London to Devon

[Danniwoo2]

I need some advice please!
We are currently living in Bromley, London and looking to relocate to Devon (we think!)

We have around £550k to play with, and hoping to get something detached with land (1-3 acres). Near a nice country town/village and good schools close by. Preferably on the outskirts of a larger town so our children will have somewhere to go when they're older.

We've looked at Exeter & Okehampton.
I would like somewhere very pretty but also not too remote or too quiet.

Any advice or recommendations would be great.
We are looking to sell and be mortgage free so our budget is £550/£560 max.

Could you please answer my pole too? I love a bit of research!

Reason to wanting to move- want to be mortgage free, want land, want less crime and want a new start!
We are self employed with jobs that work in any area.

Thank you😁

There's also beavers! 🦫

I also love St Ives and Padstow and would recommend Dartmouth over Totnes. Lovely town, nice shops and places to eat, always something to look at on the river, and loads of places nearby to visit. You can get a boat up the river to Totnes.

I like Chagford, which is a delightful and busy small village, but I don't think a house with land is within your budget; however, you would be surrounded by Dartmoor for walking. So it would depend what you want to do with the land. Tavistock is lovely. Ashburton too. South Hams is expensive, eye wateringly so on the coast but Modbury is pretty. I don't know the eastern part of the country very well.

Chagford can be very expensive especially if you want land
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87084015#/?channel=RES_BUY

^ I struggled, but found you this. on the Barnstaple - Exeter train line, and hourly service - one hour from Exeter.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/159439151#/?channel=RES_BUY

...and wild boar....pine martens...
and A LOT of deer!

I met a pine marten on a run once along the coast path.

We were both a bit startled and stared at each other for a bit and then they dashed off!

Was that Fat Boy Slim?

Oh...no....he was a House Martin

Sounds like cold play to me

Ugly house, but beautiful views. You can change the house to be what you want, but you won't be allowed to ruin the landscape. That seems a sensible balance for me.

However, you have a budget, and that house is not a possibility. My hairdresser lives in Chagford, and I am fairly certain that there are ordinary houses too.

I live in Totnes part of the time and love it, and know Ashburton. I grew up on Dartmoor but lived in London in the meantime. It depends what you want to compromise on - size of land or proximity to things. I would do a circle around Totnes, Exeter, Plymouth and see what you can get.

Okehampton doesn’t have much going for it for teens - I love it though, as it’s great for walking / running and outdoor life. You can get to Bude in 35 minutes on a good day, and Exeter on the train or quick drive down the A30.

Tavistock is better - more expensive but still things within your budget, and it’s a quick-ish bus ride to Plymouth.

I wouldn’t move to Cornwall personally - too far from civilisation, very crowded in the summer and inland is very depressing. It’s a really poor county with a lot of sad, grey villages.

good luck, I don’t think you’d regret Devon at all.

Really appreciate all your comments. You have given me some great advice. Looking at visiting in the near future!

Be aware that in Devon you get months of non stop rain in the winter. It's very depressing with things going mouldy because of the damp.
We have a campervan and every winter the seats and beds had mould growing on them.
We relocated to Lincolnshire and had no mould issues.
I also don't think you'd get much land for your budget.
Have you considered Lincolnshire. The wolds are beautiful.

Have a look at Moorhaven for something different, you won’t get your own land but you get a lot of space.

it is wet in Devon, that’s true.

That really puts me off! Constant rain gets me down. It is really that bad 😱

We were looking at Herefordshire too, we weren't so convinced when researching Lincolnshire.

My parents did this.

Pretty much anywhere in Devon your children will be treated as an uppity outsider, with a posh accent. Expect them to be bullied at school, and blamed for the bullying by the staff because they don't fit in.

It's what we tell people to stop them coming down and spoiling our lovely quiet roads.

Actually it's part myth and part truth. Why would Devon be so green? OTH, we have had only one day of rain in the last 8 days.

Mould? Get yourself a dehumidifier.

We aren't posh, my other half is a builder.
We have neighbours from all over the world where we are now, I'd think as English people moving within England would be easy- obviously not!!🫣

Good luck getting 1-3 acres of land and a house with your budget near a nice village. Prices around here are through the roof at the moment for anywhere nice.

Lots of really helpful posts on this thread already. You may well struggle to get lots of land in a nice place on that budget. Perhaps 1/2-1 acre may be more realistic. Lots of beautiful towns/ villages. However, it definitely rains a lot which is a bit downside for many.
What @Baital says about bullying is absolute nonsense. I've seen masses of children move from other areas and none have had this problem.
Wiltshire and Somerset would also be worth considering.

Given what a friend - a social worker still working in Devon - has to say, I think you underestimate the problem.

Don’t recognise this at all. Maybe if the in comers don’t integrate with the community; but if you make the effort, you’ll be fine.
Devon is a huge county - some areas will be more urban & multicultural; others won’t.

And as for rain - yes, it does rain a lot but that’s why it’s so green. But according to the Met zoofile the wettest places in the UK are the mountainous areas (Lake District, Snowdonia & Scottish Highlands).

We did integrate, as much as we could. I was in pre school when we moved there, so i am not sure what i did to 'not integrate'

I got spat on at school, from pupils on the upper story of the stairs. And had chewing gum.spat into my hair from a boy behind me. All my fault, apparently, for 'not fitting in'. I liked to read books. I didn't have the right accent.

As I said, I have a friend who is a social worker there. The school I went to still doesn't want to recognise that racism exists, for the 2% of the pupils who aren't white.