Are the Cornish really that unwelcoming/unfriendly?

[semidetached3]

DH and I are facing a very uncertain future due to the pandemic and as a result, we've decided to sell our house in the south east and massively downsize, to be mortgage free and provide ourselves with a few years of income.

It's been a highly stressful year and we just need a completely fresh start in a new place where we can begin again.

We've always wanted to live by the sea and both love Cornwall. We would like to live within a town ideally or possibly a village, as long as it has amenities.

However, I've been put off after searching Mumsnet and reading numerous posts from people saying how unfriendly the Cornish are to newcomers, and that you'll never be truly accepted or make friends unless your family have lived there for generations.

I was wondering - is this really the case? We have a young son (not yet school age) so he'd be starting primary school down there. Is it possible to make friends or would we be permanently excluded as newcomers to the area?

Also, we wouldn't want to live anywhere where the vast majority of houses are holiday lets and there's no real community (I'm wondering if St Ives, as beautiful as it is, might fall into this category).

Thanks for reading.

No it’s not true. I come from Cornwall and have always lived in a village which was a mix of ‘old Cornish families’ and ‘newcomers’. Was never a problem. The only thing I would say is that newcomers often wanted to keep themselves to themselves. If you want to integrate, you’ll be welcomed with open arms!

If you want to integrate, you’ll be welcomed with open arms!

A great first response, thanks @MarchionessOfMayhem! I'm just so nervous that we wouldn't be able to make friends due to not coming from Cornwall (and having no links whatsoever to the area). DH and I are friendly sorts and community orientated, so we'd be very keen to integrate... if our new neighbours will have us!

In many parts of Devon and Cornwall incomers vastly outnumber locals. It's like moving to London and worrying about whether cockneys are friendly - pretty irrelevant.

@semidetached3 there are lots of people in Cornwall who have no connections at all but it really doesn’t matter. My observation of my own village is that many of the people who run the sports club, village hall committee, social club etc are actually ‘newcomers’ who want to be involved. Most Cornish villages are still really social so there’s always something to get involved with. Are you thinking North Coast or South Coast?

Are you thinking North Coast or South Coast?

@MarchionessOfMayhem Our initial thoughts are south coast - the Penzance, Newlyn, Paul area - but we are very much open to suggestions! As I say, we're very keen to live in a place that has a community all year round, rather than somewhere which is very touristy and full of holiday homes. If you have any advice it would be much appreciated!

That is good to hear @Polyxena, thank you!

In terms of location - Falmouth is also a possibility, although it's at the very top end of our budget (I think it's more pricey than the Penzance area?)

I think all those suggestions are good places to live, Newlyn is a bit touristy but not as touristy as Mousehole. Would also suggest looking at places like Mylor, Falmouth (totally recommend Falmouth! ) and maybe further up the coast in places like Portscatho, Portloe, Gorran Haven, Pentewan. All smallish communities but very friendly.

Not true. I live in a small seaside town on the north coast and I'd say at least 50 % of residents " aren't from round here" it's an incredibly welcoming community and I don't know where this reputation has come from, never witnessed it myself.

Would recommend Falmouth above penzance if you can afford it, penzance is less well connected and a bit rougher, and you aren't in reach of such good schools, and when your lo attends college for a levels it's quite a hike to the nearest decent college ( Truro) I have a friend in Newlyn whose daughter has a over an hour trip each way for college. Falmouth is a fantastic place, have you looked at Penryn? It's right next to it but may be slightly more affordable.

Ps I suspect you are correct about St Ives, also: schools not good. A lot of deprivation in that area amongst the people that actually live there. Good for day trips only.

I think there are so many people living in Cornwall now who have relocated that you will find you are far from being the "outsider". It really is more down to how you are rather than the locals automatically disliking you. Some families that move to Cornwall really do look down their noses at the locals and you can understand the bitterness then as they have usually bought yet another house that is now priced so far beyond the reach for an average Cornish family and give nothing back to the community.
The small minority do give the Cornwall a bad image at times. Lockdown has been difficult. It's a small county that relies heavily on tourism and whilst that is needed, so many people have no respect for the people who live and work there and this year it seems to have been amplified. The way staff have been treated in the holiday parks and restaurants this year is appalling. I can completely understand why tempers have run high.

If you are friendly and humble you will have no trouble at all. Personally, I would avoid anywhere popular with tourists as it just gets so busy.

BluePheasant has it in a nutshell. We moved to Cornwall from Cambridge in 1980’s. We had no trouble integrating into rural community and were made welcome.

I currently work in a retail outlet with catering facilities and this summer has seen some appalling behaviour from holidaymakers which is NOT normally the case. A small minority have been rude, critical, unwilling to cooperative with Covid precautions and behave to all intents and purposes as if they have been forced to come to Cornwall against their will. I think this has fuelled the suggestion that incomers are unwelcome.

Join in, use local facilities, be sociable and you will find Cornwall and the Cornish entirely welcoming

Thank you everyone! Does anyone know what St Just is like as a place to live?

St Just is lovely, I know several people who live there. Good community vibe. Quite remote though, nearest big town is Penzance but it is a long way down!

@MarchionessOfMayhem thanks! Would you say St Just is one of the less touristy areas? It seems a bit more affordable than other places (though still expensive!)

The venom is (sometimes understandably) usually directed at second homers/tourists rather than those wanting to permanently live there.

The bigger issue is the casual racism, xenophobia, homophobia, NIMBY-ism, divisive references to 'benefit scroungers' etc. This is a part of the country that shifted from LibDem to supporting UKIP/Farage/Brexit and sadly it still shows.

To be fair, many residents are appalled by that shift (am sure lots of posters will come on to say they never ever witness any xenophobia etc.) so its by no means everyone but statistically very likely the majority.

It's a lovely part of the country, we have family there (from varying generations and of various political views) and visit often. But we could never comfortably live there.

I wouldn't recommend Penryn (school is rough) . Truro is a much nicer place. I

we could never comfortably live there. Yet many of us do live very comfortably there...lots of different political opinions here, as there in most other places in the UK. My NDN but one, who is lovely, even reads the Guardian, and yet we still have coffee together.

I think you'll find that Cornwall actually returned all Tory MPs last time, and the time before iirc...not a UKIP MO in sight here. As for supporting Brexit - so did many other areas of the UK.

The bigger issue is the casual racism, xenophobia, homophobia, NIMBY-ism, divisive references to 'benefit scroungers' etc. This is a part of the country that shifted from LibDem to supporting UKIP/Farage/Brexit and sadly it still shows. As you don't live here (as you couldn't comfortably do so), how well do you know Cornwall, and how often are you here to note the above? I used to come across casual racism, xenophobia, homophobia NIMBY-ism, and references to benefit scroungers frequently when I lived just outside Brussels, but haven't since I've returned to Cornwall. Strange that!

No, it's not true. I moved to Cornwall 18 months ago, in similar circumstances to you. It is the best thing I have ever done. We bought a house with an annexe which we run as a holiday let which is now our income.

You will always get the odd person who hates 'incomers' but in my experience it isn't the norm at all. The village I grew up in, in Cheshire, has people with similar opinions.

I agree with the person who talked about racism and brexit lovers, that's true! But again, there are people like that everywhere and maybe it's more noticeable in small communities.

We went on holiday to St Just a few weeks ago and it's a gorgeous little town, not overly touristy but had great restaurants and shops. It is quite remote, but it didn't feel it. We have a friend who lives in Marazion and he loves it there, but I preferred St Just as a place to live.

Back in the Summer there was a thread all about how the Cornish were awful etc. MN found out that the majority of the horrible “experiences” and posts came from 1 poster who used lots of different usernames to appear like many different people / opinions.

Not sure why they were so bitter - it’s very odd

I’m in Cornwall and Cornwall is lovely. My neighbours are international nurses and absolutely love the area.

Most people down here have parents or grandparents from “up country” so it’s all pretty normal

Not true.

We moved here 8 years ago and there is no hatred or exclusion.

What is worth bearing in mind though is that there are core communities of ‘old Cornish’ who go back generations and generations and they can be very tight knit.

There are some small minded people here but they are far from the majority. It’s a shame that some media and social media like to display their views as if they are Cornish gospel.

If you’re coming from London, choose where you live carefully though. It’s harder to find peers and like minded people because the numbers are smaller. And it can be easy to get it wrong. I probably wouldn’t move to somewhere like St Just or St Ives for that reason.

Penzance is up and coming. Truro is awesome as is Falmouth. If you want a village, maybe look at south east Cornwall’s south coast villages.

Also Wadebridge is a great community.

Join the Cornwall Companions Facebook group.

Don’t move to Padstow though. Your children may well be bullied at school there. That community has really suffered from over tourism, that’s why.

I’m from the NW and now live happily in Cornwall, have experienced some cases where we were targeted as outsiders (assumed to be drug dealers as had Dutch car, struggled to make friends in one particular village which was very cliquey etc) but generally welcomed. The communities are similar to the ones I grew up in, so once we got rid of the Dutch car (DH is Dutch) we blended in fairly well.

However if you’re from London or similar it’s worth paying attention to how the locals behave. So don’t drive a big white expensive Land Rover, learn how to reverse down narrow roads, if walking outside of towns say hello to passers by, don’t park in stupid places that block tractor (or lifeboat!) access, dont dawdle your way around the towns walking three abreast and blocking the pavements for everyone nipping out for their lunch break, and most importantly never, EVER feed the seagulls.

You’ll probably find mid Cornwall easier than either far East or West. The county is very long and things like healthcare, good education etc are generally more clustered in mid Cornwall around Truro and there’s many villages and little towns around there that you’d be fine in.