Moving to Wales

[YanTanTetheraPetheraPimp]

We’re hoping to move to Wales and are looking at Llandrindod Wells. Where else should we be looking? Not keen on Cardiff, Swansea etc, prefer to be north of the Valleys etc.
We’re retired and want to be ideally within walking distance of a reasonable sized town because I don’t enjoy driving (DH does drive at the moment), with plenty of places to walk the dog, and the opportunity to make new friends.
At the moment we’re in south Gloucestershire.
Any helpful ideas very welcome

True.

And old age should burn and race at close of day.

Come to Bristol OP - vibrant culture, countryside on your doorstep, and all the kidneys you can eat.

Rave, goddamit

[quote BustPipes]@SirVixofVixHall

Bach.

@YanTanTetheraPetheraPimp

Everyone seems to think you're moving to Wales to hang out outside you local Ysbyty XXXX Hospital, demanding spare kidneys on an hourly basis. Do you see this in your imminent future?[/quote]
It's not that. It's just hospitals in rural counties have always struggled and some areas don't have a district general hospital in the whole county and a handful of ambulances serving massive rural areas. Transport is beyond shit and I meet people who are completely isolated once they can't drive as there's not the centre of population to have lots of taxis waiting. Social care is close to broken. Honestly it's a terrible place to be elderly. Cities are in a better position but op doesn't want to live there.

[quote BustPipes]@1AngelicFruitCake

God's waiting room has the same backlog as the rest of the health service.[/quote]
😄
I’m genuinely interested. I always wonder what it’s like to live there

“Burn and race” was Dylan’s first draft. The sad version.

I was thinking more about hospitals. From Rhayader I was sent to Hereford. From Aberystwyth to cardigan. Both places utter twats to get to by public transport from Llandod and such convoluted journeys by car my visitors were thin on the ground. My mum went to the Heath (Cardiff) by air ambulance.

I like Cardiff.

Carmarthen, not cardigan.

Also, have you been recently? There was a 2 year gap before my last visit and I was shocked how much had closed in that time.

There's a firefighter from Aberdyfi on Radio Wales now talking about how he and his family have been priced out of housing and it's a ghost town in the winter ☹️

I don’t understand the argument that London has pockets of English culture and therefore doesn’t need/deserve protection but Wales is somehow different.
The places where my parents grew up are gone - completely unrecognisable, from the hospitals they were born in to the streets they grew up in. They were forced to relocate from rented homes due to sale and redevelopment of those properties and were completely priced out. There is no one in my family left there now. And that has been replicated across the city - that’s our culture and geographical link to family gone!
That’s true in parts of Wales too and it’s really sad that kids can’t buy homes in the town where their families live, but it’s not the fault of individuals wanting to move to actually live in a town. It’s the fault of government allowing people to buy places they have no intention of living in and not controlling ridiculous rents. And that’s a problem across the UK.

@Aderyn21 The English language isn't under threat though, and London alone has something like triple the Welsh population.

Those factors make a difference, the language and culture are much more fragile in Wales.

The Welsh language isn't under threat. It's compulsory in schools and spoken as a first language in many parts of the country. Even my mother speaks it and she didn't move to wales until she was an adult.
The culture is celebrated here, my kids all grew up taking part in Eisteddfods etc

[quote BustPipes]@SirVixofVixHall

Bach.

@YanTanTetheraPetheraPimp

Everyone seems to think you're moving to Wales to hang out outside you local Ysbyty XXXX Hospital, demanding spare kidneys on an hourly basis. Do you see this in your imminent future?[/quote]
I'm only 32, in good health and I'm really worried about the lack of healthcare provision near us. The NHS is struggling massively in Wales and they keep closing hospitals and centralising everything, cutting off rural communities. It's terrible. Doesn't matter if you don't see ill health in your imminent future - it's coming for you at some point! (She said, cheerily.)

Healthcare is something I worry about on a personal level. My friend needed cancer treatment. A two hour drive away, a rota of friends needed to take him. Someone died recently, an entirely preventable death, a person who would be alive now if there had been an ambulance available, a closer hospital. My child had a life threatening injury and it was almost impossible to reach the hospital and when she did get there, that hospital thought that she might need a helicopter to a further hospital - terrifying as due to the weather conditions they would have had to drive her (slowly, another two hour drive ) instead . I still have nightmares about this.
My feelings about the pitiful effects on many rural communities aside, it is crazy not to factor healthcare in, even if you are young. Even children can and do get very unwell. Nobody expects it to be them, but in a place where you have no close friends, something like cancer treatment would be very difficult indeed, and I know of quite a few people , including my friends mentioned upthread, who have ended up moving back to England to be nearer family who will help out as they get older, or are left alone again by bereavement.

The centralisation of major health services is shocking. DH had to drive my dad to the hospital half an hour away (if no traffic) when he was having a heart attack. Lots of people won’t survive that!

@Aderyn21

The centralisation of major health services is shocking. DH had to drive my dad to the hospital half an hour away (if no traffic) when he was having a heart attack. Lots of people won’t survive that!

I would imagine the majority of people live at least 30 mins drive from a hospital, even in cities. We can't all have one on our doorstep. The cost of all the tech and kit in hospitals these days is phenomenal.

A huge thank you to everyone, I am truly grateful.
We’ve been dealt a somewhat shocking blow this morning. A letter has come saying that DH has a benign brain tumour so moving anywhere other than within the catchment of the hospital treating him is now impossible.
Hopefully we will still move (we need to regardless of this).
Thank you 💐

If there’s one thing that ought to be given investment, and cost shouldn’t be the determining factor, access to emergency healthcare should be it!
Governments can pull billions out their arse for the stuff that matters to them, so it’s not unreasonable to assume they could find some money for us if they wanted to!

I’m so sorry to hear your news OP.

Sorry about your news @YanTanTetheraPetheraPimp, hope you both are ok

Come to Llandeilo. You will be very welcome

So sorry OP

I'm so sorry, Op.
I would like to move to Wales when my DM, who has dementia, is no longer here but I too was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour a few weeks ago and it has made me realise the importance of being close to good hospitals.
It's a huge shock so be kind to yourselves.
Just to add, it's awful to be given that news in a letter especially. Mine was in a phone call but major news like that should really be given face to face in my view.

So sorry OP, wishing you both all the best with the treatment Wales will be waiting for you!

So sorry OP. Best of luck with the treatment. X

Very sorry to hear that, OP....best wishes to you both 💐

DH and I moved to Wales almost four years ago - another vote for Llandeilo, btw, which is about two miles from our rural location - and have been made to feel most welcome (apart from by our one neighbour, who is known locally as a miserable sod that picks fights with everyone regardless of their heritage 🙄). We were just over 50 when we sold up in England - originally from an expensive part of Hampshire where we could no longer afford to buy, but more recently we've owned houses in several English counties - with the sole purpose of buying somewhere with land and few neighbours in an area of Wales we'd grown to love over a number of years.

Our experience when house hunting here was that - for the most part - the older the house, the more likely it was to be purchased by someone coming in from England. The property we eventually purchased (400 years old) had languished on the market for years till it was eventually repossessed and sold for a very low price, despite the fact that structurally it was very sound.

Since purchasing it we've met various Welsh people who viewed and rejected it because it was too old/too dark etc. In addition, the consensus seemed to be that buying/living in an older house was seen as being a step down from owning a new build. In fact we are now friends with several Welsh families who bought an old property (often with amazing period features) only to demolish it and replace with something generic. Their choice, of course, but it seems there are actually loads of empty/verging on derelict homes here in Wales that the Welsh don't want to take on.... possibly because of the expense of renovations/maintenance?