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Rural living

Looking to relocate to the countryside? Find advice in our Rural Living forum.

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Original poster

Life in the country - the reality

157 replies

tinstar · 09/04/2019 11:19

DH is keen for us to retire to the country having spent all our married life on the outskirts of a big city.

I don't like where we live now - too crowded, noisy, dirty and crime is on the rise.

But I'm scared that I will feel lonely and isolated in the country. We've looked on line at some beautiful properties in the south-west. Great in summer but in the winter .....

I wondered if anyone has made a similar move and if it worked for them?

Apart from finding it difficult to make friends another concern (please don't laugh) is that if we get a house with a thatched roof or outbuildings, we'll have to cope with mice or even rats.

Any advice?

OP posts:

GrassIsntGreener · 11/04/2019 08:38

@Aquiline your village sounds like mine!

Fazackerley · 11/04/2019 09:08

A village doesn't have a school with 1000 pupils

Fazackerley · 11/04/2019 09:12

We have no public transport apart from the local secondary school bus that picks up and drops off here. No way of happily walking into the nearest small town 4 miles away - we did used to have a bridlepath that you could ride and walk on, but they built a busy road across it.

The worst thing is the ever encroaching horrible housing estates ugly, badly planned, badly built, no infrastructure, lit up like a Christmas tree all night. Horrible.

Belboeuf · 11/04/2019 09:22

A village doesn't have a school with 1000 pupils

I agree -- some of what people are talking about here are clearly towns, rather than villages. I live on the edge of a big village with a population of 1200 in the last census, which has a church, primary school (c 150 children), shop, PO, garage, two pubs and a hairdresser. That's unusually big and well-serviced for around here, where the norm is much smaller settlements, with a shop or a pub, if either, as the only businesses, and a church which might only have one monthly service served by a vicar based elsewhere.

Penguinpandarabbit · 11/04/2019 09:26

Under 10,000 population is a village and has village in its name. As do the other villages with similar sized schools. Might not be your MN village but are villages.

Fazackerley · 11/04/2019 09:28

We have about 390 people, a small excellent primary (100 pupils), a good pub and a post office on Tuesdays Andy in the village will fix your car.

Fazackerley · 11/04/2019 09:29

And a church

They might be villages in name but I laugh at anyone calling a town with 10000 people and a big secondary school a village.

CMOTDibbler · 11/04/2019 09:29

There is a village fairly close to me which has a population of approx 1500, and a high school with over 1000 pupils. They cover a very large area of villages apart from one very small town.

Penguinpandarabbit · 11/04/2019 09:33

Its 4000 and a village. Laugh all you want. nice.

Belboeuf · 11/04/2019 09:34

They might be villages in name but I laugh at anyone calling a town with 10000 people and a big secondary school a village.

This.

GCAcademic · 11/04/2019 09:35

*Like a previous poster said, watch 'This Country' on iplayer if you want to get an idea of what village life can be like.”

I describe the village where I live as a mash-up of This Country and Midsomer Murders without the murders.

hippermiddleton · 11/04/2019 09:39

It's not a village if the lady in the shop doesn't know when your car's due its MOT and the real reason Jim can never ever go back to The Bunch of Carrots.

Snog · 11/04/2019 09:40

Some places have no mains gas and no mains sewerage.

Country living means MUD which seems to get everywhere constantly and you need a totally different wardrobe because life is so dirty. If you don't have any animals I guess it's not so bad though.

reefedsail · 11/04/2019 09:44

As of January 2018 there were only 19 primary schools in the country with more than 1000 pupils. They are not exactly common!

CharBart · 11/04/2019 09:48

North Somerset is probably not a bad option as there are plenty of larger villages within short drive of towns and a mainline rail. We have relatives in the area and there are quite a few ‘incomers” who work in Bristol and commute. Things to watch out for are proximity to the airport as there can be plane noise and development plans as a lot of fields are earmarked for new housing.

Penguinpandarabbit · 11/04/2019 09:52

Its secondary schools not primary but yes even in London we didn't have primaries that big. Ours takes from villages up to 45 minutes bus ride. Primaries are spread out, secondaries aren't. I couldn't find a secondary under that anywhere within 1.5 hours of here. I looked for DS who is ASD.

Disfordarkchocolate · 11/04/2019 10:06

Fazackerley my village school was that big, lots of pupils bused in from the surrounding villages.

moosesormeece · 11/04/2019 11:54

It's definitely not a village if it has the word village in its name, or a secondary school, or more than about 3 shops. There has been some estate agent/property developer naming creep going on here.

(I keep having this argument with DH who thinks we live in a village. We have a market cross, a choice of places to buy a cup of coffee, an hourly bus service and you can buy a non-stale loaf of bread at 10pm! That's a town!)

Fazackerley · 11/04/2019 12:00

A bustling town I'd say! I'd love a market cross

moosesormeece · 11/04/2019 12:03

To be fair there's not been an actual market at the market cross for decades (though there is an occasional farmers market elsewhere). But it's the historical precedent that counts!

Belboeuf · 11/04/2019 12:06

You are right, mooses. Now I want a market cross, too. And a decent cup of coffee. I think the nearest flat white is a god fifteen miles as the crow flies.

Penguinpandarabbit · 11/04/2019 12:25

It's been classified as a village since 1086. EAs can be blamed for many things but not this. No market crosses though coffee can be obtained on Tues, Thurs and Saturdays between 9am and 2pm. I am siding with your DH on this and Wikipedia is supporting me.

Fazackerley · 11/04/2019 12:29

Its 4000 and a village. Laugh all you want. nice

no, the laugh was for 10000 and over. Your town gets a momentary quizzical frown

Penguinpandarabbit · 11/04/2019 12:59

Well the case for it being a village is that our next door neighbour does come round once a week with tomatoes he's grown in a basket my grandmother would be proud of -so he can spy on us- and there's wheelbarrow races in its case plus a village green. Fresh bread is possible but only at certain days and times. We have had three street party invites in last couple of months -to find out any gossip on us-

However, the shop owner is sometimes dressed as a women, sometimes as a man when he goes, this maybe more of a town thing. Plus it has a zoo almost as big as the village though not sure what category that puts it in.

It basically has an old village with lots of thatched cottages like ours at the centre and newer housing has been added on.

hippermiddleton · 11/04/2019 13:04

Ooh, someone start a parallel thread in Chat about What Constitutes a Village: Basic Population or Cross-Dressing Shop Owners?

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