Moving to Cornwall - too young?

[Ro780]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice and I know you are all very good at it! Myself and my fiancé are 24. We’ve been together for 5 years and have a very solid relationship. Recently, his work have offered him a really great opportunity to set up the cornwall department (this is very exciting considering his age!). At first I was really excited to move down there and enjoy the countryside, sea and general outdoor lifestyle. But recently I have been getting cold feet. My family are in Birmingham and his are in London. We are both used to the city lifestyle and I’m worried being so far away from everyone we know will be hard. Everyone I know who has moved to cornwall have been old people who are retiring so I’m worried we will find it difficult to make new friends. I don’t want my OH to give up an amazing opportunity but I’m scared! Any advice welcome!

I grew up in west Cornwall, and nothing would get me back there. South east Cornwall is relatively civilized.

Surely you shop online for all the style you need Bubbles? I buy stuff all over the world, not even in the UK half the time!

Wages are low, professional work in short supply, and it rains often. But there's ever-better restaurants, local ingredients and from the end of September to the start of the summer holidays you can generally have the beach to yourself. It is a rite of passage that many young people have to leave the county to complete their education and get started on a career. Property is expensive in sought-after scenic areas but there is a huge number of new houses under construction.

BubblesBuddy it does sound like Cornwall is not the place for you if you can't find decent workmen to do up your second home and you think nicknames are rude and unacceptable!

BubblesBuddy surely most bathroom tap shopping happens online these days anyway? And its really not that far to take a train to London if needed. There are pros and cons to Cornwall, but I can safely say that curtain fabric doesn't need to matter...

hi @Ro780, myself and my boyfriend are in a similar position to you - I spent a lot of time in Cornwall growing up and thinking of moving back down there now from Bristol but worried about creating new social circles. We are looking at areas like Falmouth and Truro. I was wondering what the latest is - did you make the move? How have you found it? Hope you're settling in okay.

We moved in February to a beautiful village. In terms of location we couldn’t be happier to be near the beaches and countryside (especially when everything is in lockdown and you suddenly appreciate what really matters!) However it has been difficult to make friends so far! I tried classes at the gym but the women were much older and already had their friendship groups - don’t get me wrong, they were really polite but it was obvious the small talk wasn’t going anywhere! I think work friends will be the only friends for a long while but I also think that’s ok. I think Truro and Falmouth are better areas for meeting other young people (especially in the new build developments) and if you have kids you’ll be fine as we have met loads of young families!

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I’m so pleased you’ve found such a lovely place to live. It takes a lot of courage to make a move like that so I have a lot of respect for anyone who has done it! Lockdown has made us realise what is important too and we’ve found we haven’t missed the usual hustle and bustle of the city. Do you miss or have any regrets about leaving where you were before? What are your positives and negatives?

I live in west cornwall, currently moving to Truro for all the reasons mentioned in this post. We are young ish- 30 and 33 with a young baba. I find falmouth a but studenty. Friends live in newquay and love it as they both surf - I get the impression it can be a bit clique.

The first month was hard to get used to everything - we are a 25 min drive from Truro and an hourish from Plymouth so being so far from shops took a bit of getting used to (also having to plan out petrol trips to make sure we didn’t break down somewhere 😂) Being able to walk out of the house and be completely surrounded by countryside and getting to watch all the lambs grow up has been wonderful - really feel like we are able to see the seasons change here! The first time we jumped in the car after work on a Friday and went straight to the beach because it was nice weather was amazing! We are renting so that we can learn about the different places and decide where we wanna buy in the future - for example we’ve realised Newquay hasn’t got many shops at all so St austell and Truro are better for shopping but it does have lots of places to eat and drink! We moved to a village because it’s remote but still has a couple of shops and cafes and neighbours but we’re starting to think we could move somewhere even more remote as we learn what we are using a lot and where we don’t really go!

I moved back to SE Cornwall in 1990, when freelancing from home became a live posssibility, even before the Internet existed, and it went very successfully. It was possible to do work for global companies from near Plymouth (zero local clients) perhaps less so from Penzance, but I went to London for a day twice most weeks. I think I bought more fax rolls than anyone else in the county (except the council and NHS) and knew the train and air timetables by heart. I moved from London and New York, to be with now DH who had been in the Middle East, but I grew up on the southernmost part of the county from age 6. Having been away for university and early career development (which I would never have got in Cornwall), it was very freeing to return as an adult with an established professional reputation when I was 34. Since 1990, Cornwall's population has increased about 40%, the food has gone from indifferent to sometimes awesome but the quality of everyday life is generally good, unless you are trying to earn a living locally. Unless you are established in a professional public sector career, you will earn 20% less here than in most of the country, and the competition for jobs is national, rather than local, because the quality of life is mostly excellent. Most people, contrary to MN lore, are friendly and helpful, once they know you have come here to live. We're not thrilled with new arrivals who are just retired and want to take over the parish council and get stuck in quickly because "they know better" what would be good for us. It does rain, a lot, so you need the right waterproof clothing from day one.

It is a fantastic place to live, but there's also a big dark side. Apart from the lack of professional and career development opportunities, the standard of many schools is not great, and there is a huge drug culture. There are pubs in our closest small town that my DS21 would not enter and the next village to ours has a serious heroin problem.

I hesitate to ask, Xing but does that village begin with G or A? I knew there was a problem with the nearest small town, and has been ever since the new estate on the outskirts went up before we moved abroad, but didn't realise it was that close to home. Buries head firmly in sand.

The one starting with G... after dark, the cars with blacked out windows appear in the car park.

Better not have a late night Dr appointment then, once normal service is resumed!