Considering a change of life. Tell me what a childhood in the Cotswolds is like?

[Windowseat77]

DH and I have been discussing changing our lives for years. We’re currently city people, but aren’t happy there and considering moving away.

One possible idea is the Cotswolds as DH can work in Oxford. We don’t know where exactly or how practical it is, etc, but it’s a place we both love.

We have primary aged children. A childhood somewhere like that seems so rosy to me.

What’s it like growing up somewhere like the Cotswolds? I had the sort of childhood where I rode my bike with my friends on the street safely, etc. Can that sort of thing happen?

I know it’s a big area, but how are schools and availability of school places in the good ones?

(Dh worries the demographic might be a bit posh for us though!)

DH’s family moved to the Cotswolds when he and his brother were 12 and 14. They would war. You that you’ll end up driving your teenagers around a lot (g CV onvesrky I grew up in central London and was buzzing around quite happily in the tube when I was 11, and took myself to school occasionally at 8).

Good friends of ours have recently moved back to the area with their 11 and 9 year olds. Lots going on, but it’s a drive. Good high school (The Cotswold School, Bourton in the Water), but it’s a drive…. Consider your town/village setting carefully, especially if you need a train station.

Watch "This Country", covers all you want to know! 😁

What’s it like growing up somewhere like the Cotswolds?
The Cotswolds covers a large area so I don't think that you can generalise. There will be good bits and bad bits.
Oxford isn't actually in the Cotswolds, it is sandwiched between the Cotswold AONB and the North Wessex Downs AONB - this is probably a good thing because you pay a premium to live in an AONB.
I have known a few people who have lived east-ish of the M40 (so Bicester, Brackley sort of direction) and they rate it.

This country 🤣

Teens in the countryside require a lot of drop offs and pick ups, and often get stranded at bus stops and train stations.

Live near good transport links

I have known a few people who have lived east-ish of the M40 (so Bicester, Brackley sort of direction) and they rate it.
Ooops. I forgot about the HS2 route. Do check it out.

Maybe look at somewhere like Stroud or Woodstock or villages outside Cheltenham - still got stuff going on but decent connections - Woodstock is lovely and is about 15 mins drive to oxford , Oxford too has some nice villages to the south east of it

Live near good transport links.
My "good transport link" is my car. Doesn't go on strike, doesn't get cancelled, doesn't cost a small fortune to travel a few miles.

City versus country is an eternal debate on MN. City-people will tell you that having everything on hand is a good thing. My rural-ish DC will tell you that some of the most insular and unaware young people that they have met have been those who stay within their city-limits, especially those in the M25 bubble.

I live just off the top edge of the Cotswolds (an hour to Oxford by train/car) and it is nothing like This Country at all. Small town, kids do get a lot of freedom as there are facilities in walking distance. Not posh, schools are good.
The closer to Oxford you are, the higher prices are, and Oxford itself is eyewateringly expensive. As the traffic in Oxford is awful, look along the railway lines. I'd be happy to commute on the train from here to Oxford as its a walk to the station wheras closer villages might need to drive to the station, park which all adds time. But it does depend where in Oxford your DH would need to get to

I was brought up in the Cotswold - in a tiny little village near Stroud. It was nice as a small chid, we would go off to the woods, the playing fields or the stream all day on our own and the primary school only had 50 kids in. But there were no shops or anything like that (but there was no supermarket in Stroud then either)!

But the walk to secondary school was far, there was only one bus in the morning and one in the evening to and from the village so heavily reliant on a car especially as a teenager.

I personally wouldn't move to the Cotswolds because I much prefer city life but that may be because I've lived the country life and don't feel like I need to do it again.

I think it’s lovely with small children. Shite with teens.
I don’t live in the cotswolds but do live in a rural town, while there are trains to cities they are expensive, and there’s not much in the way of youth activities, even an athletics club would be an hours round trip, unsurprisingly the town does have a bit of an issue with petty antisocial behaviour. Which is a constant cause of stress of friends of mine with teenage children, which I do sort of have the opinion that if you as an adult moved here because you wanted it as you like the great outdoors it’s on you to make it not shit for your teens…

I will add I grew up very rural/remotely. I loved it, my siblings HATED it. Both moved to London straight from uni and never looked back!

I grew up next to one of the cities/towns in the cotswold area. We had the best of both worlds. Easy access to the countryside for horse riding and other country stuff (DoE), brownie camps, etc. And easy access to town. So concerts, shops and mates as a teenager. In fact, it sounds idyllic for kids and I love going back. Parents did have to taxi me around loads though as my friends rarely lived in the same village.

rural town: there’s not much in the way of youth activities
Really? In my rural town [not Cotswolds, before you ask OP!] there are Scouts & Guides, sports clubs (Rugby, tennis, hockey, football, athletics, etc, etc), dance classes, drama outfits, various musical opportunities and lots of other such things. There are also volunteering groups. Depends on the town, I suppose.
even an athletics club would be an hour's round trip
[shrugs] My friend in London has a rule-of-thumb that most journeys within the capital take an hour. I'd much rather take kit in the car than on public transport.

Not all towns are the same, mine is quite small, hugely popular with walkers so lots of lovely cafes and pubs but no, very little for teenagers, and due to shitty behaviour the one thing there was (cheap gym/pool) won’t let unsupervised under 16s in. So the primary form of entertainment for kids in our town is sitting around vaping. Which is a shame.
There is a lot of you are happy to travel about half an hour in any direction but if you have two parents that work full time and the activities are at 5, meaning a 4:15 dart… that’s probably not going to work for a lot of people.

My point to take away was not that the town the OP is considering would have nothing, but to think about the reality of having a 15 year old that wants to go to the cinema/shopping with mates and poor public transport links, as they’ll only be little kids for a small time and they should
thjnk long term.

bottom edge of the cotswolds here - two kids at one of the big secondary schools.

It's a lot of driving if you don't live near transport links, and even if you do, your children will have the absolute audacity to make friends who live very rurally. I told mine they could only have friends who lived along our bus route, but apparently that was very unreasonable...

As a non-Cotswolds rural dweller, it’s secondary school age to passing driving test age that is challenging to parents, once teens and preteens start wanting to go into town, out with friends, cinema etc but are not old enough to drive and buses are sporadic.

Great as a smaller child, I could ride my bike
With friends and play in the fields all day. As a teenager it was awful. So boring, no public transport to get to neighbouring villages to see friends. You'll be driving your kids around a lot for hobbies, or anything really!
And from going home to visit as an adult I still find it very tedious if I'm there more than a day. Village shop is crap and it's 7 miles to a supermarket!

We live rurally in southern England and honestly This Country resonated so much, especially with my kids. Which is hardly surprising, as the writers were writing their lives.

Depends entirely where you live in Cotswolds. I grew up on edge of Cheltenham, about 2 miles from town centre so as a teenager I could cycle or bus easily to the lido, Saturday job, town centre. I had a great childhood /teenage years.A lot of my school friends though lived in gorgeous villages but were quite isolated and had to rely in parents to get around. It did stay with me how much easier I had it and I've always chosen to I've close to city and town centres.