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😁

Have a look at Hatherleigh, it's about a 10/15 min drive from Okehampton so doesn't get poured on as much. It's a truly magical town. Good luck

Honestly, I don't recognise this account at all. You seem to be pigeon holing the whole of Devon based on your bad experience. I guess as a social worker, your friend is involved with families who have pretty significant problems. That seems more likely to be a factor than being 'outsiders'.

My DC are not white and they haven't experienced any bullying. They have had the very occasional racist remark made to them but this has not been exclusive to Devon at all. Racism certainly exists but it is everywhere, not just in Devon!

I've lived in south Devon for 32 years and was from the Home Counties. No posh accent (sink comprehensive). But because I don't sound as though I am from the southwest (because I'm not!) I still get the odd person saying, "Ooh, you sound posh!"

I didn't have a 'posh' accent by the standards of much of the UK! My mother was from Yorkshire and I still have the northern 'a'!

But anything will do as an excuse for bullies.

No, fairly normal families except they are 'newcomers' and trying to cope with the consequences.

As my friend said 'when it is a big deal if you come from 20 miles away, how do you think the children will be treated if your family originated a thousand miles away?'

And you have said yourself that your children have had the 'occasional ' racist remark.

Possibly more than they want to admit to you, because it would upset you?

The one occasion DD (here in London) was racially abused on the bus on her way to school the school, the police liaison officer, and myself were up in arms.

She has never had racist comments at school, that would have resulted in immediate suspension.

Not at all. I literally mean occasional, one remark every 2 or 3 years per child. It doesn't upset me and they are, fortunately, equipped to deal with it and don't dwell on it at all. It isn't a Devon thing at all. Clearly in London, there is much more of a mix of races but that doesn't mean that racism doesn't exist. It does, everywhere. If children want to bully, they don't need the excuse of 'race' or 'newcomers'.
Social workers aren't employed to help new families settle in so I'm sceptical of your account of your friend and her role. My children have attended 6 schools in Devon and have not experienced this. I know families at several other schools and have not heard of this happening there either.

My friend was involved because the child experiencing racism had developed mental health problems because of racist bullying.

Nothing to do with helping a new family settle in. Interesting that this was the conclusion you jumped to.

I think racism is more of an issue than people sometimes recognise or want to admit.

We moved from a very multicultural area and school to one which is 99.9% white. The staff are not confident or equipped to understand and tackle racist issues. It gets swept under the carpet by SLT and there is definitely no CPD on the subject.

Of course most people and children are open and accepting. But it is sometimes there and there is no sense that it's something the school needs to get ahead of. It's all treated as isolated incidents.

@Baital but racism, unfortunately, happens everywhere. In the report below, the Trust with the highest number of reports doesn't have any schools in Devon.

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/28/uk-schools-record-more-than-60000-racist-incidents-five-years

There is a lot of hidden poverty in some of the rural towns.

Also worth thinking about school options. My three went to four state secondaries plus the local college between them at secondary level and they all did well - but the schools were very different and had we been very rural there would not have been the option for them to attend different types of schools.

My bit of Devon is pretty multicultural now - it’s changed a lot since living here as a kid and again since Brexit. It’s catching up. The team I manage at work is more then 50% global majority. If there is a racism problem (& I’m sure there will be racism as the whole country currently seems a cess pit in that regard - see numbers voting Reform for eg), then the school leadership teams are going to have to wise up pretty quickly.

Yep. 'Isolated incidents' rather than acknowledge the problem.

Depends how the data is recorded. Schools do not always recognise when racism is an issue. It's bullying or verbal abuse instead.

Saying "the data is X" - well not all schools are obliged to report these incidents either.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

I obviously 'jumped to that conclusion' because of the way you have worded every one of your posts. You have suggested repeatedly that this is a widespread problem and particular to Devon, insinuated that your friend, a social worker, is involved in multiple cases of newcomers being bullied. Now it turns out that it was one child. What a surprise!
You jumped to the conclusion that my children must have had more than occasional racist abuse and that I was underplaying it because I find it upsetting. You are wrong.
I'm not disputing your experience of horrible bullying but kindly accept that not everyone has your experience, either in Devon or elsewhere.

@CanOfMangoTango I’m not saying there isn’t any racism in Devon schools, but that poster seemed to be saying don’t move to Devon as you will encounter racism as if it is only in Devon.

Without outing myself, I live a few miles from Honiton in a 3 bed detached house with 2.5 acres and was valued at over £700k 2 years ago so way out of OPs budget.

Doubt you'd get what you want within public transport distance to Exeter. In the centre, big detached and semi-fdetached houses are topping £1 million. The influx of Londoners during lockdown caused prices to rise. There are new builds in te new towns like Cranbrook (very weird place), but for your money, you'll need to go a lot further out, particularly if you want acreage. It's going to take a fair bit of searching for your budget.

Maybe look closer to Plymouth. But then, it's Plymouth ...

I moved to Dorset last year with a 13 year old and 10 year old. Both schools have been fantastic and they settled in really quickly. Both have a large friendship group already and are much happier. We moved from Sussex and have no regrets...

Goodness, I seem to have touched a nerve!

My experience of growing up in rural Devon is one of bullying outsiders.

My friend's experience as a social worker is the same, including one family whose child went to the same secondary school that I did. They had other cases.

Racist abuse was treated as 'occasional' incidents, rather than a systemic problem, and down played.

I am glad if your family have been happy there, despite 'occasional' racism. I wouldn't put my children through it.

Wow that's a good value! We're looking for any property on land, so it could be a 1-2 bed house or bungalow that needs work.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/159711626
I don't think the budget is impossible, @Danniwoo2 especially if your DH is a builder so not fazed by renovations.
I think Devon has changed quite a lot over recent years in terms of being more open and welcoming- thereshiftngbig shift during and after Covid that included lots of people relocating with families, self employed or working remotely, not just retiring to the country. Our small village is delighted when families with kids move in- helps keep rural communities vibrant and viable. They are also really pleased when houses are bought by people intending to live here, rather than holiday rentals.
The trick is to get onto the local net- there's always a way in. Having had two years here now, I can easily have five conversations with neighbours during a 10 minute dog walk- I'm not even a good joiner-in. I have to allow extra time if with DH.

No nerves touched @Baital. I'm just challenging what you have said, as some of it is borderline gas lighting and I guess you don't like that. It's a shame you can't respect the fact that other people don't have the same experience or opinions.

The reason I commented initially is because you are giving a false impression to @Danniwoo2 and anyone else reading the thread who might be considering moving to Devon.
My experience of multiple children and multiple schools is that the incidents are occasional. I don't dispute, as a member of a very multi cultural family, that racism is endemic. What I dispute is your suggestion that this is particular to Devon.

My own experience has been the one that @Reswallie80 has described above.

Okehampton is known as Soakhampton locally as its the highest part of the Moor and is exceptionally wet. We lived there for 2.5 years and couldn't integrate. Spent some years in Exeter and now in the South Hams, spend a lot of time In chagford, all great places to live but very pricey. Given that your other half is a builder you might be able to consider more properties than most and a lot have been stuck on the market for a while...

Buckfastleigh and up the a38 corridor might be worth a look.