Chilsworthy, Devon and surrounding area - any info?

[Missizzylizzy]

My hubby and I would like to relocate to the area inland of Bude to be away from the tourist hotspots and a friend suggested Chilsworthy as being a possible place for us. Does anyone know anything about the village as there seems to be very little info online! We have no kids so schools are not an issue and we work from home. We do want a nice, quiet and pretty place to live which is safe and with low crime but with some amenities and with easy access to the coast and a nearby larger village or small town. We are into cycling and walking and hope the quieter roads away from the normal tourist routes will fit the bill. I’d really appreciate any thoughts or experiences you may have about Chilsworthy and the surrounding area. Thank you.

I live in the Bude hinterland ( not Chilsworthy though) and find it very odd! It is certainly beautiful, easy drive to lovely beaches, low crime, relatively inexpensive housing, but...

I also find it very remote, (a long way from health services in particular and appalling ( ie almost none) public transport), insular, small- minded, entitled and devoid of culture.

We don't have small children though, which may make a difference, but those with teenagers find their lives extremely limited. 17 year olds need to drive. We're looking to move in the next couple of years. I have not found my tribe here.

Thank you so much for your reply Fuzzy. That is a very interesting observation and kind of supports my expectations of the area. It worries us that it may be a bit too remote for all the facilities that we need to hand. We are now widening our search area as a result.

When we moved here we thought we'd have 20 years before we started needing hospitals...in less than a year DH was diagnosed with a particularly nasty cancer needing two years of treatment and lifelong monitoring. That may have coloured our view! (The hospital (Plymouth) was great...but a 90 mile round trip every time.

Bude gets pretty busy in the summer. It's not (usually) St Ives territory, but last year it was extremely difficult to get on with life (Shopping, dentist etc) because of the traffic. However, at the moment it is gorgeous...hot and sunny, beaches not crowded and fabulous sunsets!

We went to a Pete Tong concert last weekend, which was local to us. Fabulous. But the things I would like, eg mixed voice choir, book club, folk club, theatre are all too far away to be regular fixtures.

And I have never felt so lonely, undervalued or excluded as I do here, and I have lived all over England and Wales.

From what FuzzyPuffling says, it hasn’t changed much over the years…

And a dreadful lack of diversity - there are two gay couples in my village and they are fully accepted, but a 96 year old lady told me she had never in her life spoken to a person of colour(!!!!)
My daughter and grandchild (Cornish born) moved away for a broader "education" (in the widest sense) and to meet people with ambition and hope.

Somebody's going to recognise me here and come round with the pitchforks, aren't they?

Oh, the broadband is good!

Goodness FuzzyPuffling! Thank you for sharing that. I am sorry to hear about your DH and hope that things have improved. I sense that you regret your move and that you are very unhappy where you live? Is it a quiet village? Is there not much interaction?

It is very interesting to hear your thoughts and comments as our intended move will be life-changing as we are not well travelled. We currently live in a scenic small North Yorkshire town with everything we need on our doorstep so we are reticent to give all that up for peace, quiet, scenery and countryside and few amenities. But if we don’t do it, we will never know and we may love it. And if it doesn’t work out we can always move back.

Which brings me to location. We have been doing extensive research in the south at the opposite side to Bude. Have you any experience of what Saltash and the surrounding villages are like? Saltash is a similar size to where we live and could possibly fulfil all our daily needs and seems quite a nice place too. The villages around the Tamar Valley (Landulph, Cargreen, Botusfleming, Hatt etc) seem picturesque so it could be a good fit for us. Low crime too and handy for Plymouth hospital (you said it was a good one - better than Exeter??) in case of need.

Any thoughts? Beware the pitchforks though!!! 🫣

Have PMed you.