Anybody live in or around Swineshead/Boston?!

[MummySharkDoodoododoo]

Hi, we are considering purchasing a house in Swineshead, Boston. But worried that Boston has a bad rep. The house we are looking at his rural without neighbours so we are hoping it would be ok. But as we dont know the area, we dont want to end up living somewhere really rough!
We are coming from London, so will have much more space and land than we are used to.
I have googled but most answers are talking about Boston town, but we are looking at a property outside of the village of Swineshead.

I'd be so grateful if anybody has any information!

I also grew up in a village between Spalding and Boston and mostly loved it, but was very glad to leave. Swineshead is a nice village but it would be a huge adjustment for your DC. Knowing the area I would recommend you see if there is anything suitable closer to Lincoln.

What's bad about being flat? 🤔🤷‍♀️ genuine question. We have only ever visited this month so not summer but not dark either.

I find the flatness of the fens both arresting and depressing. It’s difficult to explain. There’s a huge expanse of sky and arable land stretching as far as the eye can see into…well nothing. And that can feel eerie and unsettling. I used to walk alone along the dykes as a teenager (told you there was nothing to do) and I often felt watched.

The buses in Lincs are very unreliable. If there's not a dedicated school bus, expect to be taking your kids there and back.

I know what others mean about the flatness. It's actually not nice for walks, it's not natural to walk on the level constantly.

We are moving from outer london. Round here we have more concerns like getting stabbed/raped/mugged if you go out alone. So I think we can cope without hills if its safer?

We will have land so plan to have outbuildings for the teens to be able to have friends round all the time to give them something to do. And trampoline/bouncy castle/playground etc for the younger ones. There seems to be within driving distance most things we do round here? Trampoline park/swimming pool etc so cant think what we would miss? We would be still coming back to London regularly too and already tend to Spend most of the summer hols on holiday.

If crime and mugging are a priority they you are absolutely making the right choice. Your children in particular will be far far safer there.

Our priorities are a safe place, with land, peace and quiet.

Looking again at the map it's close to Hubberts bridge station rather than Swineshead village. But we know we will need to drive everywhere regardless.

I live fairly nr and in fact we have children come to our village school from there .

I don't know much your budget is - but there are some good properties in Heckington , Sleaford, Burton Pedwardine with land and these areas are better in my opinion .

@HeddaGarbled

I drove past Swineshead last weekend and I thought the countryside around was the ugliest and most depressing I’ve seen in a while: root vegetable fields, the A17 and truck stops. If you bring up teenagers there, they will never forgive you.

We went on holiday there this summer. Had never been to that part of the country, it was so desolate! I missed trees and hills so much. DH said it was the county with the highest teen suicide rate. Not surprising! Boston was pretty grim, though did have a few nice restaurants (Mexican and Polish). We went bowling, I'm pretty sure the bowling place was a money laundering cover for a drugs business...

For what you're looking for - space, no neighbours, isolation - then the fens are ideal. But make sure you plan for 5 years when your children want to socialise and 10 years when they will need to leave to find work. Will you still want to stay there?

Maybe closer Sleaford, Bourne or Billingborough (disclaimer - it's a looong time since I visited any of these places!) might offer the same space without the vast nothingness...

How can fields be depressing?

@HeddaGarbled

How can fields be depressing?

😂

Those saying there is nothing to do. What is it its missing exactly? Are we talking pubs and bars? Or something else?

@MummySharkDoodoododoo

Those saying there is nothing to do. What is it its missing exactly? Are we talking pubs and bars? Or something else?

Without wishing to sound facetious, the list is endless. I would have thought it's pretty obvious. You're currently in London. If you Google "things to do in London" (possibly adding "with kids") you'll get a very, very long list of things you can't do in Swineshead!

Living in London, I'm surrounded by people, everywhere is rammed and noisy and crowded. There are lots of things to do locally, but we maybe use about 1% of those things. And those things we do use, we can get within say 30-45min drive of boston. It can take us that long to do a very short journey here because the traffic is horrendous.

But maybe I'm missing something, that I haven't thought about yet or haven't got to that stage yet etc

I understand where you are coming from. I think you will be quite content in the country (though I still think you’ve picked a particularly non-picturesque part of it).

Posters are talking about your teenagers and children who will become teenagers. They will want to be able to go places independently from you. They will want to hang out with their mates, mooch around the shops, get a take-away, be somewhere where they are likely to bump into teenagers of the opposite sex, go to parties or other social events without advanced planning and complicated transport arrangements. They might want to stay out later than originally planned. They might want part time jobs which they can get to independently. They might want choices for 16+ education.

You seem cross that we’re being negative, but your experience is only of London. It’s such a drastic change to go from that to rural Lincolnshire and I’m afraid that you’re going from one extreme to the other, because you’re reacting to the things you don’t like about where you are now, when something in the middle might be more sensible.

What Hedda said.

I’m sorry I don’t have much positive to say about Lincolnshire, there’s a reason it’s cheap-people don’t want to live there and there’s little to do- I live in London now!

I'm not cross, I'm just trying to understand.

I agree that somewhere half way would be better but unfortunately we have been looking for years and this is the only area that we have found that fits out budget and needs.

Sorry if this is thick or rude but what is your budget?
Why this area?

As someone who lived in London and had visited Boston area several times I couldn’t live there. Really I couldn’t.

It makes me laugh that people think of anywhere in the East as remote, as someone who grew up over an hour away from a cinema and a hospital I can say it really isn't that remote. We adjusted from London to the East just fine, but I would check to see what transport options there are for the teens.

Budget of £600k (ish). Needs to have 5 bedrooms, at least an acre of land, have no immediate neighbours, ideally outbuildings, train links to London (we would be driving 30 mins to Grantham station which then has a direct train to kings cross, or going from Spalding which means changing at Peterborough but less of a drive).

Needs to be no more than 2/2.5 hours driving from West London either.

I think some of the Boston comments are incredibly harsh. My DH and I are both Cambridge educated with two dds - 13 and 14. It is not a perfect town by any means at all but, like everywhere, there is good and bad. Both my daughters go to the local grammar school which is strong and I would suggest there is a lot more to do for teens than 5 years or so ago. Both go out with friends, do lots of extra curricular activities and are generally happy. I am not sure we will stay there forever but we have some lovely friends here. I would suggest the tension between locals and non locals is abating with the younger generation and my dds have friends from a wide range of nationalities. It is not perfect, we probably won’t stay here forever but it is not as bad as often portrayed in the media.

@Phoebewillow

I think some of the Boston comments are incredibly harsh. My DH and I are both Cambridge educated with two dds - 13 and 14. It is not a perfect town by any means at all but, like everywhere, there is good and bad. Both my daughters go to the local grammar school which is strong and I would suggest there is a lot more to do for teens than 5 years or so ago. Both go out with friends, do lots of extra curricular activities and are generally happy. I am not sure we will stay there forever but we have some lovely friends here. I would suggest the tension between locals and non locals is abating with the younger generation and my dds have friends from a wide range of nationalities. It is not perfect, we probably won’t stay here forever but it is not as bad as often portrayed in the media.

Thank you. Do you live in Boston?

@MummySharkDoodoododoo yes - I work in sleaford so go past Hubberts bridge every day but my DH works as a vet in Boston and my dds go to school in Boston.

[quote Phoebewillow]@MummySharkDoodoododoo yes - I work in sleaford so go past Hubberts bridge every day but my DH works as a vet in Boston and my dds go to school in Boston.[/quote]
Thank you 😊