Relocating to Cornwall

[Vickivicster]

We’re seriously considering moving to Cornwall and I’d really love some honest opinions from anyone who has actually done it, particularly with children.
We’re a family of three currently living in Sussex where I grew up. We love where we live in a lot of ways, but we’re increasingly drawn to Cornwall for the lifestyle – being closer to the coast, beaches, walking etc and it reminds us of the lifestyle we had when my husband and ai lived in New Zealand. Additionally we feel we are being priced out the area here and property prices in our area are becoming unattainable.

We’re at the point where we’re actually looking at houses, rather than it just being a vague idea, so it’s starting to feel like a very real possibility.
The thing I’m most worried about is schools.
Our DS is 9 and will be heading towards secondary school age, which makes me slightly nervous about moving now. He would be going into a mainstream secondary school and is generally doing well, but obviously changing schools, leaving friends behind and starting somewhere completely new feels like quite a big thing at this age.
For those who have moved to Cornwall with children around this age, how did you find it? Did your DC settle in OK and make friends? How have you found the secondary schools generally?
And what about actually living there long term? Did you buy a house before moving, or rent first? Did you feel you knew enough about the area before buying? I’m conscious that looking at an area for a weekend is very different from actually living there year-round.
I’d particularly love to hear from people who moved from elsewhere in England rather than people who have always lived in Cornwall. Was it what you expected? Do you still love it? Anything you wish you’d known before making the move?
We’re not expecting it to be perfect and I’m definitely interested in the negatives as well as the positives. I think I’m just trying to work out whether we’re romanticising the idea of Cornwall or whether it really could be a better lifestyle for us.
Any experiences, particularly from families with school-age children, would be really appreciated.

Not sure where to start with this thread but my god I've never read so much claptrap in my life.

Yes both my kids and all their friends are drug addled no hopers with no education and no prospects.

We have no decent food, no culture and everybody hates everyone else and is miserable the whole time.

That just about covers it.

For what it's worth OP me and DH moved here from London 27 years ago before DC were born. We have no regrets whatsoever. They had a wonderful childhood and often had kids from up country (and other countries) joining the school. They integrated just fine.

Also strange how they managed to do so well at their local comp and 6th form college. And find jobs and have a social life. Very strange indeed ....

@NeartoNewquay And have they been to university elsewhere? Finding a job isn’t that difficult but earning well is. It’s clear from any earring stats that Cornwall is deprived in many areas. You have to want a local insular life to succeed. And everyone moans about the cost of houses! Dirt cheap in some towns of course but they aren’t great towns!

@MeetMeOnTheCorner - yes thanks. You are extremely rude. People here only want an insular life and don't want to work hard.

My bff relocated to Cornwall about 4 years ago.

It took over an hour for her DH to be driven to hospital whilst he was having a heart attack at 50 years old. I can't imagine living somewhere where a blue light ambulance takes over 60 minutes DURING a heart attack, never mind the stupid things kids do.

They've both struggled for work - he got a transfer but has been passed over for promotion several times in favour of local colleagues, she's flitted between several jobs due to myriad reasons.

Everywhere is SO FAR AWAY from everywhere else, never mind friends and family upcountry, and even crossing the county can take hours.

Their kids are older and stayed put in the area they moved from, but they've only seen granddaughter a handful of times.

GP, dentist and schools seem to be challenging to secure - as pp said they know of neighbours whose older kids travel miles to secondary and catchment areas are VAST. They also spend a fortune ferrying kids to activities (not that there is much outside the bigger urban areas) and friend's houses as public transport again is shite outside towns.

I grew up in Cornwall. I have seen the drugs scene as a teenager in the 90/00s, then again as a police officer and again now in the prison system. Cornwall has a HUGE drugs problem. Particularly with county lines, cocaine, cannabis and now ketamine which is growing.

If you haven't seen it, that's wonderful for your and your family, but I suspect your kids will tell you very different stories about the realities of it - especially in Newquay.....

Yes I have heard stories from my DC but that doesn't mean every young person is taking drugs or that it is only an issue in Cornwall. There are places all over the country with poverty and all the challenges that brings but on here you'd think that these things only happen in Cornwall.

Good luck whatever you decide OP.

Yes, drugs are rife in many places but we also do not have the local support or resources for NHS, schools, councils or parents to manage the threat.

That's why drugs problems have wider impacts for us than other counties. Access matters and we have limited rural or town access to the programmes that are focused in cities and so on.

@GreenFootstool Yet more moaning. You think everywhere else has great anti drug resources?? Dream on. Look at Scotland deaths from drugs. How are they doing better?

Of course Cornwall isn’t awful for everyone but deprivation and lack of jobs leads to drug taking. As it does everywhere. And worse as we know. Drug availability matters of course. It’s a bit of a culture in Cornwall if you look around. The NHS funding and school funding isn’t lower than elsewhere. It’s how money is spent that matters.

So you're agreeing with all my points @MeetMeOnTheCorner 😂😂

@GreenFootstool Well no. There’s a different culture in Cornwall but nowhere has a great NHS, drug rehab schemes and certainly not everywhere has great schools or wonderful local councils. Where exactly is awash with money? Lots of areas have deprivation. Cornwall residents always think the grass is greener elsewhere but plenty chose Cornwall for themselves.

We did it, lasted 7 years and moved away again.
It's beautiful, granted. And we had visited family who lived there at all times of year and in all weathers. We weren't green about it.
But it is so remote, almost no public transport, poor facilities, crowded healthcare- and don't hope for a dentist.

But the worst thing was the people, who we found small minded, unhelpful and entitled. They were not at all accepting, and we came across some highly unpleasant and loudly expressed views. And my children are of Cornish heritage.

It was an enormous relief to move away.

Yes. I have very close friends who are Cornish and they feel/say similarly. Honestly there are grown adults there who won’t speak to another grown adult at the school date because that adult ‘pinched their boyfriend’… when they were 14.

@CozylittlecottageThanks for the offer to give me some more info. Would definitely love to get some more info from you. I’m sorry but I have no idea how to PM you- I’m new to the mumsnet world. I’ll try work it out and be in touch

@AgeingMillennial. We had very good friends who inherited a house there and stopped work at around 50. They became more Cornish than the Cornish. Totally against second home owners (us) and saying how poor Cornwall was served for just about everything! They didn’t work or add to the economy in any way. They didn’t even need to work to get a house. We now don’t see them. We don’t need friends who want to banish us, especially after DH did the structural design and helped project manage alterations to the bloody house. You either become like the Cornish or you bail out. Alternatively you offer services to second home owners at inflated prices.

Presumably they paid full
council tax, bought local goods and services.
You’re describing me - retired and economically inactive, but having work done on my house, so employing builders,
going to local events, shopping locally.
i fail to see your point!

I live in Cornwall (originally moved from Bucks). All of our older children hate it, and we’re moving back to London.

I live in Plymouth just over the bridge in Devon but on the border of Cornwall so we visit Cornwall often for family days out and Dh travels around Cornwall with his work and finds the traffic in summer horrendous.

I did for a while think it would be nice to live there but we never moved because I see how much of a nightmare the roads are in the summer and there is nothing much to go there for in the winter.

A lot of the local news covers Cornwall and I follow both Plymouth and Cornwall live news and there does seem to be a lot of crime and drugs in Cornwall.
I enjoy visiting but I couldn’t live there permanently and people we know spend most of their time coming to Plymouth anyway for the hospital or the city centre or bowling, cinema, shops, college, university and of course work as there are not many work opportunities and high unemployment with jobs in such demand.

It’s a lovely place to go but it’s also lovely to be able to leave at the end of a nice day and definitely isn’t like being on holiday there in the winter when you’re battling along the shoreline in the blustery wind.

<Waves at fellow Janner>

@Stayinganontoday Come back to Bucks! We are still a friendly bunch where I live!

@accidentalmillionaire Yes I’m sure they did some of those things but they posted nasty comments about second home owners. Us. They inherited a Cornish house whilst owning another one elsewhere. They don’t contribute to anything much as did lots of diy and got DH to do the difficult stuff for free whilst simultaneously complaining about us. They would have paid more tax into the economy had they worked and employed people! The low tax take means lower levels of service.

ah well I only own one home. And share those thoughts about second homes. Goodness it skews the local housing market. And hollows out certain communities which are honeypots

@accidentalmillionaire Well the Cornish business like our money! It’s 33% of the economy and hopefully there won’t be too much unemployment if we all go! I wouldn’t bank on it. You can certainly buy my house. As I said, the Cornish moan and you have just proved it. Getting rid of holiday homes is self destruction - like voting for Brexit which Cornwall did too. Another reason not to live there.

Careful who you tar with the Brexit brush. Those voters were everywhere you know! And besides I wasn’t one of them.

Anyway I was quite taken aback by your initial attack on your former friend. And the further attack when I queried what seemed like a very bland set of circumstances. living here all year round does give a different perspective to the one you’d have if you just rock up for a few weeks to your second home

I have family members who were brought up here and did well (usually by moving away), and who ache to come back, and so have bought second homes. We all have civil relationships and I’d never raise the issue with them - unless they made some weird attack on ‘locals’! But they don’t understand (or care - I'm unsure) how their actions skew the economy.

If you're not Cornish, with 300 years of ancestors in the local graveyard, then nothing you ever do will be good enough.
I was involved with improving access to health care and was told to "get back to the city". Not sure where they meant, having not lived in a city for 40 years, but the Cornish did seem to think that everyone was straight down from London!

Also @MeetMeOnTheCorner , I think most Cornish people are absolutely fine with holiday makers, and understand that the economy (unfortunately) relies on visitors. We once had heavy industry and fishing. That's all gone, so tourism is great, and I for one do not begrudge people taking a holiday here - in fact I love that everyone had a lovely hot summer here. It was genuinely lovely to see so many people enjoying the sun and our beaches. So, come and stay in hotels and caravan parks and yes, even airbnbs, but don't hog a house somewhere that you only use for a couple of weeks a year, and in the process claim you're doing everyone a favour. Can you not see the difference?

I don't want to buy your house thanks because as I said, I already have one.

It's a shame your friendship fell apart. I'm sure there were underlying problems too. You eventually said they still owed a house up country as well as the cornish one. I wonder if they rent that out? Because if they do at least they're not leaving a home empty for most of the year. Hopefully they do.