I heard a definition of the South West as that part of the UK where there is no cut-off date for sleeping with your parents.Originally Posted by Dave+63
I heard a definition of the South West as that part of the UK where there is no cut-off date for sleeping with your parents.
if looking at bristol i'd just cross over the bridge and look at south wales instead.
Crossing the Rubicon there.
Wimborne Minster is pleasant. Within easy reach of Bournemouth and Poole, Shaftesbury, Dorchester etc. New Forest too…
I think this is a pretty good idea, I would extend it to say somewhere between Winchester and Wimborne (Winchester, Romsey, Brockenhurst, Lymington, Southbourne, parts of Poole, Wimborne all fairly popular for people relocating IMO) depending on the property you want and priorities. I've recently relocated that way from London for work and there are quite a few people who have done the same.
Reasonably large student population in Bournemouth/Southampton which adds to the diversity (though still less diverse than I would like), all fairly near or on the coast, nice walks in the New Forest/South Downs and Winchester has quite nice shopping with some in Bournemouth and Southampton depending on what you want to buy. Within 2 hours of Waterloo on a direct train from most of those places and fairly easy access to the M3/M27
Downside is most of those places have London type pricing with parts of Poole costing more than a lot of London in £/sqft measures. Traffic in the summer can be bad and isn't great at any time on the southern parts of the M3, Ringwood or throughout Poole and Bournemouth and IMO everyone who isn't a student seems a lot older than me (though that might also apply to you!)
relocated from south wales to fife scotland at 50.
downsized from 4 bed new build town house to nice old 2 bed place with huge garden. mortgage ancient history.
the ball and chain went from teaching full time to part time work and some charity stuff too.
i went from an semiconductor engineering career to muggins work requiring no global travel, no stress and being able to switch off very night.
should mention we are, and have always been, delighted to be a rugrat free zone.
that was just about 5 years ago -
tried some semiconductor work up here - too much like stepping backing in time - the industry is totally farked in the uk now. i lasted 3 months and after the first review amazed the company by legging it.
her is still doing her thing.
we downsized a bit too much - currently on the move up to a newish 3 bed detached with mid size garden - the current huge garden is getting too much and we were even only getting through half the veg we grew. new house MUCH cheaper to heat and needing no remedial work in the next decade which is more can be said for our current choccy box looking money pit. trades and materials prices and heating bills make this a no brainer.
we originally chose at place only a few miles from a rail station as we though we'd be hitting the lights on a semi regular basis - and we have not used it once, there are plenty of decent places to eat an easy drive and then i have a nice big glass of something warming when we get back. the new place is less than 15 mins walk from 2 decent pubs - that'll do nicely. as it happens we are moving about 5 miles this time.
think i am just pootling along until proper retirement whatever that is - which is bloody hilarious as i seem to be doing a better job than most of my mostly younger whiney work peers, but that is a story for another day.
glad we did it - would probably do it differently if we could go back but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
no idea what my actual point is but any questions just ask.
Last edited by bigbaddes; 21st March 2024 at 21:15.
Thanks, that is a great piece of insight, especially the part about maybe having downsized too much and the cost of repair and upkeep on an older property. We quite like older places, unless its an old building that has been renovated, so something to bear in mind. Also interesting perspective about the huge garden becoming too much as I keep looking at places with a large garden, even though I am very much not a gardener!
South Wales to Fife is an interesting move - what made you choose Fife?
Your experience of moving near a train station as you thought you'd be going out quite a lot and then not using it is enlightening. Similar to when we were moving from London - we had all these places on our doorstep that we 'could' go to, but with young kids we simply didn't, yet we were paying for the potential.
So you say if you were doing it now you would do things differently, what would you do differently?
This is all really interesting and very useful to get some insights from a range of people.
I'm not a fan of suburbia now, preferring small towns (which of course grow with time).........
In England - I've always admired Ashby-de-la-Zouche as it seems to have retained a decent 'town' infrastructure despite the traffic at peak times to Tesco and the Motorway.
Okay- it ain't the south coast with the better weather, but has lots of countryside around it, but good for road, rail and air-links.
And famously the furthest town from the sea, or that what I remember as a statistic when growing up.
Yeap, my Mrs is from there, and property is cheap as chips too.
Hehe....it's a no from me
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