Moving to Devon or Cornwall

[Brey32]

My family and I currently live in Bedfordshire, my mum, step dad and nan have moved to Cornwall this year. They are desperate for us to move that way but I'm not sure if it would be the right move for us as a young family. It would be my partner, myself and our two girls 3 and 5. Does anyone have any experience of being a young family in Devon or Cornwall. I'm looking for information on schools and jobs if possible please :)

That's a broad area of land. The school in St. Just, for example, will be different to the schools in Bideford. The cities such as Plymouth will be different to rural areas. Same for job types and availability. Can you narrow it down a bit?

What sort of jobs are you looking at? Rural, town, coastal area? Budget?

We moved to West Cornwall when the kids were baby and toddler. We moved back after a year, mainly because DH hated it, I’d have happily stayed and continued to live life on a beach but in fairness there was little else for them to do and options were limited for growing kids. A lot of friend’s kids had left as young adults but certainly not everyone.

I was born in the West Country and parents moved to give us and them better opportunities, I’d love to still be living there but chances are that I wouldn’t have had the opportunities that I had with moving away. Who knows though? I work in the public sector which seems to be one of the limited options for year round work (or so family tell me).

Might need to narrow down the area you talking about op

Cornwall/Devon is too big an area to answer specifics on schools. We moved to the south west when our children were small and have been happy. Things to consider are that it is difficult to establish a career - unemployment is high. Jobs are low paid, housing is scarce and expensive. We are both teachers - it took time for us both to get full time permanent contracts and we bought a house in 2004 when property was cheaper. It worked for the children - both sporty, beach, surfing and schools were generally good. Eldest about to go to university - moving to a large city and I dont expect she will come back here to live - no work and too expensive. Overall the move was a good decision for us.

Yes sorry I didn't narrow it down because we're not really sure where to go. My mum lives in St Austell so close to her would be good but we are really open to anywhere as we need to think of the kids first. We currently live in a village so I would be keen to continue village life :) As for jobs, my partner does the maintenance for the local council but is a carpenter by trade. I am a cleaning supervisor at the moment.

Job wise you’d probably both be fine, holiday house maintenance etc, we’re on the edge of Dartmoor and it takes an hour to go anywhere, schools are probably the same as anywhere, some good some not so good. Housing market is pretty insane currently, think you need to have sold and be in a position to actually move before you can even view.

Cornwall and Devon are lovely places to live and bring up children. Your main barriers will be housing and jobs.

House prices have shot up in the last 18 months and residential rentals are impossible to find as LLs are selling or converting to holiday lets.

I grew up near St Austell, family are still there. St Austell itself is not that great, but lovely area surrounding it, plenty of lovely little villages. Primary schools all ok as far as I know, I would recommend being in catchment for The Roseland for secondary school. If you are outdoorsy type people you will probably be very happy. Just be prepared that once grown up the kids may well leave for uni and not come back. We wouldn't go back for that reason. But feel lucky we can have as many holidays as we like there 😁

Some really lovely areas in and around St Austell. Excellent primary schools and outstanding secondaries, like pp said The Roseland but also Penrice. With all the house building in Probus I'd definitely live in catchment for The Roseland. You won't likely get a place otherwise. It's a very, very small rural school.