I live in such a place near Cirencester (other side though to where you want to live) and I think having a bigger village is a good compromise for the children.

There are enough children here for a decent sized school, and always children playing out in the street for DD to go out and play with.

Often the mums share lifts when the children do similar hobbies, this helps one heck of a lot if you are relatively rural.

But, do check out the villages carefully - Some villages are really friendly, but others can be terribly cliquey.

Yes, I totally agree with OldJolyon about the difference in villages.

I was chatting with a lovely woman a few months back, who lives in the next village, which has a lot of amenities on paper - GP, school, etc. What she said was that there were no ways to meet anyone. She spent months when she first moved there 'trying to find people'. Then one day she went to an event in our village, and suddenly people spoke to her, and welcomed her in.

Villages also vary wildy in the amenities they have - we have a village shop which sells locally produced food, but we also have a library, a leisure centre with swimming pool, a local school which runs evening classes, etc etc. Another village nearby has almost nothing, except for a village hall and a church.

I love it. We live in a village with a school and village shop. Prior to our move we lived in a village with no school or village shop. Then I drove miles and miles. Now I have days when I don't get into the car (I'm a SAHM). I'm not much of a taxi as all the children in my dc class live in the village. We live walking distance from the playground.

I love the peace and quiet. I love the community.

We spent a long time researching all the villages and getting exactly what we wanted before we started looking for houses. This village ticked all boxes. We are also 3 miles from the nearest market town but I have to say that I rarely have to go there because the village shop is so good.