Moving to Cornwall from London

[Giadar]

Hi everyone,

we are thinking of moving to Cornwall, looking in the area of Liskeard, with 3 teens and 2 younger children.

Looking at different threads online, there seem to be quite of a negative image.

On the threads lots of people will say that people are not friendly, that teenagers struggles with boredom or start using drugs..
That the weather is actually worse then London...

I really don't want to believe this..
Are teenagers luckily to find it difficult?
Are people no accepting of 'new comers'?
Can I have some advice please from people that has made the move and also from local people?

Thank you in advance
Giada

Liskeard = Poldark

i grew up in south devon near plymouth, my sister now lives in saltash and DH grew up in northdevon.
Whenever we visit in the summer when its lovely weather and the tourist shops and activities are open we wistfully talk about how nice it would be to move back, then when we visit in the winter we remember how crap it was as teenagers and how dreary it is in the rain when nothing is open and all the cafes and shops are closed for the winter! devon never got any trendy shops until years after everywhere else, no big concerts etc ever came closer than bristol.

We currently live in monmouthshire so although live in a small town with lots of gorgeous countryside on our doorstop we have easy access to Bristol, newport and cardiff for all the city amenities.

My family moved to Cornwall from London — saltash, waves to Brie! - when I was 13 and I hated it. Saltash is close to Plymouth so I had access to amenities but it was still a culture shock. Would be worse being even more remote. Left at 18 for uni and now back in London

Cornwall is a beautiful place for a holiday .However although of Cornish Ancestry ,I feel its a little too far out for me .I grew up in London ,and now live on the SC (Dorset) .Lots of shops and Restaurants more of a vibe . Maybe somewhere like that OP? London in an hour and 40 mins by train. Your DC may not settle in .Have you watched Simon Reeves shows? The one in Cornwall really was a warts and all ,covering the huge Food Banks in Redruth ,and unbelevably DC who had never visited the beach!

You say you are coming without a car? Is that just for this visit? Or do you not drive? Liskeard is a total non-starter for teenagers unless you are prepared to drive them around. Having raised two children in the area (now in their thirties) I can tell you I spent hours in the car taking them to practically every activity apart from going to school. Their life will be very restricted if they cannot get to beaches/friends/activities/hobbies/parties. Very poor public transport.

However, they both moved away for higher education, one came back and lives and works here (healthcare), and the other comes back from London at every possible opportunity.

@Giadar it might help if you say what you're looking for and what your budget is.

It sounds to me like you're looking at areas with lower house prices which are near beautiful places. The problem is that those places often have very poor local amenities and crap transport (Minehead is less accessible and more isolated than Liskeard).

There are some great small towns in the south west, but if you're looking for a decent balance between amenities and house prices, Somerset is probably a better option.

So, you're looking for a place near the sea, a slower pace of life than London (which is practically everywhere in the UK), more space for your kids, lower crime. Are you looking to rent or buy? Do you need to be near public transport? Are you going to be working from home? Perhaps we can help you with some suggestions.

Can't remember who it was who said teens wouldn't be able to afford the train to Plymouth - it's £3.50 return for a child ticket.

The aspirations thing is interesting. Many poor kids in Devon and Cornwall haven't been to the beach, or even left the county. The ex-mining and fishing towns have multi-generational unemployment. It can't be a surprise to people that aspirations are low when nobody in your family has a job. Cornwall had a lot of EU money over the years, which was used as a stick to beat the Cornish with when the majority voted to leave. But if you ask them what the EU did for them, they will say that all the money went into infrastructure like roads (eg A30 dualling), the university, tourism etc and other stuff that had no benefit for local people - poor folk in Penzance don't give a toss whether tourists are stuck in traffic jams on Bodmin moor, but they probably do care about whether they can access healthcare easily.

@dubyalass there is a lot of truth in this analysis. My best friend is a head teacher. Her former school was in an old industrial area, and she spoke of kids living 3 miles from the sea but never going there. Among parents at the primary school my children attended for a short while after we moved, there were mums and dads who proudly stated they and their parents had attended the same school and sat in the same seats as this generation. No thought that they could have got up and gone elsewhere. It was eye opening after living in SW London where there was dynamism (to the point of annoying pushiness sometimes!)

I think many Cornish were simply duped by a Brexit too - the fishermen for example. Farmers hmmm it was more that they are natural born Tories so were probably my always euros sceptic despite their grants etc.

I was so surprised by this when I went to Newquay one August. It rained, absolutely torrential rain, for the middle 2 days of a 6 day break. Those two days were awful. The rest of the time it was gloriously warm sunshine, so strange.

@Trethew I am coming via train, but I do drive, and I do drive the kids places here already. Sounds like your 2 children were happy and keep on coming back? As long as we don't get ostracised by the people around us, a quieter life its all we are after. Thank you for sharing your experience 😊

It’s not exclusive to Cornwall. I worked in a school on the east coast. It was two streets from the sea. Some children had never been to the sea.
Shitty parents are everywhere.

@intwrferingma

It's a bit unfair to suggest that there's something wrong with people staying in the same place...that's what happens everywhere, to stay with family, to work in the local industries.

I moved away for uni for a few years but ultimately came back to be near family (Devon) and my DD is at the same primary school I went to and starting at my old high school this year. I think it's rather nice. It's not that it never occurred to me to move away - I chose to be here. DD will be encouraged to look at every opportunity but if she chooses to stay local there's nothing wrong with that either.

This is the program that PP are saying to watch OP - it's only 2 episodes, but it really does give a proper insight onto living in Cornwall.

I'm Cornish, went to college in Camborne, but my god - some of the things that were said to him when he was in that area were like a gut punch even to me and I thought I knew what it was like to live there.

There's a brilliant quote in it about work - something like, people might have jobs but they don't have careers, which hit the nail smack on the head in my opinion.

It really is worth a watch.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pb6w

Sorry, forgot the link!!

@fourofwands you're right. In particular bc there are trades in rural areas like farming where it's a positive advantage to be rooted through the generations. I think what I encountered when I came 'home' tho was a misplaced pride that if nothing changed that was great. Irrespective of outcome.

www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornwall-hotspots-over-2000-airbnbs-7018524

This is one of the key reasons why locals get fed up with people moving down for the lifestyle. There aren't enough homes for locals to rent without more people moving into the area adding to the competition for long term let's for family homes.

best thing you could do is book a two week stay in Cornwall, go and find out what you think to the place.

but if you can go out of season it would be better, a you'll get a better feel for the place

Have you considered Dumfries & Galloway?

I moved from the South East 3 years ago. I posted on here about the move. You have some very negative views here which I don't share! I love it here and would not go back. However, I live on the coast about 20 minutes from Liskeard.

Liskeard isn't great, no. It is very poor and pretty run down. However, some of the villages around it are beautiful.

I have not noticed the weather being rainier than London. Winters are warmer but summers are cooler. Spring comes earlier here.

It depends on the teenagers. I have 2 friends who have moved recently with teenagers and the kids love it. They have made lots of friends and go off on the train or bus to Plymouth if they want urban pass times. Otherwise teenagers round here mess around on boats and paddleboards.

I would recommend you look at Lostwithiel or Looe ( both not far from Liskeard) or the outskirts of Fowey. Pelynt is worth a look too. In a different area Truro has a lot more going on but is obviously much further in.

I fell in love with Cornwall in the winter but I do recommend you come for a few weeks in January to really see what it's like.

Iwouldn't move back. We have had a total lifestyle change- we run our own business from home so can go to the beach when we want within reason. It is a simpler life though and unless you want that then you need to really think about how much the infrastructure of supermarkets etc means to you.

It sounds like you want a decent sized town OP.
I think the problem with Cornwall is it is so far away from everywhere else.
I would investigate some other areas of the country.

Almost anywhere has a quieter life than London so I wouldn't go anywhere near as extreme as these places you're considering. My family in the West Country are still raving about the 'new' Lidl that opened there a couple of years ago, just to give you an example of how quiet the life is and the limited amount of amenities involved. I think they'd keel over at the prospect of a bowling alley. Really take your time and explore all the possibilities. Even coastal cities like Cardiff or Liverpool can feel like a quieter, quality of life compared to London, but without giving up so much.

So I know it’s not Cornwall, but have you considered heading East instead? There’s some lovely parts of Norfolk and Suffolk that would fit the bill, and you’d get a lot more for your money up that way too.

unless things have changed in the last 15 years... don't do it.
The Cornish are so prejudice against 'outsiders'.
My children were bullied and I was never accepted.. and we are white, so goodness knows what it's like if you look a bit 'foreign'.

My DF is from Cornwall. I absolutely adore visiting, but having grown up in the suburbs of a large northern city there is absolutely no way I could live there. I’m shocked you are even considering it when you live in London and haven’t even been! It really is so so far away from everything. I suggest you visit in winter as well - do not base your views around summer holidays in August. It can be pretty bleak in January.

There are so many other parts of the UK which are as attractive and ‘rural’ as Cornwall without being quite so remote. DH and I used to live in Dorset, about a 25 minute drive from Bournemouth and loved it! Equally, DH grew up in Cheshire. Beautiful rural county but easy access to Chester, Manchester and Liverpool. I’d really, really consider other parts of the UK to be honest before jumping into Cornwall.