Relocating to Cornwall!

[Coastaldreamer88]

Hi All,

I'm after some advice and or experience from others who have moved to Cornwall or born and bred Cornwallers Cornish! (My bad! 😬🫣!

Me & DH have been together for 15 years and nearly 13 years ago we very nearly made the jump to move to Cornwall. We absolutely adored everything about Cornwall. But 22 year old me, allowed my parents selfish views to make me question our dream to move and we never did!😟
We also always knew we wanted children and basically i was guilted into not leaving. And because of this, I convinced myself that staying would be essential for any prospective children to have a relationship with my family and be near by!

Fast forward to now, we have 3 boys under 7 and over the last year to 18 months, I've slowly come to the realisation that actually the reason we stayed (family support) is flakey at best and I we feel very let down at their lack of interest in us or our children.
My lovely sister is the only consistent "support" we have and if I'm honest she's the only reason I feel tethered to where we live now.
During this period of realisation, the urge to escape and follow our dream has got more evident and I've finally come to terms with the fact that it is something we really do want and would benefit us and it's time to put our "wants" over everyone else's, before it's too late and our DS's get older and don't want to move!
As my sister is emotionally our only anchor to where we live now, we've spoken to her about our potential plan to move and she is very much thrilled at the prospect of our exciting new future and the idea of free holidays for her & her children 😅!

So, I'm essentially here asking for advice on locations and considerations that we may not have thought of!

We want to move somewhere coastal-ish.... no more than 15-20 min drive away, that has a community we can hopefully integrate into and be a part of, as we don't know anyone there! We like the N/W coast (roughly Redruth up to Bude).
However, super touristy, busy places in the summer aren't really our thing, we tend to actively seek secret gems when we visit, but easy enough access to them if we wanted to go to places like this would be nice. We'd much prefer to find the quiet places away from the summer busyness where we can explore with the kids and dog (we love the ourdoors).
Due to having young kids, we do want some amenities near by and good schools, but we're not interested in big city vibes.

My husband is a remote worker with the view that he only has to go the office on occasions and I'm a wedding florist, so we need to be somewhere that I can access wedding venues and locations for weddings up to an hours drive away give or take!

(Wow! That's a right shopping list! 😅)

Any thoughts, advice or considerations for us to consider would be muchly appreciated!
X

It's Cornish not Cornwallers. Those from up country are Emmets.

Sorry about that!!! Duly noted and altered! 😬

😀

Obvious question, but whereabouts are you now and what's your budget? Buying or renting?

@Dearover We're currently based in Staffordshire.
We'd be looking to sell up here and buy again ideally. We think a budget of £350k would be achievable for us and allow us to get a suitable property, although through our property research (constant rightmove scrolling!😅) We'd need be looking at locations slightly inland and would need to drive to the coast which we're willing to accept as a compromise.
It's just where!!! We know all the big touristy locations, but not where is a feasible place to actually live and bring up our young family!

Amazing sounds like you have your heart set on it. I have a friend who did this they were originally from Cornwall and moved back. They love the lifestyle the outdoors beach days, camping and it really is so lovely.

Their downsides, any oversees travel taking 6+ hours to ferry terminals and 4+ for local airports, the lack of jobs if one of them was to be made redundant they would really struggle and my friend is remote and tourists.

the rest they love.

Cornwall is awesome for kids to grow up in you are right to do it,friends and I were just today saying how lucky our kids are to be here.I would say it's pretty much busy though,it's no longer peaceful,just busy everywhere I think.

How many bedrooms? £350k is not going to very far in most of the county.

You might also need to factor in running 2 cars as public transport is dire eg park & ride in Truro stops dead at 7pm.

@Dearover
We've seen a dozen or so properties with 4 bedrooms and garden that we think would work well for us. We're also confident DIYers with a couple house renovations under our belt, so a bit of project, as long as it's in a liveable condition isn't a worry to us!
Luckily we already run two cars, due to having kiddies and me often being up and out early for work! This is definitely something we'd continue with if we moved there, as it would make things tricky for us with only 1 car! ☺️

PMd you.

We have 2 separate family members who made the move and love it. Be prepared for your kids to move a looong way away for uni/work, but in both cases our families' kids have moved back as adults.

Porthleven, Helston and Falmouth are all good places to live with teens, with a bit more going on, and not the horror traffic of St Ives.

Places least likely to suit your dream:
St Austell & anywhere in clay country
Bodmin, although Wadebridge might fit the bill
Redruth, Camborne & anywhere else nearby

Feasible:
Mullion, although on the Lizard
Anywhere between Helston & Penzance, again south coast

Be very careful. Most of Cornwall can be divided neatly into two categories. Very expensive and lovely, but touristy with loads of second homes that are empty for half the year and the rest are holiday lets. Almost everywhere else, which is poorly connected and miles from anything useful, very disavadantaged, lacking in decent amenities, with huge drugs and antisocial behaviour problems with very few job opportunities. Somewhere your children will hate living as teenagers and cannot wait to leave the second they are old enough. Bude falls into the first category. Redruth definitely the second. Your challenge is to find somewhere in between, that's affordable and a real community, not just full of holiday lets, but not terminally depressed and utterly depressing.

I salute you! My DiLs DPs are in St Ives
I have had many significant times in the Wonderful county
Honeymooned in Mevagissey and returned many times
i I could go on…!

Also don't underestimate how long it takes to get anywhere. Most trips average 30-40 mph, especially in the summer

Looe is affordable. it's very friendly and welcoming to incomers - lively with a music festival and some lovely local celebrations out of tourist season. But it is heaving in summer. That said, only the bit down by the river and beach gets really busy. If you bought higher up, you'd be fine.

We have just been in Cornwall plus a little time in Devon for close to 3.5 weeks motor homing staying with friends, relatives and also on campsites. Our friends live near Falmouth and paid just over 800k for their 4 bed house 2 years ago it’s gorgeous where they live, the house down the road sold for well over a million recently apparently, he is originally from Cornwall.

It is a lovely place BUT I suggest you try staying there in the winter. I grew up in a place very like Cornwall. It’s dire in the winter and depending on where you decide to stay some places will be insular.

I was in Bude a week ago, the bus was 40 minutes late and a local told me it was always like this. Plus the only major hospital is in Truro, be aware of that.

Plus what @Notquitegrownup2 said about kids moving away. Anyone that wanted to get on left where I grew up. You had to, I suppose WFH has changed it a bit but you need to get there in the first place. The Ne’er do wells as my Mother called them stayed, it is still a very pretty place and a big holiday destination but has horrendous social problems especially drugs. If I walk in to local pubs back home they are still there propping up the bar. Also don’t fall out with anyone because everyone will know if you go to a small place.

DH and I, adult DD and GDG all moved away from Cornwall.
Remote, parochial, small minded, mean spirited, no ambition, no responsibility....
And some of us have Cornish heritage.

Teenagers hate it as public transport is so poor ( 4 buses a week where we lived) and have to learn to drive immediately they turn 17. Older people are stuffed if they can't drive, especially with health services limited and distant.

The scenery is beautiful in parts though!

We moved from near Birmingham to North Devon 15 years ago. We thought about Cornwall but discounted it as being too far from family etc.

I live in a town. It has a lot of stuff going on and a nice community feel. Lots of incommers and have been made to feel very welcome.

we are about 2 or 3 miles away from the nearest beach. It’s walking distance if you don’t mind exercise or about 5-10 minutes by car.

we chose to live in a town to give the kids independence. We could walk to primary. As they got older they could easily meet friends. They could get themselves to secondary school. I didn’t have to revolve my life around being a taxi for them because there are buses even though they aren’t as regular as in a city.

I know you are saying Cornwall but don’t discount Devon. We have found it absolutely amazing and have all settled really well.

My lovely 4 bed house is for sale in a village near Penzance - if you buy it then I can move 🤣

@Peaceatlast40s hilarious!!! I'll get on rightmove right away! 🤣

Can I ask whereabouts in North Avenue move to please? We were looking at donniford

I'm from Cornwall, but moved away for work and moved back a few years ago.

I love it, but there's no escaping the isolation at times - I get very lonely, but that is partly due to circumstance. My husband has a tonne of hobbies & just loves it.

I would definitely recommend Helston, the Lizard peninsula is brilliant - Falmouth is great, but I think may be out of budget.

I love the villages between Penzance & Helston - and there are reasonably good links to the A30.

Ooh what a lovely thread ! even tho I have no advice, no advice at all ! I have just put this thread on watch as I love Cornwall and have visited many of the places suggested - after all I am only ' up the road ' :)

My mum is cornish and we have had fantastic times around Charlestown where she grew up. Might be a bit isolating for teenagers though. Its windy and damp in the winter with crap public transport, empty holiday homes in the nice places and rough round the edges in the normal places. Last trip to london took 6 hours in the summer and the health services are super far away. Unless you move to Truro obviously! Mum hasnt lived there since she left at 16.