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Original poster

moving lock stock and barrel to somerset or suffolk? which to choose?

113 replies

overthemill · 03/02/2010 20:03

For various reasons we had to move 2 years ago, changing counties, new house, new schools everything. It was really tough and we have just about got settled. But the truth is that although the place we live in is really nice, we know it isn't our forever place. We'd like to live in big village, very small town with a really community - so preferably gp surgery, shop or 2, pub and schools (though does not have to be a secondary school).

I love somerset and am from the south west and my feelings are to go there. But at the weekend we went for a night away to suffolk and really really loved where we were. we had booked randomly but ended up in a perfect village. it had everything we wanted and it has fired us up again. it completely felt like 'home' and had a great mixture of stuff going on, we felt we'd fit in really well.
there is no right time to move, we have 3 kids and it would be very complcated to move at all but i am keen to get there before our youngest gets to yr 9 (she is in yr 6 now). By then one would be at uni and one just about to start a levels.
so,decision is complex on lots of levels but which is 'best' - i know its entirely subjective but would love the collective MN wisdom to help me think about it.
thanks!

OP posts:
Radished · 04/02/2010 10:10

Suffolk definitely.
I live in a small town/ large village with shops, schools, lovely countryside, it's very friendly and great place to bring up children.

thedollyridesout · 04/02/2010 10:21

Clare is very nice but I wouldn't want Haverhill to be the place I went to to shop.

Lavenham or Cockfield/Bury and Long Melford/Sudbury are better combinations.

There are fantastic RC schools in Bury if you are of that persuation.

Monks Eleigh and Kersey are two very pretty villages that are within half an hour of Ipswich and Colchester so you could access the secondary schools there. Excellent state grammars in the latter and excellent independent schools in the former.

Also, I think it might be in Essex but Stoke by Nayland is lovely.

Original poster
overthemill · 04/02/2010 11:00

grenelsmum, that is exactly why clare seemed perfect for us, small but perfectly formed. In terms of shopping as we're quite remote anyway we do most online with occasional hit at milton keynes which i hate. Tend to go to market towns for stuff like browsing/coffees.

We are 'lucky' in that i usually work freelance tho currently not getting any work as public sector is totally cutting back. Doing p/t pgce at moment. Dh works in niche bit of social services and would either carry on with hiscurrent long commute(with possible 2 night stay in crap premier inn so he can do 3 long days) and work from home 1 day a week. He might be able to get new job but not certain.
Schools, no matter where we have lived secondary schoolsare always crap/difficult to get into. So we are used to that dilemna. We tend to think now that it is combination of parental interest and hard work! Also happy parents equals happy kids. And as we have never loved where we've lived before we wondered whether now it is 'our' time. But if our dd settles herself in the next year we would stay put. Heyho

OP posts:
Floopy21 · 04/02/2010 11:11

Somerset. We've enough blardy foreigners 'ere in Suffolk already

ILikeToMoveItMoveIt · 04/02/2010 11:39

Clare is lovely. There is a tea room there that we visit A LOT, but for the life of me I can't remember what it's called It's a beautiful market town that pretty much has everything you would want from a small town.

OrmRenewed · 04/02/2010 11:43

Well I'm in Somerset so that's a bonus

OrmRenewed · 04/02/2010 11:49

Somewhere like Axbridge or Cheddar might be good. Not far from Wells or the M5. West Somerset is lovely but quite remote.

Original poster
overthemill · 04/02/2010 11:52

iliketo.. Is the tea room near the castle? We saw that but couldnt go in cos we had the dog! It really did feel great with lots to do if you wanted to.

Ornrenewed Where in somerset????

OP posts:
Original poster
overthemill · 04/02/2010 11:55

i always liked axbridge and had nice hols in ilminster

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OrmRenewed · 04/02/2010 11:55

Bridgwater !

BethNoireNewNameForPeachy · 04/02/2010 12:27

Cheddar and Axbridge indeed nice, yes. Not sure about the Comp in Cheddar though- used to have a rep but I am talking maybe twenty years ago since I knew anyone who went there.

Glastonbury only gets really crowded on weekend saturdays and duirng certain events, and there arelots of lovely villages very close. it's not stunning for shopping though- little tehre for Real People and its about 30minutes to bridgwater (better than it as) or Taunton. Both my sisters tend to head towards cribbs for anything more than a weekly shop tbh.

Thre are quite a few nice villages hanging aoru8nd on peripheries with goodschools- Enmore is nice, for example,and Ashcott.

Rollmops · 04/02/2010 12:37

BethNoire, if you don't mind, why are Yeovil and Wellington no-no?

OrmRenewed · 04/02/2010 12:42

Comp in Cheddar OK I beleive peachy.

BethNoireNewNameForPeachy · 04/02/2010 12:47

Just IME rollmops- Yeovilhas a few areas that arerough enough to have coloured our views of the place professionally for me and Dh just through growing up close by, and my experiences of wellington have involved experiences with heavy drinkers- including my Uncle but also others. PLus,it's just not a place that speaks to me IYKWIM? I go there annually for the carnival and whilst it is fine for that I wouldn't choose to live there.

My guess is that like any palce if you go there,find anice street and make good mates you'lllike it. But for me there are very definitely places I would much rather live close by.

OrmRenewed · 04/02/2010 12:50

You see i don't think Somerset does towns well. Mostly they are dead-end places with a lot of problems. I don't know if that's to do with Somerset being a mainly agrarian place where towns were a place for markets and nowt else. But go a few miles outside the towns and there is lovely countryside and villages. I'd live near Wellington (did once) and it is very pretty but the town itself was depressing for the most part.

BethNoireNewNameForPeachy · 04/02/2010 12:58

Yup,sounds about right.

Likewise ahd no worriswith living close to bridgy when we were in PAwlett, but when wemoved back in and not even toadecent housing estate (we werefine on Wills Road when we first got together) but to the A38.... erno.

The towns grew up around industries that have in the main gone and created ghettoes. Dh cites Shepton as a prime example of that: i've only ever been there forcarnival so can't give a personal view but seems likely.

Whereas,alot of the villages etc have close netwroks and a lot of peoplec ommuitng to ither Exeter or Bristol. I find thats all ittakes to remove that sense of hopelessness that alot of the inner town areas have. I know Orm likes bridgy and thats great (maybe its a born-there thing, I was and IIRC she wasnt) but I always felt the place has a sense of 'hang up your hopes all ye who enter here'

Which puts me in mind of where my ex lived and I always liked- Kingston St Mary. Nice place,minutes from Taunton and the M5, no bizarre semi rural psudo-ghettoes.

OrmRenewed · 04/02/2010 13:04

No I'm not a native Bridgie-girl. I think that does help. Most of my friends are incomers and they see the town for what it is - warts and all - and like it. It definitely has grit and character but I can see it might be overwhelming if it's all you've ever known iyswim. So many natives live their entire lives within a few square miles and don't seem to think outside that.

I would like to move out to Cannington or somewhere in that direction some time. But atm my DC are appreciating being able to get about independently.

OrmRenewed · 04/02/2010 13:06

I was brought up in West Monkton. I seem to remember liking it but it was very quiet.

BethNoireNewNameForPeachy · 04/02/2010 13:07

My Unclives out that way andmost people I know like it-spent a goodamount of time in Stockland as my BM lived there growing up,now allmy friends livei n Puriton for some reason LOL,on the same street.

I couldsee us ending up in Glasto at some point,dh likes it there snd I did the perfect degree LOL,though he joined Phoenix CC last month so that's Devon way.

BethNoireNewNameForPeachy · 04/02/2010 13:08

Orm by BIL comes from Combe just out there- used to know themOnkton pub well LOL!

Original poster
overthemill · 04/02/2010 13:09

where yiu are brought up def makes a difference. Even tho i like a nice market town i would never live in the small cathedral city i was brought up in despite great schools, theatre and general cuteness. A sens of gloom always falls over me and its not just my dad!

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BethNoireNewNameForPeachy · 04/02/2010 13:14

'. A sens of gloom always falls over me and its not just my dad!'

I suspect wrt to Chard it's my MIL LOL,although DH'sfeeling was always that the aplce was only designed forthe over 65's and anyone else is only welsome if they treat it as a waiting room for their pension.

Both my sisters live in Bridgy, onenear Ormand one elsewhere and are happy,maybe I got to know it too well working for something akin to surestart /SSD there- I certainly emergedfeeling that my kids deserved more of a culture of aspiration IYKWIM. I do think it says something that there isn't a proper Uni in the COunty. Not that most ofmine are likely to end up anywhere near one themselves but....

Orangesarenottheonlyfruit · 04/02/2010 13:17

I grew up between Wells and Bristol and adore it. We are actually living back in Bristol at the moment but I am desperate to get back to the Mendips. It is so beautiful and with a lovely sense of community.

I may be biased though as I don't know Suffolk at all!

OrmRenewed · 04/02/2010 13:18

Weston give me my 'feeling of gloom' and Clevedon. We moved near to Weston when I was 10 and I went to school in Clevedon.

OrmRenewed · 04/02/2010 13:18

Oranges - my parents live in Winscombe. Is nice there but quite expensive to buy atm.