Apologies in advance for the length of this post!
We have moved into a new house 6 months ago, we lived in a small village previously but have moved to an equally small village in a slightly more remote area. We moved for semi retirement.
So all was good when we first moved in, its quite a small hamlet type place (add that we have never had issues with neighbours previously, in fact we were quite close to them and were a big part of the community).
When we first moved in we had 3 households popping in welcoming us, although they did emphasise that the neighbourhood was 'very close knit and supportive' we felt really welcomed, however it now feels like this was not genuine, because these 3 households have decided now that they don't like us and have all stopped speaking to us.
Background - We had a neighbour rudely tell DH to move a car from 'his spot', (car wasn't even DH's)- DH was in work gear and we think this neighbour thought he was working here, but he was really very rude. However we thought maybe he was just having a bad day, but then DH asked another neighbour politely to move their car a couple of feet so we could access our gate to the house. Neighbour called DH an idiot because he said DH should have known it was his car weeks ago (?!), not sure what the relevance was of this to be honest. DH is really chilled and didn't react but was quite upset by this. We both were.
We then had this other neighbour shouting at my DH to move our car (from outside of our house) because they said it was their neighbours 'place'. DH refused and the following day, we had a flurry of messages from this other neighbour, completely over the top telling us 'they've been there longer than us and therefore they have more right to park where this neighbour wants' & arguing that the door isn't even the entrance of the house(!), it started to feel like I was in another universe so we tried to keep it simple by just sending the DVLA guidance, they then blocked me and deleted their whole profile (the whole chat disappeared).
It now feels like 'everyone knows' & that everyone has been talking about us, we have not spoken to anyone ourselves or given our perspective. However these 3 households have stopped talking to us, so we say hello & they just ignore us, I should add that these people were not even involved in DH asking neighbour to shift car, & they don't even park on the road. Fortunately we don't usually have to park on the road either, only having to on that occasion because we were unloading & needed to access the gate (this gate is only ours it isn't shared).
I really feel quite threatened by these people, its making me feel quite anxious and worried about just going out of the door, for fear of what will happen next, have we moved into a neighbourhood of completely crazy people? Or have we moved into some sort of cult?! I don't know anyone who would react this way, and for other people to pile on when they know nothing about what we asked for and why feels unbelievably petty and childish. I just feel I am back at school, and that we made a huge mistake moving here, we were in a friendly community previously, had lived there for 20 years and never experienced anything like this, and I am not sure if I can live like this.
We have made an effort to get out there and be seen, because I really feel that these people are trying to make it as uncomfortable as possible for us, and we both feel that the worst thing we can do is hide away, I am just very glad I don't live alone. Interestingly, someone messaged me prior to exchange of contracts, who lives just outside of the area, she was saying that we 'shouldn't step on people's toes, that we need to be careful not to try to change things', wondering in retrospect if this was some sort of warning. I thought at the time I had met the local busybody, but not sure if this was some veiled warning.
Anyone else been in this position? How did you resolve it?