Teenagers in Frome / Bruton / Glastonbury. A good place to be a teen?

[Mirrormirror775]

DH grew up in Somerset and wants to go back. I grew up in London and, while I am up for the adventure, i’m not sure what life would be like for teens there.

Because I grew up in London, I only know how great it was being a teen here! I did so many sports outside of school and so many other extra activities outside of school, too. My friends and I used to walk / get on the bus / tube wherever we were going. Parents never had to drive us. Or we’d get black cabs home if we were out late and too dangerous to get on public transport.

London is far, far more expensive now than when I was growing up and, while we can’t afford to give our kids the sort of life I had - ie: a house in an area like the one I grew up in - I did think it was a great place to be a teen.

DH thinks we should quit london and it’s crazy expensive prices and move back to near his hometown in Somerset.

It is beautiful there and the children love it, but I’ve been reading some threads on here saying that often teens need to be driven everywhere / there isn’t much to do. I don’t know if our children will love it as much when they actually live there - and I worry about them missing their friends. (They’re not teens yet, but not hugely far off.)

How is it having teenagers in the Somerset places I mentioned above? Is there lots to do? Are there good buses?

Frome and Bruton both have train stations and Glastonbury presumably has buses. Anywhere in that part of the world will have limited public transport - I grew up in that general area and there was one train at midnight I had to get from the nearest big town and then walk home from the station.
Teenagers make their entertainment wherever they are. Some people say that teens in small towns are more likely to do drugs as there isn't much to do but this doesn't follow for me.

MazekeenSmith thank you! Was it Bath / Bristol that you used to go to as a teen?

Tbh, there was plenty of drug use in my London youth (though it wasn’t my thing) - and kids grew up a bit “faster”, here, I think. Although there was a lot to do, there was also trouble to get in if you were looking for it.

I’m more hoping, if we move to the countryside, I won’t be the mum taxi, and that I won’t have bored teens!

Yes it was bath. In my circle the worst we did was drink and smoke weed. I did often stay over with friends after clubbing as there was no way i could afford taxis to get home. We didn't have the wildest time but we had happy teenagehoods

I lived in a village outside Taunton as a teen. There was a lot of need for mum taxis, but that was because we were outside town with very limited buses. If we'd been in town, or on a decent bus route, it would have been easier. However, worth considering that school catchments can be quite wide and include numerous surrounding villages, so a kid can end up with friends in scattered locations - so even if you live in say Frome, you can end up driving to friends' houses in a variety of locations.

I grew up in Glastonbury

There was very little to do other than drink, smoke weed and have sex.
I was at one of the local private schools u til 16 which occupied most of my extra curricular time but once I left there, there wasn’t a huge amount of local clubs, activities, sports

The buses to Bristol were slow (1.5hours) and irregular, expensive

Plus sides- very easy to get a weekend job at Clark’s Village, some wholesome country stuff like riding and dog walking, but the latter also often doubled up as trips to pick magic mushrooms after the age of 16

All this is with the caveat of it being late 90s/early 00s so things might have changed but my DCs are having a London upbringing pretty much because of my experience of a Somerset one..!