Town vs village?

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm in a smaller town than you, but I would say its small enough that there is a bit of a "village mindset" amongst local people here, ie some people will support someone just because they are a "local", even if that person is in the wrong by anyone's standards. Coming from a city, I couldn't believe this when I saw a particularly scandalous example of this happening the other day (ie the person concerned had done something criminal). I was discussing this with another incomer recently and she said that she had noticed some examples of that particular mindset at work and other incomers have told me to be aware there are some people with this mindset.

Apparently, according to that mindset, any work done on my house should go to local people first regardless of what standard they are. My take is that I will give it to local people first, provided they are as reliable and efficient as I expect, otherwise......

Doozergirl

I come from London originally but have lived in a rural county for 11 years. I prefer it here but when we first moved, we lived in a village of 150 odd houses, in a picture perfect black and white beamed cottage with a walled garden and open fields behind. We lived opposite the village church, got married there - it was quite perfect on a superficial level but didn't meet our needs.

Thos things were wonderful. What wasn't so wonderful was the incredible cliqueyness of the village with a few faces seeming to control things, everyone knowing your business (the neighbour told mother in law our usual habits of when we left the house etc), having to drive miles for a bar of chocolate and spending half my life in the giant Tesco because that happened to be the closest shop. We had less evenings out because the location was inconvenient for taxis etc. and the village was a bit of a tourist attraction at weekends with people gawping in through our kitchen window. We were followed up the garden path once by people wanting to look! Bizarrely, it was a mix of seeing absolutely no-one and being watched. Our next door neighbour had lived in the village her while life, didn't drive an knew no one in the village really - her face didn't fit, she was timid and quiet. I still worry about her getting older.

Children's clubs and classes tend to be elsewhere and they will find it harder as they graduate the village school and have new friends in town and want to meet them if there isn't a regular bus service. In bad rain and snow, you're easily cut off.

It really depends on your lifestyle. If you're not bothered about evenings out, are confident that there's enough to occupy the children or they've grown up and don't mind people knowing your business, you'll be alright! If you both work, it will be harder to move them around and it does get tedious.

It will depend on the size of the village and how genuinely ready you are. Villages are often more expensive - you might be better in the right house in a nice part of a small town with children. We still live on the outskirts (classed as a village but it doesn't really feel like one other than town is still more than a walk away and we do have fields literally round the corner and could go for miles) but our son is 13 and needs independence so we will move into town very soon - we're getting the house ready. Local amenities are valuable for a family. Our town is like yours - small, low crime, good schools. Two cities both 25 minutes away and almost immediate access to countryside. There's no need to move away to find those things, you'll have a good balance.

I'm looking forward to being able to walk into town for a meal or a coffee, walk to the gym, walk my youngest to middle school, walk with her to library etc. I'm looking forward to my son being able to catch the train to school if needs be, but to meet his friends in town and not be far from home - I'd rahter him congregate with friends at my house than someone elses.

Snakey

I grew up in a village, local primary school and all the teachers lived in the village, woman in the shop knew all our parents... you couldn't get away with anything which with hindsight was a good thing as we were all nice kids (well, in the sense that we behaved well).

It was nice and quiet for riding our bikes, too, although that was in the days where each family had one car and Dad used it to go to work, traffic patterns might be different nowadays. We did have a playground though and it would have been a shame if we had not. Perhaps ask at the school - what do the kids do all day during the holidays? Is there anywhere to e.g. play football?

The other thing to consider is that it's all very well being surrounded by countryside but can you actually go in any of it? As kids we used to go everywhere regardless and had a great time damming streams, falling out of trees and suchlike, but I expect things are different now. No point having lovely woods if trespassers will be shot and there's barbed wire all around it!

As a teenager it sucked, last bus home was ten to six and there was nothing to do in the village once you got too old for Guides/Scouts. In those days there was no question of your parents ferrying you around to nearby towns, part-time jobs, friends' houses etc (at secondary school you usually make friends from outside the village), but I expect you'll be a taxi service.

GoldenShadow

MrsE wrote: »

I wonder if I've made a mistake with 4k?
I got that figure off Wikipedia, but I think it might be the whole voting ward.

It depends I guess. Is your village very old or has it had lots of new builds? Where I am from is very out in the sticks you don't get new houses springing up anywhere near as often as where I am now (Essex).

Edit: here you go, I wasn't far off. Moved away in 2010.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilsby

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alford,_Lincolnshire

LandyAndy

Where I live is very much a small country town. It has a high street with all types of shops and I can get pretty much anything I need, day to day, with a five minute walk to the shops. The population, including the surrounding area of the parish is 5,700.


Here in the new forest the villages are small, generally quite isolated and may have one village shop. They almost certainly don't have meaningful public transport. I simply wouldn't consider living in them.

debrag

I've gone from town (suburb) to city to capital to town. I love where I'm living now, has what I need for everyday things but also close to Brighton and easy access to London for anything else.

I did use to think I'd like a village but I need a little noise and walking distance to pubs

verulamium

Lived in a hamlet of about 200 for roughly a year. There was only two roads and a post office, which also doubled as a shop. The closest pub was eight miles away. And the bus to the closest town (12 miles away) goes there only once a day! Never again!

We now live in a London inner suburb, which suits our lifestyle just fine.

On a side note, I find it quite funny how EAs are now labeling some of London inner districts as 'villages'. Eg: !!!!!!!en village (which isn't a thing) in Peckham.

hollydays

A village is good, a village with footpaths is better

Billie-S

I agree. We moved to a village not long back, (after always living in towns,) and there are about 550 people, a shop, 2 pubs, a garden centre half a mile away, a big Church, lots of farms that sell fresh dairy, and like someone said above, about a dozen 'village activities:' for stay at home mums, the children, the elderly, (like an over 55s group,) and several hobby groups. The Church is very active, with a congregation of about 100 a week. Still, you're not an outcast if you don't go, because 350 others in the village don't.

They have big parties and fetes at the parish hall at least 6 times a year. It's a lovely atmosphere and everyone does speak to you when they see you. On the outskirts, there is a newish estate of 27 four and five bed £500K to £600K detached houses, which were only built 3 years ago, so there are quite a few 'newbies' here.

Not sure I would like to live in a tiny village with only say 80-100 people though, as I would imagine it would be very cliquey, but our village is perfect. It's not very big so it's personal and cosy and quiet and rural, but not very small either, so it's not cliquey and suffocating. Not everyone knows everyone here, but we do know about 80-90 people fairly well and have a very good social life. We have never lived anywhere so friendly in any other place we have ever lived (which has always been in a town.)

I live in a fairly small crescent, and it houses several small families, elderly couples, middle aged couples, and single people - middle aged and elderly. People leave you alone if you are solitary, and surprisingly are not nosey, but they do chat if they see you, and there is the opportunity to join one of the many groups and activities in the village.

When a new family or couple or person moves in, the Church warden and Parish Hall warden drop by for a few minutes (when they have settled in,) to introduce themselves and see if they need help with anything, and they give them a list of activities to see if they want to join in anything

We have lived in towns before, but never much liked it, even though we grew up in towns! Like many villages there is no public transport. (Although there is a bus that goes to 2 main towns 4 and 10 miles away) and 2 cities (20 and 25 miles away,) if you're prepared to walk 1.5 miles to the bus stop on the closest main B road.

But it makes very little difference, as we have always (like many others,) lived in the suburbs, and both places we lived (in the last 12 years,) were 5 miles from the town centre anyway, in a cul-de-sac inside a cul-de-sac inside a cul-de-sac, where it was 15 minutes walk to the nearest bus stop and then an hour on the bus to the town centre.

In addition, we were 2 miles from any amenities anyway: the doctors surgery was about 2 miles away, as was a couple of small shops and the post office. And although there was a primary school just under a mile away, the nearest high school was 4 miles away! Nothing was on our doorstep, and we had to drive everywhere anyway!

In our village, the little tiny village shop is 5 minutes walk away and the pub is 10 minutes walk. So we are really no worse off at all. In fact, probably better off considering there is a pub and a shop and a garden centre within short walking distance. Our suburbs cul-de-sac was miles from any amenities, even though we were in a town!

Sure you can live in a town or city centre where everything is closeby, but I wouldn't want to live in that environment at all. I have dreamed all my life of getting out of the town and all its crime and pollution and traffic and the high population, and I would never - EVER move back. As soon as our daughters left for uni, and we knew we weren't going to have to ferry them about, we were off, to the type of place we always wanted to live. The quality of life out here for us now is exceptional.

And re the countryside not being allowed to be walked on anyway (as someone said: ) where we are has dozens of pathways and woodland walks, and we have been here a year and still have many places we can still go. There is so much beauty here. I feel blessed that we came here.

Mgman

I grew up in a small village in the mid 60's to the early 80's which had 2 pubs, 3 shops (one a post office) and a WMC and at the time loved it apart from being an only child and very few other children there, looking back I did get rather insular and lonely (this was before the days of the internet and mobile phones).

When my mother sadly passed away my father decided to move into town as he felt he could no longer live in our house without my mother and he sold up and we moved. It was a revelation to have things on your doorstep, and looking back now realised how much I had missed simple things like a chip shop .

For many years I dreamed of moving back to my village (even buying our old house back) and recently was in a position to be able to do this, and went house hunting there and on a walk round the village saw an old friend whom I hadn't seen for over 30yrs and had a long chat with him.

It was then I decided not to move back there for the following reasons

1/ Just about every open space had been built on, from the farmyard to what were large gardens now sold off as building plots usually with big exec houses.

2/ my friend said the village now consisted of commuting "townies" and between app 7am and 7pm was like a ghost village and no longer had any life or community and was just a dormitory.

3/ All 3 shops and one pub had closed through no trade and been converted to houses and the other pub was just clinging on.

4/ No mains gas, poor bus service (again cut due to lack of use as no-one there in daytime) and also very slow internet access as no fibre optic cable broadband, just old copper phone lines a long way from the exchange, along with weak mobile signal from all networks my friend told me.

And finally all my nearly £200,000 would buy me now would have been a tiny two bed terraced cottage with equally tiny garden that if you swung a cat you'd decapitate it, whereas in the early 80's when my dad sold his 3 bed dormer bungalow set in two acres of land (now sold off from the house and built on) it sold for £35,000 !!!!!!!!

I simply don't feel that giving up my £200,000 town house (large character 1930's avenue semi, 3 bed, large garden, nice area and all amenities close by for the above type house and "village life" would be a fair swap.